Social Enterprise Strategy 2016 – 2026: What comes next.
Posted: 28 July 2026, in News
Dear friends,
We’ve been working hard to ensure that the scale and potential of Scotland’s social enterprise sector are understood by the new Cabinet and by MSPs across the Parliament.
Over the coming weeks, Social Enterprise Scotland has been invited to meet a number of Cabinet Secretaries and Ministers. These conversations give us an important opportunity to explain how you, our members, already contribute to government priorities across portfolios: from economic development, Fair Work and Community Wealth Building to health, criminal justice, employability, climate action and public service reform.
Our message is simple: social enterprise should not be treated as a narrow sectoral interest or as an add-on to public policy. Scotland has built a mature, internationally recognised social enterprise ecosystem. The next step is to use that capability more deliberately as part of the country’s economic and social infrastructure supporting resilient businesses, creating good jobs, retaining wealth in communities and helping public services intervene earlier.
We are hopeful that the five-year Programme for Government, which we understand will be published in September, will include a commitment to a new Social Economy Strategy. That would provide an overarching framework for social enterprise, co-operatives, employee ownership and other inclusive and democratic business models (IDBMs), connecting them more clearly to the Government’s economic, Community Wealth Building and public service priorities.
Once we know the Government’s overarching commitments, we will work with social enterprises and our partners across Scotland to develop the sector’s own strategy and delivery offer. The aim will not simply be to describe what the sector needs, but to show how we can be a serious, practical partner in delivering Scotland’s priorities over the next five years. That strategy must be shaped by the experience, and evidence, of the sector itself and we will create opportunities for members and partners to contribute once the Programme for Government has been published.
We want to thank you, our members, for your continued commitment and sustained delivery in what remain exceptionally difficult circumstances. Across Scotland, social enterprises continue to respond to rising need, support communities and create lasting social, economic and environmental value, often while facing significant financial and operational pressures. Social Enterprise Scotland remain determined to ensure that this contribution is properly understood and valued, and that Scotland’s social enterprises receive the national and international recognition they deserve.
Chris Martin
Chief Executive, Social Enterprise Scotland