Social Enterprise Places: What difference can it make to my community?
Posted: 02 March 2020, in News
As the deadline approaches for the first round of Scotland’s Social Enterprise Places programme we wanted to answer a question that’s cropped up at all of our recent local events: What difference can Social Enterprise Places make to my community?
As a
result we contacted recipients of the Places accolade from across the border to
share some of the feedback from existing Places…
Plymouth was
recognised as a hotspot for social enterprise activity back in 2013. There are
around 150 social enterprises and Plymouth University has been recognised as
the world’s first officially certified ‘social enterprise’ university. The
sector here employs around 7,000 people and has an income of over £500 million.
There’s
also a burgeoning economy of smaller businesses where 1 in 3 have a turnover of
under £50,000. Plymouth’s
Social Enterprise City badge has helped to lever in over £6 million of
investment and support for social enterprises in the city from national and
local sources – and has led to the Council developing commissioning and
procurement policies for social value.
While at
a village level the total level of resources attracted may be less Alston
Moor, a rural community in North Cumbria with a population of 2,090, were
also keen to ensure that social enterprise activity in their community was
recognised.
Alston
Moor has a diverse range of social enterprises and community owned businesses,
delivering services from retail, broadband, transport, leisure, tourism and
community services, most of which would otherwise not be accessible by local
people.
The
sector has a combined annual turnover of around £1.5M and employs around 50
people, with a further 250 volunteers also contributing to the running of the
various enterprises. This equals one social enterprise per 55 households. Keen
to capitalise on their Places status Alston Moor has been running ‘Social
Enterprise Safaris’ for a number of years and has hosted groups from British
Council delegations visiting from China.
Walking tours
were also a feature of the Birmingham Place offer, an initiative that started
first with the Digbeth
Social Enterprise Quarter in Dec 2013. As part of the Digbeth action plan it was identified that
there was an aspiration to launch Birmingham as a Social Enterprise City
within the next 5 years – an ambition that was achieved building on the Digbeth
success and experience.
Speaking at
the Birmingham City Places launch in 2018 Sarah Crawley, CEO of
iSE CIC (Birmingham Places lead) noted:
“Since Digbeth became registered as a Social Enterprise Quarter we have seen a rise in the number of social
enterprises start-ups, an increase in sustainable social enterprises that are
actively scaling and growing, improvements in social investment and funding
options coming in to the area, and huge diversification in the products and
services being delivered by social enterprises. It’s a hugely vibrant sector
and an exciting time for both Birmingham and the social enterprise sector.”
Birmingham now has the largest number of social enterprises
outside of London (564 identified in baseline survey).
There are
now 28 Places recognised across the UK but knowing that Scotland has a vibrant
social enterprise community, Social Enterprise Scotland is keen that we can add
more Places in Scotland to the map – building on the brilliant initial
recognition in Callander in 2018.
The first
deadline for applications to the Scotland Social Enterprise Places programme
closes on 16 March and we’re keen to hear more about local hotspots for impact
and activity across Scotland.
You can find more information about the programme here or email: naomi.johnson@socialenterprise.scot
We look forward to receiving your applications!
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