October 2006
Regional approaches to business support for social enterprise in England
The Social Enterprise Unit (SEnU) in the Office for the Third Sector at the Cabinet Office has commissioned us to explore the regional approaches to providing business support for social enterprise being developed across England.
Changes within the social enterprise sector coupled with the regionalisation of the Business Link service make this work particularly timely. The Review of the Social Enterprise Strategy published by the Small Business Service (SBS) in 2005 documented the changes that social enterprises throughout the UK have witnessed in recent years. The sector has grown and polarised and there are new developments in regulatory processes, funding and staffing. The Review showed how the current environment for social entrepreneurs has become more enabling, and how business and practical support for the sector has increased in terms of both access and quality. Despite this positive progress, the Review recognised that more needs to be done to improve the quality, access and coverage of business support services for social enterprises.
We have been working with the nine English RDAs and social enterprise regional support organisations over the past couple of months to develop a more detailed picture of how the Business Link service is being developed and implemented; to identify and disseminate examples of promising practice, and to help the RDAs to measure progress in responding to the needs of social enterprises in their region.
The results of this research will be published soon. For more information please contact Andrew Carter.
Exploring the marketing needs of social enterprise in Scotland
Over the last few years support structures and agencies have been put in place in response to the Scottish Executive's Social Economy Review in 2003. Since then there has been a wealth of research conducted to identify whether the business development and support needs of the sector have been met. The composition of social enterprise in Scotland and its impact on the community has also been explored.
As part of this effort, and to provide us with a deeper understanding of social enterprise needs, we were keen to explore the specific marketing requirements of the sector and identify possible solutions. We worked closely with Senscot (Scotland social enterprise exchange) throughout the work to make sure that they gained market intelligence about the sector.
22 social enterprises from Senscot's local area network took part in the research. The majority of the sample classified marketing as important (68% very important and 27% fairly important), with 86% agreeing marketing should be very important to their organisation in the future.
Marketing was ranked the number one organisational activity that social enterprises would like most help with in the next three years. The majority of respondents (80%) stated that more specialist marketing help and advice should be available for social enterprises. Half the sample identified marketing planning and strategy formulation, press and public relations and producing e-newsletters as the key areas they would like help with now. Training in marketing practices was identified as a key area for help and assistance within the next 3 years.
For more information or for a copy of the final research report please contact Keira Farley
Training in planning projects' succession
Preston City Council, local Learning and Skills Councils and the Government Office for the North East have all contacted us recently to provide bespoke training courses for projects nearing the end of their ESF or SRB funding on how to plan for life beyond their grants. The one-day course is built around Rocket Science's on-line Readiness Assessment Tool ("the RAT") which you can access via our home page news area. For further information please contact John Griffiths
Building a World Class Third Sector in London Thames Gateway
More than 95 people attended the consultation event that we facilitated to develop a vision for a world class third sector in the London Thames Gateway. The event examined the different roles and challenges for the sector in contributing to sustainable communities across the Thames Gateway London area. These include its increasing role in the delivery of key public services, but also its ongoing contribution to a healthy civil society.
Networked laptops and hand-held voting keypads were used to capture delegates' contributions and to prioritise the emerging issues. Asked "What does the Third Sector need to do for itself?" it was recognised there is a danger in trying to do too many things; Third Sector resources will be spread thin and quality of services may suffer as a result. The sector needs to get organised across the sub-region; well-resourced networks are necessary so that organisations can influence the emerging vision for the Gateway. Policy makers need to appreciate that the sector is not homogenous, and with the increasing use of the term "Third Sector" (as opposed to Voluntary and Community Sector) there is even more variation between different organisation types. The regeneration of the Thames Gateway is still regarded as largely developer- and government-led, yet there is considerable scope for Third Sector organisations to become centrally involved in order to ensure we don't repeat past mistakes and leave out the very communities we are trying to regenerate.
