"I want to make sure that social enterprise runs right through my department's DNA" said Hazel Blears, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, at the Voice 08 conference.
A greater focus is given by government to the role social enterprise can play in delivering local services. This is demonstrated in the recent white paper "Communities in control: real people, real power" (July 2008) in which a promise was made by the government to provide £70m Communitybuilders fund to strengthen community groups and social enterprises by helping groups acquire buildings, take a role in running local services and become more financially sustainable.
While this is good news for the sector, it also brings its challenges. Are the organisations taking over buildings sufficiently aware of the financial and legal implications of managing a facility and delivering local services? Is there a common language and understanding of respective aims between the local authority and the social enterprise?
Increasingly social enterprises are tendering for public sector contracts, especially in the health and waste sectors. But what does this world of public sector procurement look like? Is there a clear understanding of the demands and expectations of the public sector? Are they commensurate with the social aims of the social enterprise?
A key issue in the transfer of health services to a social enterprise model has been the issue of pension rights for NHS workers. This has now been resolved in the report by Lord Darzi, "High Quality Care for All" (July 2008) which "gives staff the "right to request" transfer from the NHS to a social enterprise model while keeping their pensions" (Third Sector Online 1 July 2008). Again this is good news for the sector. The delivery of health services offers substantial opportunity for social enterprises. The Department of Health has shown its support for the delivery by social enterprises of health and/or social care services and products in England by making a further £17m funding available through its Social Enterprise Investment Fund
(www.dh.gov.uk/en/Managingyourorganisation/Commissioning/Socialenterprise).
As interest in social enterprises as delivery agents of public sector services develops so must the ability of social enterprises to understand the drivers of public sector procurement; to express the added value they bring to delivery; and to increase and develop communication and engagement with the public sector in order to arrive at a common understanding.
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