State of the Sector Report – COVID-19 and the impact on Social Enterprise in Scotland (August 2020)

Posted: 31 August 2020, in News

Download our new State of the Sector Report.

In April, we shared a first report attempting to build an overall picture of the impact of COVID-19 on the social enterprise sector in Scotland. The findings were based on a wide range of phone interviews with our members, and we were keen to access additional raw data for an even more thorough assessment as the pandemic continued to impact communities.

This August, the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) shared data with us based on a survey of 5,000 of their registered charities, which was collected in May 2020. Among the respondents, 774 were social enterprises choosing “registered charity” as their legal structure. This data, as well as additional phone interviews with our Community Interest Company (CIC) members serves as the basis for this August update on the state of our sector.

While the OSCR survey sample size of social enterprises is neither exhaustive nor fully representative of the diverse range of organisations in our sector, it offers a good base for analysis to share further insights and commentary on the continued impact of Covid-19 and the complex picture of how social enterprises are affected.

These findings have created new priorities for Social Enterprise Scotland and we are considering the partnerships and data insights that we need to inform and support the sustainability and long-term resilience of our sector. In particular, we are working with The Scottish Government, OSCR, Evaluation Support Scotland, and SCVO to ensure we can inform recovery efforts and resources to the organisations who need it.

We encourage you to download this new report and engage in conversation with us about the findings and commentary included.

State of the Sector Report – Contents

Part one – Background and Context
a. Geographical analysis
b. Financial analysis
c. Organisational type
d. Operational impacts

Part two – Support and information
a. Funding support
b. Non-funding support
c. Sources of information

Part three – Moving forward
a. Additional factors to consider
b. Identified gaps and risks

Appendix – List of survey questions

Download our new State of the Sector Report.