Since
the Government's strong recent interest in the "third sector",
the social enterprise world is moving and changing rapidly. SENS
aims to key Suffolk social enterprises updated on relevant information
through this website and the monthly e-bulletin.Iif you've got
any relevant news to share or eventss to promote, let us know
(Contact Us)...
This
website is updated weekly and receives over 300 visits
a week!
|
NB.
Most of our local members news is carried in the regular monthly
SENS e-Bulletins.
Apply
to become a SENS member by clicking here.
AUGUST
JULY
- Social Enterprise
Mark Floundering?
Apparently, after all
the hype and marketing spend, there are still only 9 Mark holders
in the whole of the East of England! Hardly a flood of applicants.
Does anyone care?
- Continuing
Wide-Spread Confusion about Social Enterprises...
Further
new research (sponsored by O2 and Social Enterprise Magazine)
into the public's perception of “social enterprises” continues
to show wide-spread confusion. Over half the population still
confuses social enterprises with registered charities and believes
that the sector derives most of its income from grants and donations
rather than trading. Others confuse them with being part of the
private sector.
Perhaps
more than ever the government needs to promote the government
regulated social enterprises that are legally established as Community
Interest Companies (CIC's)? This legal status was created in 2005
to precisely to help overcome this confusion!
For
further information on Community Interest Companies, please click
here.
- Triodos
Opportunities Fund closes as a social lender to Social Enterprises,
- because there was no appropriate demand...
Triodos
Bank has closed its £3m social investment fund, which had
been set up to make equity investments in growing social enterprises.
It had only made one investment in two years!
Charles
Middleton, managing director of Triodos UK said ."We were
looking for mature, scalable businesses in the UK that were looking
for equity to grow. We
didn't find a pipeline of businesses like that to lend to. We
looked at a number of propositions and found that they didn't
meet our requirements."
JUNE
- EEDA to be scrapped and replaced by an "LEP"
The
government has confirmed that the East of England Development
Agency (along with the eight other English Regional Development
Agencies) is to be scrapped and replaced by Local Enterprise Partnerships
(LEPs) – “joint local authority-business bodies brought forward
by local authorities themselves to promote local economic development”.
Dates haven't been specified but this could all happen by 2012.
A government white paper regarding the development of LEPs will
be published in the coming months. Meanwhile, RDAs have been asked
to make cuts of almost £300m in 2010/11 which will significantly
impact current and planned projects. This could include internal
expenditure like quangos that EEDA set up….
- The
"Big Society" and "Social Enterprise"
The
central principle of the “Big Society” idea - or
"Social Capital" - or the ‘Do-It-Yourself Society
‘ -
is
that we all need to take responsibility for our own communities,
and not just expect the state to do everything for us. Its
not a new idea and goes back over 50 years,but that vision could
be a manifesto
for
social enterprise at its best.
For
more information on the government's "Building the Big Society",
please click here.
MAY
- The
Compact to be reworked yet again?
At the recent launch
of the "Big Society" agenda David Cameron said the Compact
had been "honoured more in the breach than the observance".
He went on to say that he wanted to make sure it "really
means something", and added: "One of the early bits of work, I
think, is to refresh and renew that Compact."
A "refreshed"
version of the Compact - the trading charter betwen the public
and third sector - was published only last year after a lengthy
consultation process. Will this mean more consultation to come,
and the possible introducton of statutory powers to give the Compact
teeth?
Compact refresh for
Suffolk will be held in June/July...
A
recent publication of a survey carried out late last year - researching
the opinions of the general public on the subject of charities
-reports that a majority of respondents felt that although big
charities were more professional, small charities were least
wasteful and closest to beneficiaries.
Nearly
ttwo-thirds of all respondents believed that CEO's
of small charities were usually volunteers, but only 1 per cent
thought this was true of chief executives of large charities.
Nearly
ttwo-thirds of all respondents believed tha
large charities usually paid their chief executives about £100,000
per year.
Almost
a quarter of all respondents said they would prefer to give money
to a charity working in their nearest town.
For
further information, please click here.
APRIL
- Charities
to lose discretionary business rate relief?
