Social Enterprise East Midlands Newsletter – November 2010

Welcome to this month’s newsletter containing everything you need to know about the social enterprise movement in the East Midlands. It is highly likely that we saw you on Thursday at our Social Enterprise Day conference – Connecting the Dots. The day was a huge success attracting hundreds of people involved in social enterprise across the East Midlands – this was the largest gathering of the movement in our region to date. This was a great achievement in both providing an opportunity for people to network and make vital business connections as well as proving, beyond doubt, that social enterprise is significant and vibrant in the East Midlands. As well as inspirational speakers from the movement and an interesting debate session on the future of social enterprise, delegates gained valuable information and insights from a series of workshops. Presentations from the workshops are now available to download on our website. Social Enterprise Day also saw a lobby of Parliament in support of the Public Services (Social Enterprise and Social Value) Bill, a Private Members Bill submitted by Chris White. The Bill, if passed, could transform public procurement by forcing local authorities to have a strategy around social enterprise and to consider what extra social value could be created when procuring public services. You can read more about the proposal below. Remember, we always want to hear what you are up to and to promote your stories and celebrations through the SEEM website and newsletter – please contact Aimi Townsend

Inside this issue

Social Enterprise News from the East Midlands

BrightKidz wins regional heat of Social Enterprise Day photography competition

Nene & Ouse Community Transport awarded the Social Enterprise Mark

Climate Change Minister visits Torrs Hydro

Harmless needs your support

Adrenaline Alley in the running to win £50,000 to install a unique disability area National Social Enterprise News

Enter the UK Social Enterprise Awards

Social Value Bill passes critical debate in Commons

DoH allocates an extra £4.4m to turn NHS projects into social enterprises

New rights and support for staff mutuals

Government launches new plan for local economic growth

Social enterprise responds to Local Growth White Paper

First Local Enterprise Partnerships given the green light

Guardian Social Enterprise Network launched

Funding and Investment News

Big Society Bank pilots to share £150,000

Good Deals 10: Bond and bank are vital to sector’s growth, says Cohen

Research and Intelligence News

Green Streets: Exploring the potential of community energy projects

Social Enterprise Day Survey Findings

Transitions: social enterprise public services

Coutts Social Enterprise Guides Business Support

Business Advisors Network

ROOTS HR CIC offers free consultancy services

Offers from The Disability Syndicate

Social Enterprise Training and Events

Social Audit Network (SAN) Conference 2010

Social Enterprise News from the East Midlands

BrightKidz wins regional heat of Social Enterprise Day photography competition BrightKidz, a Kettering based co-operative, has won the East Midlands regional heat of the national photography competition for social enterprise. The ‘Social Vision: business at its best’ competition set out to find images that show the unique and transformative work of social enterprise. Now in its third year, the photography competition is for the first time being jointly run by Triodos Bank and the Social Enterprise Coalition in association with Social Enterprise Magazine and the regional social enterprise networks of England. BrightKidz is a social enterprise set up to promote walk-to-school schemes and supply high visibility clothing for children. They work with schools, parents, local authorities, and industry to promote sustainable transport, road safety and active lifestyles for children. Their winning snap shows children from Park Infant and Park Junior Schools, Kettering, taking part in a Walking Bus scheme adorned in brightly coloured jackets to ensure their visibility to drivers.

Brightkidz will now go on to represent the East Midlands in the UK national final. The winner will be decided by an online vote to be hosted on the Social Enterprise Live website. You can vote for

Brightkidz by clicking on the link below. Voting is only open until Friday 26 November and the result will be announced at an evening reception in London on Tuesday 30 November.

Vote here

Nene & Ouse Community Transport awarded the Social Enterprise Mark Nene & Ouse Community Transport is the latest social enterprise from our region to be awarded the Social Enterprise Mark. A Registered Charity, it was started by a Home Office ’Make A Difference’ grant as ’The Volunteer Centre (Thrapston)’. Their range of services is expanding rapidly and they now employ about 50 people and a small army of dedicated volunteers. Activities include youth services, volunteer cars, MiDAS Training and holidays. Visit the Nene & Ouse website for further details.

Climate Change Minister visits Torrs Hydro As he visited Torrs Hydro in New Mills, Peak District, Climate Change Minister Greg Barker has called on enterprising communities to harness the power of their rivers and streams to generate both green electricity and money.

