A paper examined the involvement of migrant and minority-ethnic groups in social enterprise activity and the associated policy agenda. It questioned the extent to which public policies engaged communities or reproduced processes of exclusion.
Source: Leandro Sepulveda, Stephen Syrett and Sara Calvo, Social Enterprise and Ethnic Minorities, Working Paper 48, Third Sector Research Centre
Links: Paper | Abstract | Voice4change press release | Charity Times report
Date: 2010-Dec
A study examined the experiences of public services that had made the transition to employee and/or community ownership.
Source: Shared Ownership in Practice: Findings from case studies of employee and community ownership of public services, Office of Public Management
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Dec
A paper examined how the meanings of social enterprise had evolved and expanded over time. Existing academic literature provided a 'bewildering' array of definitions. A wide variety of organizational types had also had the label attributed to them, or had tried to claim the label for themselves.
Source: Simon Teasdale, What's in a Name? The construction of social enterprise, Working Paper 46, Third Sector Research Centre
Date: 2010-Nov
The government announced plans to roll out new 'rights to provide' across public services. Under the scheme, employers would be expected to accept suitable proposals from front-line staff who wanted to take over and run their services as mutual organizations.
Source: Written Ministerial Statement 17 November 2010, columns 43-44WS, House of Commons Hansard/TSO
Links: Hansard | Co-operatives UK press release | IOG press release | SEC press release | Children & Young People Now report | Guardian report | Public Finance report | Civil Society report
Date: 2010-Nov
A report proposed a series of practical initiatives designed to strengthen the co-operative sector.
Source: Robin Murray, Co-operation in the Age of Google, Co-operatives UK
Links: Report | Co-operatives UK press release
Date: 2010-Nov
A second reading was given to a private member's Bill designed to require central and local government to publish strategies for promoting social enterprise; and to require public sector contracts to include provisions relating to social outcomes and social value.
Source: Public Services (Social Enterprise and Social Value) Bill, Chris White MP/TSO | Debate 19 November 2010, columns 1170-1228, House of Commons Hansard/TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard | SEC press release
Date: 2010-Nov
A report called for greater diversity in the financial services sector, and a bigger role in it for mutual organizations.
Source: Jonathan Michie, Promoting Corporate Diversity in the Financial Services Sector, Centre for Mutual and Employee-owned Business/Kellogg College/University of Oxford
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Oct
A paper said that co-production based on time banks offered a tool for social policy that could help deliver welfare services at a time of austerity, and that also had the potential to help re-engage and empower users of the welfare state. (Time banking is a form of exchange based on time, whereby each hour of voluntary work someone contributes within their local community equals one time credit. These credits can then be used to access services from other volunteers.)
Source: Lee Gregory, Time in Service Design: Exploring the use of time credits to deliver social policies, Working Paper 132, School of Social Sciences/Cardiff University
Links: Working paper
Date: 2010-Oct
A report said that social enterprises working with disabled learners provided high-quality work-based learning and supportive working terms and conditions, meeting any extra costs by reinvesting surplus income earned through their commercial activities.
Source: Rob Gray and Caroline Law, A Job Well Done: Social enterprises and the learning and skills sector – A partnership for the education, training and employment of disabled people, Young People's Learning Agency
Links: Report | NIACE press release
>Date: 2010-Oct
A paper said that different definitions of social enterprise resulted in widely differing estimations of the sector's size. The official annual small business survey was shown to be dominated by private enterprises, while other surveys only looked at particular elements of civil society.
Source: Fergus Lyon, Simon Teasdale and Rob Baldock, Approaches to Measuring the Scale of the Social Enterprise Sector in the UK, Working Paper 43, Third Sector Research Centre
Links: Paper | Abstract | SEC press release | Civil Society report
Date: 2010-Sep
A report examined ways of using the power of commissioning to stimulate the social enterprise sector and new social enterprise models of delivery.
Source: Stimulating New Markets: Commissioning social enterprises, Social Enterprise Coalition
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Aug
A think-tank report said that community and social enterprise might not be able to rise to the challenge of the 'Big Society' without additional support. There were insufficient numbers of 'enterprise ready' organizations in the sector looking to take on public sector contracts.
Source: Ed Cox and Katie Schmuecker, Growing the Big Society: Encouraging success in social and community enterprise in deprived communities, Institute for Public Policy Research North
Links: Report | IPPR press release | New Start report
Date: 2010-Jul
A study examined the geographical dimensions of social enterprise. London had a disproportionate share of social enterprise activity, whereas the East Midlands and the Yorkshire and Humberside region emerged as areas with relatively small amounts of social enterprise activity.
Source: Heather Buckingham, Steven Pinch and Peter Sunley, The Regional Geography of Social Enterprise in the UK: A review of recent surveys, Working Paper 35, Third Sector Research Centre
Date: 2010-Jul
A study examined the history of community and mutual ownership, and the implications for policy and practice. Systematic and values-based approaches were needed to develop community and mutual ownership to respond to social problems. Time was needed to develop democracy, membership, and belonging – all factors that had been historically important to the success of community and mutual ownership.
