Since the Government's strong recent interest in the "third sector", the social enterprise world is moving and changing rapidly. SENS aims to keep SENS network members updated on relevant information through this website and timely e-bulletins.

If you're a Social Enterprise Network Suffok (SENS) member

and you've got any relevant news to share

or events to promote,

please let us know (Contact Us)...

JANUARY, 2012

• Suffolk Day Service continues to expand

From January 10th, 2012, a new daytime service is being launched for unemployed people who have additional needs arising from a disability. These sessions, replicating services already running in Ipswich, Bury St. Edmunds and Haverhil, will take place in Saxmundham and will be run by The Centre (Ipswich) CIC.

Users will be able to book in either for the day or half-day. This service will provide not only respite for those attending but also their parent / carers and families. The additional needs may arise from a disability, whether from birth or acquired later through accident, illness, stroke, mental health, early dementia or lifestyle abuse.

The new service is designed to not only provide daytime respite care but also to deliver personal, social and arts and craft skills, as well as to build self-esteem and confidence. Referrals can come from professionals, parent / carers or those with additional needs themselves.

For further information, please click here.

DECEMBER

• 3 Suffolk CIC's recognised for their community impact

Three Suffolk Community Interest Companies have received awards from Suffolk County Council for successfully delivering projects which benefit local people without depending on long term public funding.

Projects in Lowestoft, Ringshall and Saxmundham were recognised for their proactive approach to making a difference in their communities in ways which are sustainable.

The awards were given as part of Suffolk County Council’s Improve and Prove Fund, set up to provide grants to help make projects self-financing in the long run and, in this case, celebrate and showcase those that manage it.

The 3 CIC's were:

• PASTEL Community Interest Company - for further information, please click here.

• OBee Community Interest Company - for further information, please click here

• Seagull Theatre Community Interest Company - for further information, please click here

NOVEMBER

• New Suffolk CIC

Arrival Early Partnerships CIC is recently formed Suffolk Community Interest Company, working in support of breastfeeding families.  They have gained commissions from Kesgrave and Saxmundham Children's Centre Clusters to offer home visits to women, providing quick and effective expert advice about breastfeeding problems.  This bridges the gaps between timely visits from the health care team and families becoming involved with the established Children Centre Breastfeeding Groups.

For further information, please click here.

OCTOBER

• Local Suffolk Community Resource Centre to be run by Local Suffolk Community Social Enterprise

The Saxmundham and District Community Interest Company (SADCIC) have taken over management of the Saxmundham Resource Centre in Seaman Avenue on 1 October 2011. The new arrangements follow negotiations with Suffolk County Council (SCC) who will retain ownership of the building. The Adult Community Services operations run by SCC will continue unaffected by the change in buildings management.

SADCIC, a leading community interest company in Suffolk will be one of the first organisations in the county to grasp the opportunities presented by the SCC divestment programme. The main aims of the project are to significantly ramp up the level of community use of the building whilst reducing overall running costs.

Other exciting plans for SADCIC include converting the Saxmundham Middle School - becoming redundant in 2012 - to the proposed Saxmundham Community Enterprise Centre.

For a copy of the SADCIC leaflet, outlining the Community Enterprise Centre potential, please click here.

SEPTEMBER

• Suffolk Herring Festival Returns

Two days in October - Oct.22-23 see the return of the Suffolk Herring Festival -celebrating everything to do with the herring heritage in coastal East Suffolk - covering everything from conservation to consumption - fish, beer and fish-related activities. Suffolk has a long historical association with the herring and herring fisheries.

The Suffolk Herring Festival is organised by Suffolk Herring Festival Community Interest Company (SHFCIC) to champion the herring as a vibrant part of the Suffolk heritage.

For further information, please click here.

JULY

• MPs' Raise Warning on "Big Society" Mutuals

The plan of various local authorities, to divest public sector services to newly-formed mutuals, involving public sector staff leaving the employ of the local authority, needs closer examination and education says a new government report.

The report, “ Shared Ownership:The Role of Employee Ownership in Public Service Delivery” - written by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Employee Ownership – raises the issue that the government must do more to ensure mutualised public assets are protected by an "asset lock" (for example, as with all Community Interest Companies) so they cannot be sold off to private companies.

For more information, click here.

JUNE

• Community Radio Collaboration in Suffolk

MAY

• A Suffolk Social Enterprise wins training award

LEAP ( Learning Enterprise Access Points ) and SPIAL (Suffolk Partnership for Informal Adult Learning0 are sponsoring the Suffolk Adult Learners Awards for 2011 - and winners of the Loearning Project Award categoy is the PASTEL Community Interest Company for their innovative training programme, delivering "An Introduction to Customer Service Skills", which was embedded in the Museum Apprentice project run in partnership with the Long Shop museum.

For further information, please visit www.pastel.org.uk

APRIL

• A Suffolk Social Enterprise phoenix rises from the ashes of a former charity

In !980 the registered charity Wingfield Arts & Music was established and based in a range of buildings at Wingfield, near Eye. The buildings included a cluster of workshops, a studio, medieval barn, accommodation and offices, set in beautiful gardens. The barn was converted with the help of a £1.5million Heritage Lottery Fund grant. However, after years of praised arts events, the centre closed in January 2006 after encountering funding problems, and the charity ceased..