Torrs Hydro is a community owned hydropower enterprise built at Torr Weir on the River Goyt in New Mills in the High Peak of Derbyshire. A share of the revenue from the business will help them to achieve their aim to help regenerate the community and to promote the environmental sustainability of the New Mills area.

They raised investment for the business through a community share scheme supported by local action group, H2OPE and the Co-op Community Fund. The community group of 230 members invested over £125,000 and then raised the remainder of the scheme’s full cost (£330,000) from community bank loans and grants. The scheme earns an income from the energy exported to the local Co-op supermarket and is a good example of the power of local action and of how investment from hydro projects can be rolled out across the UK. Read more…

Harmless needs your support Harmless have been nominated for a Natwest Community Fund Award. If they win, they will secure £3,000 for the project. Harmless is a user led organisation that provides a range of services about self harm including support, information, training and consultancy to people who self harm, their friends and families and professionals. The community fund is now open to voting online, please take a few seconds to follow this link Scroll down the page and enter NG1 3FB in the post code area, select one of the Nottingham branches, and cast your vote for Harmless. You will need to put contact information into the last section before casting your vote, but this is to just ensure that the votes are legitimate.

Adrenaline Alley is in with a chance to win £50k to install a unique disability area

Corby based Adrenaline Alley has a successful record engaging disadvantaged young people, including young people with disabilities. Their work with them has led to the development of an event specifically for disabled skaters and riders and the establishment of a project to build a fully accessible area within the Alley.

A new ‘FreeWheelin’ disability area will extend Adrenaline Alley benefits to disabled young people through the provision of a unique disabled ramp park area enabling participants to engage in fun and exciting BMX, cycling, skateboarding and inline skating activities in a safe environment.

For more details visit the Adrenaline Alley website.

National News

Enter the UK Social Enterprise Awards

Organisations and individuals can now enter the Social Enterprise Awards, the nationwide competition that celebrates the work and achievements of the UK’s most inspiring and successful social enterprises and people in the movement. This year the awards are being sponsored by O2.

Seven categories are open to applicants:

Social Enterprise of the Year – from within the UK

Start Up Social Enterprise – a organisation that has been operating for up to two years

Young Person’s Social Enterprise – a young people-led business or project (including activities by schools, colleges and universities)

Social Enterprise Leader – an individual that is working for an organisation (paid or voluntary) and is proving to be an inspirational role model

Social Enterprise Mark Holder – an organisation that holds the Social Enterprise Mark

Social Enterprise Unsung Hero – a person who is championing social enterprise as a way of doing business

Social Enterprise Partner - a public or private sector organisation that has partnered with a social enterprise

The winners will be decided by a panel of expert judges, and announced at an evening ceremony to be held at the Indigo O2 venue in London on 30 March 2011, following the close of Voice11 at the O2.

Read more…

Social Value Bill passes critical debate in Commons It took four hours of debate – and some concessions are likely – but the UK’s first Social Value Bill is one important step closer to becoming law. The Public Services (Social Enterprise and Social Value) private member's bill, introduced by Conservative MP Chris White, will now go to the committee stage for more debate. If it becomes law, it will require all commissioners of public services to consider taking into account economic, social and environmental value, not just price, when buying goods and services. Most private member's bills never make it past the second reading and White was praised by several MPs for his 'determination' in having got this far. However, the civil society minister Nick Hurd made it clear the government would seek amendments. In particular, the government would ask to drop sections seeking to introduce a national social enterprise strategy and a requirement on councils to develop their own local social enterprise strategies.

Read more…

DoH allocates an extra £4.4m to turn NHS projects into social enterprises

Health secretary Andrew Lansley has announced that an additional £4.4m will be made available for NHS projects which want to become social enterprises through the NHS ‘Right to Request’ scheme which gives public sector workers the opportunity to become their own bosses.

The funding will be distributed through the Social Enterprise Investment Fund (SEIF), that is managed by Social Investment Business on behalf of the Department of Health.

The SEIF fund will now have £26m in capital, £3.3m in revenue and an additional £4.4m this year. It has had £100m over its four-year span.

There are currently 29 ‘Right to Request’ schemes running and recently 32 NHS projects announced they wanted to be set up as social enterprises.

Together these schemes will transfer an estimated £900m of services and almost 25,000 NHS staff into the social enterprise sector.