Charities are entitled
to relief from rates on any non-domestic property which is wholly
or mainly used for charitable purposes. Relief is given at 80%
of the full rate bill.. Local authorities have the discretion
to remit all or part of the remaining 20% of a charity's bill
on such property.
The public sector spending
cuts demanded for the 2011/2012 budgets and beyond will have a
significant effect on local councils and the services they provide.
There is a small but
growing number of press reports of local authorities, including
those in Suffolk, considering reducing or removing discretionary
business rate relief given to charities....
And, central government
is already looking at the way Gift Aid works...
MARCH
- New office space for social enterprises in Ipswich
Brightspace offers
flexible and affordable office space for social enterprises, supplemented
with a comprehensive range of business, IT and administrative
support from like minded people. Tenancies start from just £4.50
per sq.ft based on a 12 month agreement. Flexible in and out,
short and long term agreements are available. Office suites range
in size from 70 sq.ft to 344 sq.ft. All prices include business
rates, buildings insurance and utilities.For more information,
please click
here.
FEBRUARY
- More
confusion with the new social enterprise mark
No
sooner had the the new mark been launched than Sensscot the Scottish
social enterprise network, refused to be the Scottish partner
for the rollout of the mark. Senscot were unhappy with the relaxation
of the “asset lock”, whereby now
mark holders will be allowed to distribute up to 50% of their
profits, compared with the 35% set in a pilot version of the mark.
It was felt that the threshold had been moved to help boost a
potentially weak take up.
JANUARY,
2010
- Partnership
Opportunity in Suffolk
Reed in Partnership
has been shortlisted by the DWP for the new Work for Your Benefit
pilot programme which will operate in Suffolk. As part of developing
their bid, theyare currently looking for social enterprises who
may be interested in working with them as subcontractors and partners.
Expressions of interest
need to be returned by 4:00pm on the 14th January
For further information, check www.reedinpartnership.co.uk
DECEMBER,
2009
- Local
Authority Funding for Suffolk Social Enterprises under threat
It's not only jobs
that are under threat in Suffolk local authorities. as they are
forced to consider major cost-cutting targets over the next few
years.
There is talk of exceptional circumstances and sacrifices and
this could mean threats to the fundiing of social enterprises
as grants may be cut or frozen next year, as part of the current
reviews and discussions.
Local authorities are
being urged to give social enterprises at least three months'
notice of changes to funding as councils prepare for expected
cuts in the spring.
NOVEMBER,
2009
- Are
you happy with your current enterprise Bank Account?
From
April 2010 Credit Unions will be able to provide accounts to third
sector enterprises including social enterprises. A Credit Union
is a profit sharing , democratically run financial
co-operative which offers convenient savings and low interest
loans to its members. The members own and manage their credit
union themselves. Suffolk is covered by Ipswich & Suffolk
Credit Union Ltd, based at 63 Austin Street , Ipswich .
Although
they won't be providing cheque books - they are not structured
for that service as their rules do not permit people to be "overdrawn"
- members can on a share withdrawal request specify who
a cheque should be payable to eg a utility bill or other third
person. The Credit union can also do BACS transfers to creditors
from the credit union bank account, on request. They also have
a pay-as-you-go Debit card, which is like a prepaid phone - the
member tells them how much credit to load - either as a regular
transfer or on request. The Debit card has the Maestro symbol
and can be used in shops, online and to pay bills by phone.
For
further information, please visit www.onesuffolk.co.uk/ipswichandsuffolkcreditunion
OCTOBER,
2009
- Free
Suffolk Funding Surgeries
Dates
for the next round of free Funding and Development Surgeries can
now be found in one place:
www.suffolkfunding.co.uk
SEPTEMBER,
2009
- CIC
Association becomes a CIC
The
CIC association has announced the incorporation of the Community
Interest Company Association with the full endorsement of the
CIC Regulator.
CIC legislation came in to effect in 2005 to provide "branding"
for social enterprises and represents one of the most important
legislative changes to company law in the last 100 years. Over
3,200 CIC's are now incorporated and the CIC Association has been
formed.to meet the demand for a representative body.
Operating a CIC presents unique opportunities and challenges.
