28 November 2008
By Paul Dicken
The government has announced measures to boost social enterprises, as research shows third sector organisations have won public sector contracts worth almost £16m in the past six months.
Futurebuilders, the government-backed third sector investment fund, carried out a review of public service contracts won for the second quarter of 2008. Between July and September, social enterprises and voluntary organisations won 35 contracts worth over £8.2m, an increase on the £7.7m value of contracts won in the previous quarter.
Futurebuilders, which offers loans to help organisations bid for and win public sector contracts, has also exceeded its 2008 target for distributing funds. Chief executive Jonathan Lewis said organisations were coping well 'despite all the doom and gloom about the current economic situation'.
Speaking on November 20, designated Social Enterprise Day, new third sector minister Kevin Brennan said: 'As everyone starts to feel the effects of the global financial crisis, it is clear that there is a growing marketplace for alternative business models which hold social and environmental value to be every bit as important as financial gain.'
He set out a range of measures, backed by the Cabinet Office's Office of the Third Sector, to improve the evidence base for social enterprise work and stimulate activity.
Several organisations providing health care services will be supported by the Department of Health to 'undertake social return on investment assessments'; the Department for Communities and Local Government is to examine the potential for 'community share and bond issues to stimulate social enterprise activity' and attract private investment; and the National Offender Management Service will carry out work on the effectiveness of social enterprises in probation services.
Estimates put the number of social enterprises in the UK at 55,000. Peter Holbrooke, chief executive at the Sunlight Development Trust, which works with the NHS and Medway Council on a range of projects, told Public Finance that his organisation 'reached parts of the community that the statutory sector found difficult to reach'.
He cited a project that supports parents whose children have behavioural difficulties. This had been successful, he said, because 'if the local authority or NHS come along and try to do that it is very stigmatised'.
He added: 'Because councils have statutory obligations, people do feel like they are going to be judged. Our project is parents to parents, there's no stigma.'
PFnov2008