Read more…

New rights and support for staff mutuals The Government is set to roll out new ‘Rights to Provide’ across public services so that employers will be expected to accept suitable proposals from front line staff who want to take over and run their services as mutual organisations. Prisons, Sure Start Children's Centres, hospitals and the civil service are some of the services in which staff could soon take their services out of the public sector and run them as employee-owned businesses. The Government also unveiled new support for public service ‘spin-outs’ building on the Government’s Pathfinder programme including:

over £10million to help the best fledgling mutuals reach investment readiness

a new information line and web service for interested staff, provided by Local Partnerships, the Employee Ownership Association and Co-ops UK; and

a ‘challenge group’ involving employee-ownership experts including John Lewis Partnerships to investigate ways to improve regulation.

Under the proposal every Government Department will be required to put in place a far reaching right to for public sector workers to take over the running of their services. However, services in areas such as defence and security may be exempt.

Read more…

Government launches new plan for local economic growth The Government has outlined their new plan for promoting local economic growth. The White Paper, ‘Local growth: realising every place’s potential’, sets out the Government’s role in empowering locally driven growth, encouraging business investment and promoting economic development. The White Paper sets out the Government’s new approach on rebalancing the economy and helping drive sustainable growth by focusing on three key themes:

Shifting power to local communities and businesses by creating dynamic local enterprise partnerships.

Increasing confidence to invest.

Focused investment by tackling barriers to growth that the market will not address itself. Read more… Social enterprise responds to Local Growth White Paper Social Enterprise Coalition says regional growth requires greater plurality of business models. Commenting on the White Paper – Local growth: realising every place’s potential - Peter Holbrook, Chief Executive of the Social Enterprise Coalition, said: “We welcome the ambition in this White Paper, particularly the transferring of power to local communities and local businesses, and the recognition that each locality should lead its own development. For too long economic growth across the UK has been reliant on a small number of industrial sectors, business models, and geographic areas. “It is encouraging to see the inclusion of social enterprise within the paper. We firmly believe that the challenges we face require a greater plurality of business models including those that operate for more than profit alone, that foster social and environmental innovation and are accountable to their employees, consumers and communities. “There are huge opportunities for the first 24 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) to support such plurality, but it will be essential to get the basic architecture and culture right from the outset. We would like to see partnerships involve social enterprises at all levels. Read more…

First Local Enterprise Partnerships given green light The Government has given the green light to the first 24 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in a move that will see local business and civic leaders working together to drive sustainable economic

growth and create new jobs. Ministers announced the first wave of successful partnerships as part of a new plan for local economic growth, which sets out the Government’s role in empowering locally driven growth, encouraging business investment and promoting economic development. In the East Midlands the following LEPs have been asked to progress their proposals to the next stage:

Greater Cambridge and Greater Peterborough (includes Rutland)

Leicester & Leicestershire Lincolnshire

Nottingham, Nottinghamshire

Derby, & Derbyshire

Sheffield City Region (includes Chesterfield BC, North East Derbyshire DC, Bolsover DC and Bassetlaw DC)

South East Midlands (includes Northampton BC, Kettering BC, Corby BC, South Northamptonshire DC and Daventry DC)

The announcements form part of a White Paper on Local Growth which sets out the Government’s new approach. Read more…

Guardian Social Enterprise Network launched The network is a hub of information for social enterprises and a place where people involved with the movement can engage in debate around issues the sector faces, ask questions and get advice. On Thursday 25

th November between 1.00pm and 4.00pm the network is running the first of what

will be regular Q&A sessions with expert panellists - anyone can take part and ask questions. The first topic is 'A guide to social impact’; follow this link for further details.

Funding and Investment News

Big Society Bank pilots to share £150,000 The National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts (Nesta) is funding the Big Society Bank pilots with an initial pot of £150,000, which will be allocated to 15 shortlisted proposals for products and services for the Bank. Around 90 ideas for social finance products and services have been received by Nesta who has been chosen by government to research and pilot activities around the Big Society Bank. Proposals have come from a broad range of organisations including charities, social finance and mainstream financial institutions. Read more…

Good Deals 10: Bond and bank are vital to sector’s growth, says Cohen

Good Deals 2010, the third annual UK social investment conference, was held over two days on 15 and 16 November at IET London Savoy Place. The conference provided a platform for innovative investors and inspirational social entrepreneurs to get good deals done. It brought together all elements of the social investment marketplace.