These range from launching innovative commercial solutions to
hitting funding barriers caused by lack of awareness and understanding.
CIC’s can impact at local, regional and national levels.
The purpose of the CIC Association is to help Community Interest
Companies realise these opportunities and overcome the challenges.
Registration with the CIC Associationr website is free for Community
Interest Companies. The web facility provides those who register
with tools to have their say. Direction, leadership and strategy
is
effectively
being sought from CIC Practitioners.
Community Interest Companies wishing to register should visit
- www.cicassociation.org.uk/register
- Another
New Branding Scheme for Social Enterprises - to be launched
on Social Enterprise Day, 19 November (now delayed until 2010)
Last
year, research by the government's Central Office of Information
found that only 20 per cent of those most likely to support social
enterprise knew anything about the subject! As a result, a social
enterprise identifier project steering group that was set up to
address the question of social enterprise recognition. The ensuing
recommendation has been for a new three-tier system:
Tier
1 - a trading social enterprise with over 50% of revenue coming
from trading.
Tier
2 - for businesses on a “social enterprise journeyâ€,
having committed to the principles and values of social business
Tier
3 - for every school or university running a social enterprise
project, by every law firm, business adviser or bank providing
specialised social enterprise services.
More
clarity or more confusion? What form of monitoring and compliance
will in place be to remove those enterprises putting on more of
a "front"?
AUGUST,
2009
- Social Enterprise Mark - nice
idea, shame about the take-up?
Amid
the allegation and denial of failure - and despite a heavy start-up
budget of over £500k and plenty of advanced PR - the launch
of the Social Enterprise Mark appears to be off to a very poor
start with only around 50 takers (from an government estimated
universe of 62,000 social enterprises in the UK). The East of
England does not appear to have any takers at present - not even
the usual handful of early-adopters. The cost of the mark may
have something to do with it - membership fees range from £100
to £500. The scheme was originally designed to boost consumer
awareness of, and demand for, social enterprises...
In
June 2005, the Government introduced a new legal entity, the Community
Interest Company (or CIC) in a move to remove some confusion over
"social enterprise" and create a specific "brand" for social enterprises
- in order to reassure the public at large. Since then, social
enterprises have been able to start up as, or convert to this
new legal entity known as a Community Interest Company (or CIC).
They may be companies limited by guarantee or shares, but all
carry the suffix "Community Interest Company" or "CIC" in their
name. There are now over 3,000 Community Interest Companies (or
CICs) in the UK, of which around 30 are in Suffolk.
- One
Voice Suffolk becomes Infrastructure Network Suffolk
The
former One Voice Suffolk (OVS) has refocused and relaunched itself
as Infrastructure Network Suffolk (INS). The INS membership consists
of bodies whose primary purpose is to provide the core functions
associated with Voluntary & Community Sector (VCS) infrastructure
support: development, support, liaison, representation on strategic
partnership work.
SENS
is a partner of INS.
The
new INS website can be found by clicking
here.
JULY,
2009
- Recession,
what recession?
Half of social enterprises believe the recession has created new
business opportunities for them, according to a poll.
The survey, carried out by Business
Link asked 130 social enterprises in London how they had been
affected by the recession.
Exactly 50 per cent of respondents said the economic downturn
had created new opportunities for them and nearly three-quarters
- 72 per cent - said they were planning for modest or substantial
growth over the next three years.
When asked whether the recession had affected their ability to
access finance, 82 per cent of respondents reported no change
in their financing arrangements with banks or specialist social
enterprise lenders.
Three-quarters of those surveyed said they had no plans to scale
back operations, and 82 per cent said they had no intention of
making redundancies.
JUNE,
2009
- 1.New Font of all Funding Opportunities!
Check
out this new FREE website, funded by the Cabinet Office for the
Third Sector. It provides access to over 4,000 funding and finance
opportunities, plus resources to help Suffolk social enterprises
develop!
www.fundingcentral.org.uk
-
Funding to help you increase your impact in Suffolk and become
more resilient
Could
you work more closely with other organisations to increase your
impact and extend your reach? With a £1,000 bursary from
Capacitybuilders Modernisation Fund Grants Programme, you could
buy at least two days of professional advice to explore how you
can become more resilient and work more closely with others, including
through collaboration or merger. This is potentially for you if
you are you a Suffolk social enterprise with a turnover between
£150,000 and £750,000 and provide services in any
of the following areas to help meet the needs of communities affected
by the recession?
