/>Doing well by doing good: we need more Social Enterprises
As part of the Young Fabian Work and Families Policy Development Group‘s work looking at the future of labour markets, here PDG member Daniel Bamford argues that Social Enterprises present a perfect way of bridging the gap between hardcore capitalist and government provision.
In case you didn’t know, we are in a bit of a financial pickle. Whilst there is a clear and pressing need to continue Labour’s record of investment in public service provision, the coffers are empty. The tax take is down and likely to remain so according to IFS, OBR or any other oracular acronym we care to consult. Traditional methods of public sector procurement look increasingly unaffordable as we head into an austere winter but turning and fleeing nakedly to the markets to provide social goods is clearly not the answer.
Over the past 10 years a hitherto dormant giant has been asleep. Now it seems the Social Enterprise (SE) sector is waking up. The SE sector, broadly defined by a desire for both economic and social returns, encompasses all the space in the spectrum between hardcore capitalist provision and government provision.
The Social Enterprise sector represents a huge opportunity for us to radically and progressively re-shape our public service provision. We can save money, improve service delivery and create new meaningful jobs in an economy that needs an injection of dynamism.
Some Social Enterprises are for-profit and believe you can do well by doing good. Take Innocent Smoothies: responsible sourcing, 10% of their profits go to charity and the company makes money.
Other Social Enterprises are non-profits but may choose to generate significant income to further their social goals. The charity I co-founded, Business Bridge, sees income generation as a more sustainable than grant funding. Any income we earn is ploughed straight into broadening our social impact. We do good by doing well.
The success of organisations such as Cool2Care in child disability caring and Teach First in education show that innovative Social sector organisations deliver results as well as compelling arguments. There are currently more than 55,000 Social Enterprises active in UK. Together, they turn-over over £27bn and employ 5% of our workforce. Social Enterprise already makes a huge contribution to our economy but we really should be asking it to make a much larger one.
Labour’s creation of the Office for the Third Sector in 2006 is one of the prouder achievements of the UK civil society movement in recent years and should have been the start of something big. Unfortunately the Office is no more, only 4 years into its existence the ConDemers have, erm, condemned it.
New Social Sector legal and financial vehicles have led to innovation that should be placed at the heart of UK’s public service provision plans. And it is a shame that, at a time when it would make sense to expand the sector, it now faces a real struggle for survival. During the great recession we have seen that markets can be a force for bad. Now let’s see them unleashed as a force for good. For good.
If you would like to know more, please feel free to read a summary presentation I have recently put together on the third sector.
Daniel works for and co-founded Business Bridge, a charity helping entrepreneurs in South Africa, Ghana, UK and India.
Interesting post and inspiring presentation, Daniel. Labour’s roots are entangled with those of the co-operative movement. And of course, Labour has a sister in the Co-operative Party.
I think there is a risk in that social enterprise will be used by the Tories as a way of insisting upon reform of public services that leaves service users and providers out of the loop, and opens the door to firms that do not have a social purpose.