In a debate on the Big Society during the first day of the conference a panel of investment experts, including the father of social investment, Sir Ronald Cohen, agreed that a new culture of social investment was emerging – one that was essential to the sector’s growth. He suggested that the Social Impact Bond and Big Society Bank are the key developments in social investment that will enable social enterprises to deliver the government’s Big Society vision. Good Deals 10 website

Research and Intelligence News

Green Streets: Exploring the potential of community energy projects

British Gas Green Streets is a groundbreaking project helping Britain’s communities to be greener. British Gas has put up £2 million to fund microgeneration and energy efficiency measures that will help 14 communities around the UK to save and generate energy. From inner city communities in London and Birmingham to a remote Scottish island, the 14 communities came up with their own innovative energy projects and were selected from almost 100 applicants to take part in Green Streets. These communities are all competing until January 2011, with a chance to win up to a further £100,000 to invest in a local environmental project of their choice. One of the successful projects is the Green Streets Project in the Meadows area of Nottingham.

An interim report on Green Streets has been prepared by the ippr for British Gas and a final report will be published around March 2011. Read the full report here

Social Enterprise Day Survey Findings The myth that entrepreneurs are driven solely by profit has been shattered by new research released as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2010. The findings, released on Social Enterprise Day, show that 65% of social entrepreneurs started their business for independence and personal fulfilment while two-thirds of them think that they have a role to play in alleviating global

issues such as poverty and climate change. Read more…

Transitions: social enterprise public services Social Enterprise London have produced a guide for public sector workers who are interested in establishing a social enterprise to deliver their public service. It guides the reader through the process of establishing a social enterprise and outlines some of the steps you might expect your current employer to take to support you. Read more…

Coutts Social Enterprise Guides Produced in association with the Social Enterprise Coalition, this is the first in a series of guides that takes you through the basics of the social enterprise sector. It includes a case study of Green-Works, which was founded in 2000 to tackle the problem of unwanted office furniture being sent to landfill and transport company HCT. Read more…

Business Support

Business Advisors Network update

The SEEM Business Advisers Network (BAN) brings all types of advisers together to tackle hot topics and to learn from each others work, to help them stay ahead of their game. It's a unique network that highlights emerging trends for advisers to social enterprises, businesses and communities.

The SEEM Business Advisers Network is both an e-network and a physical network that meets quarterly. It is the only network in the East Midlands that provides specialist continuing professional development and peer learning to those giving advice to social enterprises.

The next Business Advisors Network event will take place on 14 December in Nottingham. The event will include workshops on quality marks and ‘helping your client get ready for investment’.

For further information please email ban@seem.uk.net

ROOTS HR CIC offers free consultancy services

Roots Human Resources CIC is offering a one-year retained human resources consultancy service of up to two hours per month free of charge for two social enterprises working towards sustainability.

Funded by Roots HR’s trading surpluses, and coming at a time when the third sector is coming to terms with cuts following October’s Comprehensive Spending Review, the subscriptions may be used to help the recipient organisations to restructure, diversify and move towards sustainability.

Read more…

Offers from The Disability Syndicate

To celebrate Social Enterprise Day The Disability Syndicate have developed some special offers for all SEEM newsletter subscribers.

Nimbus –The Disability Consultancy Service, are offering a 20% discount on all of their services until 31st March 2011. For details visit the Ask Nimbus website

MagIC-T Solutions are offering FREE Web design and set up worth £149 For details visit the MagIC–T website

DD Payroll Services 2 Months FREE payrolls and 2 months half price For details visit the DD Payroll website

Alternatively contact Donna Brady on 01332 404040 quoting: SEEM2010

Social Enterprise Training and Events

Social Audit Network (SAN) Conference 2010 3 December, Newcastle upon Tyne This conference heralds a new era in social accounting and audit, and a new guide to the process. The new guide will be a roadmap to social accounting and audit, with a focus on helping organisations through the maze of tools and methods which have been and continue to be developed. It is clear that there is a need for an integrated and common sense framework which can help organisations to understand what they do and how they do it. It is hoped that the new guide will help organisations find their own way of accounting and reporting, and to develop their strategic planning. Read more…

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Social Enterprise East Midlands is supported by East Midlands Development Agency and the European Social Fund