-
advice, information
and guidance
-
loss of income, training
and skills
This
first phase of the Modernisation Fund Grants Programme is aimed
at helping organisations like yours to understand your needs better.
From Monday 1 June to Friday 17 July you are invited to apply
for £1,000 bursaries to pay for initial advice to explore
how you can become more resilient and increase your impact by
working more closely with others.
From
September, grants of up to £10,000 will be available to
help organisations (that have gone through the bursary phase of
the programme) to take the next steps towards collaboration or
merger.
To
find out more about the programme and access a range of useful
resources to help you explore your organisational needs, please
visit www.modernisationfund.org.uk
.
The
local delivery agent is the Suffolk Association of Voluntary Organisations
(SAVO) for Suffolk.. Please call Tom Bright for further details
on Tel: 01473-275193 or email tom.bright@savo.co.uk
MAY,
2009
As
the 4th anniversary of the Community Interest Company (CIC) approaches,
the Regulator has decided the time is now right for a review of
the limits on the dividends CICs can pay to their investors -
for those CIC's limited by shares.The review aims to ensure the
limits strike the right balance between promoting opportunities
for investment and growth, and maximising benefits for local communities.
CICs
were introduced in July 2005 as a bespoke legal form for social
enterprise, combining the flexibility of a limited company with
a community purpose. The business model enables social enterprises
to attract investment by issuing shares and paying returns to
investors, while a limit is set on those returns to guarantee
the majority of profits are put back into the community.
There
are now more than 2,600 CICs in the UK - around 10% of them in
Suffolk - offering a wide range of goods and services and making
a real difference to the lives and wellbeing of people across
the country.
The review will run for 12 weeks, closing on 19 June 2009. Full
details of the consultation and how to respond can be found on
www.cicregulator.gov.uk
APRIL,
2009
- Big
Lottery Fund - Sustainability Conference
(Cambridge)
Suffolk
social enterprise, PASTEL, supported The Big Lottery Fund (East
of England) who put together a a one day workshop to help enterprises,
who are coming to the end of their Lottery funding, plan for their
long-term funding future and the sustainability of their projects
and organisation.
The
day covered such topics as business planning for organisations,
social enterprise in practice and commissioning and contracts.
Don
Tricker, PASTEL CEO, led the workshop on "Becoming a Community
Interest Company (CIC)."
The
event took place on April 2nd (9.30am- 3.30pm) in Cambridge, and
was attended by around 80 delegates.
For
more information and news about PASTEL,
please click here.
MARCH,
2009
Big
Lottery Fund - Sustainability Event (Cambridge)
The
Big Lottery Fund have put together a a one day series of workshops
to help enterprises, who are coming to the end of their Lottery
funding, plan for their long-term funding future and the sustainability
of their projects and organisation.
The
day wll cver such topics as becoming a Community Interest Company
(CIC), business planning for your organisation, social enterprise
in practice and commissioning and contracts.
The
event will take place on April 2nd (9.30am- 3.30pm) in Cambridge.
For further details, please click here.
FEBRUARY,
2009
- Social
enterprises will be at the heart of the new economy
Liam
Byrne, Minister for the Cabinet Office, has predicted a new era
of influence for social enterprises as he announced steps to harness
the sector to help Britain get through the economic downturn.
In
a speech to the Voice 09 social enterprise conference in Birmingham,
Liam Byrne said the British public would be more open to the ideas
and ethos of social enterprise given the anger with banking leaders.
Measures
designed to aid aggressive growth in the social enterprise sector
will be drawn up at a Social Enterprise Summit co-hosted with
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson. The summit will identify how
Government can support social enterprises to grow and play an
even bigger part of the new British economy.
There
will be a drive to create 25,000 jobs in social enterprises by
expanding their role in providing public services. To support
this, Liam Byrne revealed that he will personally review the pipeline
of public service contracts together with others, to get deal
blockers out of the way.