For three years the site lay derelict until Mid Suffolk District Council obtained the site from the Arts Council for £1 in 2009. An Interim Management Board, made up of officers and councillors from the council and residents from the local community, was set up to run ‘Wingfield Barns' and led to the formation of the Wingfield Barns Community Interest Company in 2010. After a year of experimentation, Wingfield Barns CIC has cut loose from its financial subsidies from the local authority and, with a business plan, now aims to become a self-sustaining social enterprise.

The Wingfield resources now include a licenced bar and coffee / tea shop and the venue is available for not only entertainment events but also conferences, meetings and wedding receptions - and provides a beautiful, quiet and affordable resource for the Waveney Valley and its local communities.

For further information, please click here.

MARCH

• The Compact - being ignored to death...

According to a recent research report, commissioned by the Commission for the Compact, "Despite widespread belief that the Compact is 'a good thing', at least in principle, the substantial effort devoted to translating it into reality, and its positive impact, the Compact is currently at low ebb and is in danger of being ignored to death.". The Compact is supposed to be the agreement on how the public and third sectors should work together. The Commission for the Compact, which was responsible for monitoring the agreement, was abolished at the end of last month…More wasted resource?

FEBRUARY

• “Big Society” and “Localism” coming to Suffolk ?

Plans to build a new Community Enterprise Centre in Saxmundham on the site of the existing Middle School in Seaman Avenue , Saxmundham, took a major step forward when a Joint Project

Board was recently formed to steer the project through to completion.

Led by the social enterprise The Saxmundham & District Community Interest Company (SADCIC), other partners in this ground breaking venture include, Suffolk County Council, Suffolk Coastal District Council, Saxmundham Town Council, NHS and BT.

As a result of Suffolk County Council's recent school's organisation review, Saxmundham Middle School is due to close to pupils in the summer of 2012. A local social enterprise company, ‘SADCIC', was formed three years ago by a team of Saxmundham volunteers, who plan to convert the redundant school into a local amenity for all the community.

Ron Warren MBE, volunteer director and chair of SADCIC said

“This project presents a very exciting opportunity to provide much eeded facilities for the people of Saxmundham and district. We would like to see the launch of the Community Enterprise Centre in 2012-13 and look forward to working in close partnership with Suffolk County Council and others to turn the vision into reality.”

Suffolk County Councilor and SADCIC project board member Cllr.Rae Leighton said

“ Suffolk County Council is extremely keen to work with local communities and in this case to encourage and support this volunteer investment to improve the economic and social well-being of

Saxmundham and district.”

The next phase of Joint Project Board's work will be to undertake a feasibility study and construct a full Business Plan for the Community Enterprise Centre.

For further information, please visit www.saxcommunity.co.uk

JANUARY, 2011

• What Value the Social Enterprise Mark?

If you're not a Community Interest Company, proving your social enterprise credentials can bre a costly affair. So its not surprising that at a cost of £350 per year the Social Enterprise Mark fee is not doing much to encourage the very small base of less than 400 takers to grow!

The Social Enterprise Mark campaign has been financed so far by apparently over £1m of tax payers money - that's at a cost of around £2,500 per member so far - for what?

Is this value for money for the thousands of small and medium socal enterprises, or the tax payer?

Is there any meaningful added-value for customers and othe stakeholders?

DECEMBER

• Local Social Enterprises' opportunity to respond on Suffolk County Council's “New Strategic Direction”

Suffolk County Council has launched of a major online public consultation to ask people what concerns they have about the authority's “New Strategic Direction” and whether they understand it. The councili is planning to contract out the delivery of many services to private businesses and social enterprises.

The online survey and all documents relating to the New Strategic Direction are available here.

NOVEMBER

• Suffolk Social  Enterprise Showcase

Suffolk County Council is promoting Suffolk social enterprises by arranging a showcase in the Atrium at Endeavour House, Ipswich , on Thursday 18 November from 11 a.m. to approximately 3.00 p.m. For further information, e- mail: dawn.turpin@suffolk.gov.uk

OCTOBER

• How many genuine "social enterprises" are there in the UK?

Researchers at the Third Sector Research Centre, say that almost 90 % of the 62,000 businesses identified as social enterprises in the government's 2009 Annual Small Business Survey should not be considered third sector organisations because they had no asset locks to prevent the distribution of profits. Analysis of third sector organisations that have asset locks and derive more than half of their income from trading, produced a figure of about 16,000 for the UK

 All government-regulated "Community Interest Companies" have an asset lock and thus are more readily identified as genuine "social enterprise". They currently number about 5,000.

SEPTEMBER

• 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?

AUGUST

• 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.

JULY

• 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...

• Small is better?

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 journey”, 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?

• well being and health

• 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

• CIC Consultation

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.

• Free SENS Membership!

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..

• Minutes of 2008 SENS AGM

Please click here.

• 2008 SENS Management Report

Please click here.

• SENS AGM 2008

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.

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