Social franchising is an option for both existing social enterprises that wish to expand their businesses through replication, as well as individuals who want to set up a franchise of an existing, successful social enterprise. However, it is a relatively new model of growth and little support exists for those wishing to embark on this route.
Therefore, as part of the Big Lottery (BASIS) funded Investing in Social Enterprise Expansion programme, the Social Enterprise Coalition is delivering an innovative Social Franchising Support project. The aim of this project is to undertake detailed research into the processes and issues that surround social franchising and from this develop a comprehensive suite of support tools and resources for all social franchisors, franchisees and social enterprise business advisors.
In addition to this, the project will also undertake research into alternative scaling-up models such as licensing, joint ventures, consortia and mergers; enabling SEC to develop a solid understanding of the wider scaling-up arena and the associated support needs for social enterprises.
The Development Trusts Association is now accepting expressions of interest to participate on our Community Sector Trading course starting in October.
Community Sector Trading is a free course that offers practical learning based on real experience of the ‘nuts and bolts’ of running a business in the community. It is delivered through a mix of face-to-face and live online sessions that aim to help participants understand how voluntary and community organisations can develop their trading activities.
Community Sector Trading is funded by CapacityBuilders’ Income Generation strand led by ACEVO.
More information can be found on the website: www.communityst.co.uk
For more information and to apply to the course, please visit: www.communityst.co.uk or contact Haoming Yau Tel: 0207 336 9438 Email: h.yau@dta.org.uk
The Arthur Guinness Fund will hand out the cash to selected candidates in three-year partnership with Ashoka
The Arthur Guinness Fund will award grants to social entrepreneurs that will total about £6m by 2012.
The fund has also announced a three-year partnership with Ashoka, a global association of more than 2,500 social entrepreneurs.
With Ashoka’s help, the fund will select 30 candidates over the next three years. Those chosen will receive financial, practical and strategic support to run projects that bring about social change.
The fund was set up in 2009 in memory of Arthur Guinness, founder of the Guinness brewery business. It is funded by Guinness & Co and has awarded funding to projects in the UK, Ireland, Africa, Indonesia and the United States.
The application process for the grants starts on 28 September. To apply, go to www.guinnessforgood.com.
Young people from jobless families are far more likely to be unemployed than their counterparts from working homes, a Prince’s Trust study has found.
The Destined for the Dole? research, which questioned more than 2,000 16- to 24-year-olds, found that 70 per cent of young people from workless homes had struggled to find a job, while almost one in five expected they would end up on benefits.
A quarter of young people from jobless homes said their parents lack the skills to help them find a job, 20 per cent said seeing their parents out of work made them anxious about finding a job, while nine per cent said they had never even considered what sort of career they could do.
The report also found that growing up in an area with high levels of unemployment has a long-term impact on young people’s confidence.
Almost half of young people living in areas of high unemployment said they have no role models whose careers they admire, 40 per cent said they worry they will never find a good job and a quarter feel depressed as a result of living in their area.
Despite this, more than three-quarters of the young people said that finding a good job is their top priority for the future. More than six out of 10 also claimed that having more volunteering opportunities in their local area would help them find a job.
Chief executives organisation ACEVO has published ‘Understanding Social Investment’ in association with RBS, Social Investment Business and Natwest
A scheme that puts NHS staff in the driving seat of innovative projects to transform patient care was given a boost by Care Services Minister Paul Burstow recently.
15 projects will form the second wave of NHS organisations that want to set up social enterprises, a scheme that gives public sector workers the ability to take over the services they deliver.
The NHS arm of the scheme, known as ‘Right to Request’, gives all Primary Care Trust staff the right to request setting up social enterprises.
The new projects span two thirds of Strategic Health Authorities and include cities like London, Bristol, Leeds and Birmingham. Projects include a wide range of services like increasing access to psychological therapies, improving end of life care and a wider range of children services.
They build on the first wave of Right to Request projects that are already putting their plans into action. These include a specialist health-visiting programme in Derby that is already improving the health and well-being of some the community’s most disadvantaged children and families by offering parenting support and skills. And, a one-stop-shop for homeless people in Leicester that offers vulnerable people medical and outreach services and access to night shelters.
Support for NHS staff considering pursuing social enterprise is available through the Department of Health Social Enterprise Unit. More information about the social enterprise programme can be found at www.dh.gov.uk/socialenterprise.
The Government’s White Paper ‘Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS’ sets out the intention for all Trusts to become Foundation Trusts and that staff will be given the opportunity to transform their organisations into employee-led social enterprises that they themselves control, freeing them to use their front-line expertise to structure services around what really works for patients.
Public service commissioners welcome collaboration and merger between civil society support providers
Research published today by Capacitybuilders shows the majority of public service commissioners would like to see greater collaboration and merger between organisations that provide support and advice to civil society groups.
The findings of the report show that commissioners think mergers can deliver a positive impact across a range of areas including: simpler funding relationships and easier engagement with the voluntary and community sector.
A series of case studies looking at both successful and abandoned mergers between support providers will also be published shortly.
The full report is available here. A series of case studies looking at both successful and abandoned mergers between support providers will also be published shortly.