And
a new online capital market will bring together in one place all
the advice, funding and contract opportunities available to social
enterprises.
- More
social Enterprises can apply for Grassroots Grants
Social
enterprises with annual incomes of up to £30,000 will now
be eligible to bid for grants of between £250 and £5,000
to fund community activities. Previously it was limited to those
with annual incomes of up to £20,000.
JANUARY,
2009
Two
new business support schemes for Suffolk social enterprises coming
in the New Year!
- Regional
Business Support Voucher
The
first is a
new one-to-one business support Voucher, called the Regional Business
Support Voucher and this has a value of £500. It will be
launched early in the New Year.
With
the current downturn in the economy, thought has been given to
how Business Link East can flex resources to support social enterprisethrough
the current recession. New businesses in particular are more vulnerable
in their first 3 years of trading and in an economic downturn
the dangers are exacerbated through tougher competition, more
restrictive payment terms and supply chain pressures generally.
Consequently this voucher will be available to all businesses
employing less than 250 that have been trading for more than a
year.
The
social enterprise will need to work with a Business Link Adviser
and will have had a “health check” and an action plan created
to move the business forward. These vouchers can be used for advice
and delivery of services where a need has been determined.The
administration processes in respect of dealing with both of these
new vouchers is identical to the existing arrangements.
- Social
Enterprise Business Support Grant
The
‘Social Enterprise Business Support Grant' is replacing the existing
Business Link ‘Social Enterprise Voucher Scheme'. The new
programme provides greater funding to those in need of business
support and claims to be easier to access than the previous scheme.
The grant is for up to £1,500 and covers the cost of business
support consultancy and training (up to 100% of the cost).
The grant must be used to pay for business support and cannot
be used for:
- Capital
expenditure
- Salaries
of staff
- Cost
of legal action
Who
can apply?
- Social
enterprises based in the East of England
- Social
enterprises that are already trading - to enable them to improve
business efficiency and grow.
What
is the process?
All
applicants will need to have a diagnostic session with a Business
Link Adviser. As part of this diagnostic session the client
and the Business Link Adviser will agree an action plan, where
the action plan identifies the need for business support consultancy
or training the client may apply for the grant to cover the cost
(up to £1,500).
The
Business Link Adviser will assist the client in completing a simple
application form and if approved the client will be able to reclaim
the cost of the required consultancy (up to £1,500). Costs
can be reclaimed in up to three stages to reduce client outlay.
Only
consultants or training providers registered on the Business Link
‘Supplier Brokerage Service' may be used under this scheme.
For
further information, please visit Business Link East - clisck
here
and/or
Tel: 08457 -171615
ARCHIVE
OF KEY 2008 NEWS ITEMS
- Get
paid to check out other social enterprises!
Only Connect
is a visit scheme which enables organisations to visit other
voluntary and community organisations to learn about their experiences.
The scheme pays £150 for time and travel to visit another
organisation to learn how they have diversified their income through
trading, public service delivery or by using loan finance. The
scheme also pays the host organisation £200 as a consultation
fee.
For
more information and application form, click here.
The
next round closes on Wednesday 10 December 2008.
-
Free Training for "Managing Voluntary and Community Organisations"
for Social Enterprises
The
Suffolk Association of Voluntary Organisations (SAV0) are offering
a free course with studentaccreditation (NOCN Level 2 accredited).
SAVO are able to offer this popular course free again, but this
time as individual topics and modules. The Managing Voluntary
and Community Organisations Course is an Open College Network
(NOCN) Level 2 (equal to a NVQ level 2) qualification and develops
the
skills
and competencies of people:
•
who are or intending to become managers or committee members/trustees
of
voluntary
and / or community organisation
•
who would like to develop professionally within their current
role
•
who work or volunteer in the voluntary and community sector but
not
necessarily
in a management role
•
who work with the voluntary sector
•
who would like to start up a community or voluntary group.
You
can undertake individual modules from the course even if you do
not want to go
forward
for accreditation. Many of the exercises and worksheets you complete
during
the course however will help in developing your accreditation
portfolio.