Source: Tom Woodin, David Crook and Vincent Carpentier, Community and Mutual Ownership: A historical review, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Date: 2010-Jul
A think-tank report highlighted the numerous barriers to the development of new social enterprises. It set out how the government could reform its own structures to secure more support and investment for social entrepreneurs at the grassroots.
Source: Asheem Singh, The Venture Society: Fuelling aspiration, independence and growth through grass-roots social entrepreneurship, ResPublica
Links: Report
Date: 2010-May
A report examined the extent to which social enterprise was being used in schools to deliver extended services.
Source: Lesley Miller, Wan Saiful Wan Jan, Catriona Rust and Gustavo Arnaudo, Extended Services: Ensuring Sustainability Using the Social Enterprise Model, CfBT Education Trust
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Apr
A paper examined the place of social enterprise within the third sector, and the widely varying perceptions of it.
Source: Leandro Sepulveda, Outsider, Missing Link or Panacea? Some reflections about the place of social enterprise (with)in and in relation to the third sector, Working Paper 15, Third Sector Research Centre
Date: 2010-Apr
A paper said that social enterprises could exhibit multiple faces to different stakeholders in order to access resources.
Source: Simon Teasdale, The Contradictory Faces of Social Enterprise: Impression management as (social) entrepreneurial behaviour, Working Paper 23, Third Sector Research Centre
Date: 2010-Apr
The Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies and Credit Unions Act 2010 (based on a private member's Bill) was given Royal assent. The Act reformed the law governing industrial and provident societies, including provision for tighter regulatory controls.
Source: Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies and Credit Unions Act 2010, TSO
Links: Text of Act | Explanatory notes
Date: 2010-Apr
A paper examined the experiences of social enterprises that grew rapidly but ended in failure.
Source: Duncan Scott, Black Boxes in the Wreckage? Making sense of failure in a third sector social enterprise, Working Paper 31, Third Sector Research Centre
Date: 2010-Apr
A manifesto called on government to create a £500 million fund to develop social entrepreneurship, and to commit to having 125,000 young people participating in social entrepreneurship programmes by 2015.
Source: Leading Social Change: A social entrepreneurs manifesto, Social Entrepreneurship Policy Group
Links: Manifesto | SSE press release
Date: 2010-Mar
The government set out its plans for increasing the opportunities for 'mutuals' (organizations based on mutual or co-operative principles) to develop and flourish across key areas of public services in England. It highlighted the potential for mutuals to stimulate and secure greater citizen participation and engagement in public services.
Source: Mutual Benefit: Giving people control of public services, Cabinet Office
Links: Report | BSA press release | Guardian report | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2010-Mar
A report summarized the evaluation of a pathfinder programme designed to improve the understanding of the role that social enterprise could play in health and social care. It said that the ethos and values of the social enterprise model were a catalyst for improving choice, equality, and access to services; and that it enabled services to be delivered in an innovative and efficient manner.
Source: Tribal Newchurch, Leading the Way Through Social Enterprise: The Social Enterprise Pathfinder Programme evaluation, Department of Health
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Mar
An article examined the way in which the Labour government 'framed' the policy and practice debate on social enterprise, the way in which 'strategic' networks were (or were not) facilitated, and the extent to which scale and geography shaped policy choices after 1997. The importance of regional networks in promoting practice and protecting innovation was often poorly developed and supported.
Source: John Mawson, 'Social enterprise, strategic networks and regional development: the West Midlands experience', International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Volume 30 Issue 1/2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Feb
A report examined how employee-owned businesses maintained the advantages of their ownership structure as they grew in size and complexity. It said that companies owned by their employees were more resilient than conventionally structured companies, outperforming the market during the economic downturn and demonstrating a lower risk of business failure.
Source: Joseph Lampel, Ajay Bhalla and Pushkar Jha, Model Growth: Do employee-owned businesses deliver sustainable performance?, John Lewis Partnership/Employee Ownership Association
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Feb
The opposition Conservative Party published plans for public sector worker co-operatives, designed to enable staff to decide how the services they provided were run. It said that this would allow public sector workers to take control of their own working environment, and to escape from the 'top-down bureaucracies' that had 'made life a misery for so many people in the public sector'.
Source: Power To Public Sector Workers, Conservative Party
Links: Plan | Conservative Party press release | ResPublica press release | NASUWT press release | ATL press release | Nursing Times report | People Management report | Personnel Today report | Guardian report | BBC report | Telegraph report | Children & Young People Now report | Community Care report
Date: 2010-Feb
A report said that residents in co-operative housing schemes were more satisfied than other social housing tenants. They were happier with key services (such as repairs) and tended to feel a strong community spirit – reflected in high levels of civic engagement in roles such as school governorship.
Source: Nic Bliss (ed.), Bringing Democracy Home, Commission on Co-operative and Mutual Housing
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Jan