Social Investment Business says payments from the £70m fund, put on hold by coalition government, have started again
Communitybuilders has started giving out funds again, its administrators have announced.
The £70m grant and loan fund was set up by the Communities and Local Government department to support organisations that provide community cohesion services, and is administered by the Social Investment Business.
It has been open to applications but has not been making payments since the coalition government took power.
The £100m Social Enterprise Investment Fund, also run by the SIB, is still not paying out money, but is taking applications.
The other major government fund operated by the SIB, Futurebuilders England, has been closed by the coalition government.
Volunteering England has launched the “Value Volunteer Management” campaign, targeting key decision-makers in volunteer-involving organisations (such as CEOs, Director Generals, Vice Chancellors etc.) and aiming to increase awareness of the value and importance of investing in volunteer management. To find out more about the campaign click here.
Here are a Briefing Note and Frequently Asked Questions relating to the 2012 Community Games programme happening throughout the West Midlands.
You can support the new programme by:
More information from Chris Turner, Club Development Manager, Sport Across Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent
Stafford Borough Council
Civic Centre, Riverside, Stafford, ST16 3AQ
01785 619681 / 07800 619681
cturner@staffordbc.gov.uk
Visit their website “Increasingly active, healthy and successful communities”
Charity Bank is offering charities and community groups a preferential rate for new loans drawn before the 31st December 2010.
Charity Bank is a not-for profit bank that offers affordable finance to third sector organisations, including those that might not be able to borrow from commercial lenders.
The preferential rate being offered is a reduction of 0.5%p.a. on its standard interest rate. Interest rates depend on size, type and length of loan but typically vary between 5.5% and 7.5%.
Since 1995 Charity Bank has made loans of £120 million to over 830 charities, social enterprises and community groups that reach 3,500,000 people through their work.
We have recently made a large amount of loans to charities and community groups in the West Midlands including some in your area (click here to see some examples) and thought the attached details would be of interest to you and your members.
For more details, or to see if loan finance is right for your organisation please contact Charity Bank’s loan team on 01732 774050 or visit www.charitybank.org/loans. For details of Charity Bank’s savings accounts visit www.charitybank.org/savings.
Social Media and Charities in 2020.
BrightOne and CharityComms have put together a fascinating report on the possibilities for online “ideas, innovation and inspiration in the next decade”. This Slideshare presentation features input from 20 leading charities exploring the possibilities for online communications in the next 10 years. It also serves as an inspiration and reminder to make the most of the current range of web tools. If you’ve an active interest in developing your online message or even a spare 5 minutes click here to see what the future of charity communications may hold.
Ministers from departments whose remits affect the voluntary sector will meet later this month
A new big society committee of ministers from all departments with remits affecting the voluntary sector will meet for the first time later this month.
Frances Maude
The committee will be chaired by Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, and will include ministers from the Treasury and Communities and Local Government.
Nick Hurd, the Minister for Civil Society, told delegates at a conference in London last week that one priority for the group would be making sure the Compact – the conduct agreement between the public and voluntary sectors – was observed across Whitehall.
A spokesman for the Office for Civil Society said the relevant secretaries of state had been asked to put up ministers in their departments who would be responsible for putting the big society agenda in place.
He said they would form a ministerial group that would lead the government’s work on the big society. This would include making sure commitments to the voluntary sector were upheld and discussing issues that affected the whole sector.
Learning from history of community and mutual ownership
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New from Joseph Rowntree Foundation, ‘Community and mutual ownership: a historical review’ and the implications for policy and practice in this area, http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/community-mutual-ownership.
Sector role in fostering community cohesion
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Research by the Young Foundation for Local Government Improvement and Development (previously the IDeA) has examined the role the voluntary and community sector plays in fostering and promoting strong community cohesion. ‘Cohesive communities – the benefits of effective partnership working between local government and the voluntary and community sector’ is in pdf, 1.65MB, at http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/aio/20528985.
Institute for Public Policy Research North says ‘funding cliff-edge’ will hamper plans to involve more social enterprises in delivering public services
Social enterprises will not be able to implement the government’s big society agenda without significant extra support, according to a report to be published tomorrow.
Growing the Big Society, produced by think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research North, says plans to involve more social enterprises in the delivery of public services are likely to be hampered by the March 2011 “funding cliff-edge” and by the move towards larger contracts that are beyond the reach of smaller organisations.
Alun Michael MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Community and Voluntary Sector
Its new chair Alun Michael, voluntary sector veteran and author of the Compact, tells Kaye Wiggins that the group is growing in size and expertise
Alun Michael built a reputation as a reliable, problem-solving politician during his years in the Labour government under Tony Blair, charged with handling political hot potatoes such as the hunting ban and Welsh devolution.
But the Labour and Co-operative MP for Cardiff South and Penarth says his new role as chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Community and Voluntary Sector, replacing Tom Levitt, who stood down before the general election, takes him back to his early days in the Commons.
In our March publication Communities Matter: A Vision for Neighbourhoods, we highlighted some of the ways in which community life has changed in the last decade.
Following a review of our work, our specialisms and our place in the sector, Community Matters plans to embrace this change as an opportunity to help create a national force for grassroots community action. We now want to build a broad national movement in which a wider range of people who share our values can work with us and be supported by us