The
courses starts end November. For further information, a full list
of the modules, their content andwhen they will be running and
a booking form, please contact Tracy Ray at SAVO: Tel:01473 275198
or E-mail
tracy.ray@savo.co.uk
- SENS
Response to the Baseline Research on Social Enterprises in Suffolk
SENS
will be putting together a response and recommendations to the
recent social enterprise "state of the nation" research
in Suffolk. The research was presented to an invited audience
at Endeavour House in Ipwich in late September. Initial feedback
comments. For participants' feedback comments of the event, please
click here.
- Is
the concept of Social Enterprise very confused?
A
comprehensive research project covering secondary and primary
research among different social enterprise stakeholders has concluded
that:there was wide-spread confusion over the definition, awareness
and understanding of the concept - It struggles to differentiate
itself from the rest of the third sector.There is also scepticism
over government claims of numbers of social enterprises and their
value.The suggestion is, that in reality, this sector is in its
very early days as a slowly emerging market - and a lot of work
needs to be done to use the findings to accelerate change.
For
the full report:, pleasse click here.
If you're a start-up or trading micro social enterprise (up to
10 full-time paid staff) in Suffolk, you can apply for FREE SENS
Membership. This will entitle you to receive our special monthly
Suffolk newsletter giving up-to-the latest alerts and local news
on such matters as events promoting local members,collaboration,
funding, training, member support workshops for the smaller enterprise
etc..
Please
click here.
- 2008
SENS Management Report
Please
click here.
The
2008 Social Enterprise Network Suffolk SENS) AGM
is to be held at 4pm on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008, at:
Wood
N Stuff
2
The Drift
Nacton Rd,
Ipswich,
IP3
9QR
followed
by a tour of the WNS premises and a presentation of the
work undertaken at their Ipswich Centre.
NB.
As social enterprise in Suffolk is still an emerging sector
and there are still relatively so few of us, please
do make the effort to come and meet with fellow social entrepreneurs
and support the volunteer SENS trade association committee
members - themselves active social entrepreneurs,- who with
no current funding are making steady but slow progress!
Come and talk to us...
- Free
Local SENS Workshops
Funded
by SEEE, the first of a series of SENS workshops got off to a
flying start despite the weather.
These
workshops are in response to the call for smaller, more local
and regular business workshops that also have a social element
and allow for more group interaction.
The
SENS workshops recognise that smaller social enterprises (typically
with less than twenty employees, and often less than ten) do not
have spare people to send off on long journeys where the cost,
and opportunity, cost are high. So SENS is setting about planning
a series of free half-day workshops, with a buffet lunch, for
up to around twelve attendees. The workshops are semi-structured
to allow attendees to really contribute, on an equal basis, and
get involved in shaping the workshop in order to get the most
out of it. There are no "networking opportunities during
refreshment breaks" where individuals are left to wander
about. Instead the whole session is a get-to-know you, your enterprise,
achievements and challenges. The idea is to provide more of a
self-help forum and information exchange.
At
the first event on April 30th, in Felixstowe, eight Suffolk representatives
of smaller social enterprise based in not only Felixstowe (venue
site) but also Ringshall, Ipwich, Felistowe, Saxmundham &
Diss, started to get the ball rolling.The event was a success
with a unanimous vote to continue in the same vein and schedlule
a six-month cycle to return to each venue to review and discuss
progress. Several were keen to go to the next venue which looks
like in the latter half of June in the Stowmarket area...
Because
these events are run by unpaid volunteers on the SENS management
committee there will only be summary reports, detailing any SENS
action points. Please make sure you attend these meetings - on
a first come first served basis - to make sure your enterprise
gets the full benefit!
Check
the Events page for the latest information on the next event.
- SENS
Strategy to Promote Social Enterprise in Suffolk
After
an extensive consultation period and inputs from large and small
social enterprises and infrastructure/support enterprises, please
find attached the final SENS Strategy for Promoting Social Enterprise
in Suffolk . Many thanks to all those who responded.
In
the coming weeks and months the SENS management committee will
seek opportunities to hold meetings with social enterprises in
Suffolk to flesh out some action plans with measurable objectives.
Meanwhile,
you can
read the
final document by clicking here.
|