A copy of the conference report, Building a World Class Third Sector in London Thames Gateway can be downloaded from the East London CVS Network website
Creating a World-class Third Sector in the London Thames Gateway researched and written by Rocket Science will be launched by the Minister for the Third Sector, Ed Miliband MP on 20th November at the Museum of Docklands. For further information on the launch contact: Sue Lloyd-Evelyn sue@thames-gateway.org.uk or John Griffiths
Reviewing Community Development Finance Initiatives (CDFI)
As part of its regionalisation process the Government decided to transfer responsibility for managing the existing Phoenix Funds and supporting community development finance institutions (CDFIs) in the future to the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs).
Under the Comprehensive Spending Review 2004 £11 million was allocated to provide further business and related support to the CDFI sector, covering both national and regional CDFI activities. £1.5 million was retained for national activities with £9.5 million allocated to the regions, to be managed by the RDAs from April 2006 under RDA devolved responsibility.
Over the last 12 months we have been working with three of the RDAs, East of England, London and East Midlands, to help them review the activities of CDFIs operating in their regions and to create a strategic framework for supporting and investing in CDFIs in the future.
Many CDFIs have been successful at getting finance to companies and individuals with good business ideas but who cannot get finance from banks, but they have been less successful in developing their own organisations and activities to a sufficient scale of operation to be sustainable in the long-term. It is this journey, from public subsidy to financial sustainability that both the Government and the RDAs are keen to promote.
Reflecting this, key elements of the work we've been doing with the RDAs have been:
- Identifying ways in which existing CDFIs could become more sustainable
- Considering mechanisms to achieve regional coverage of services
- Exploring delivery models in which CDFIs could share administrative functions
- Recommending ways in which CDFIs could develop stronger relationships with banks and investors.
For more information on these projects or for information on how we could help you with similar issues, please contact Andrew Carter or Alistair Grimes
Exploring community banking needs in areas of regeneration
A major UK bank has been leading the way in London Thames Gateway in attempting to understand and address the community banking needs of this area. We were commissioned by them to help them to understand and prioritise their response to the opportunities presented by the area and its future growth.
This involved analysing the phasing, location and size of public investment going into the Thames Gateway over the next five years and identifying the range of 'more than profit' organisations that might be expected to bid for and access such funds.
Our work has allowed this bank to understand the size and shape of this market and helped its corporate, commercial and retail banking managers think about:
- Which organisations they might engage with and offer banking services to
- The financial issues faced by these organisations because of the nature and level of public funds
- The types of services/ financial products they might offer
- How they might start to engage with such organisations (including social enterprises and larger voluntary organisations).
Better communications between the public and private sectors can help the latter identify the business communities to identify services which are valued and make business sense, and help the public sector appreciate that their values are not compromised by attracting private sector interest and services.
For more information about this project, or if you are interested in carrying out similar work with us please contact Andrew Carter
Developing inclusion and employability strategies in the north east
We are now into the second stage of our work to develop a Regional Employability Framework for North East England, working for One NorthEast, the NE Employer Coalition, Jobcentre Plus, and the Learning and Skills Council. During this stage we produce a framework with the partners which will provide the basis for:
- A commitment by the key partners to developing shared objectives and joint procurement models
- Agreement on developing an appropriate local infrastructure
- The creation of shared local approaches to staff development and common systems.
Elsewhere in the North East, we have completed our assignments with Blyth Valley Borough Council and Wansbeck District Council to develop strategies and action plans to drive down worklessness...the partners in Wansbeck accepted all our recommendations and are now well into their implementation. On the back of our work with Blyth Valley Borough Council we have been commissioned by them to work with the Council and its partners to produce a social inclusion strategy...more soon.
For more on Regional Employability Frameworks and enhanced worklessness action plans please contact Richard Scothorne or Alistair Grimes
Evaluating Grant Programmes for Nationwide Foundation
We are delighted to be working with the Nationwide Foundation over the next four and a half years on a project to evaluate their grant programmes. The Foundation offers support to those suffering social exclusion and aims to break the drivers of social exclusion through two grant programmes: the Investor programme and the Small Grant programme. Our evaluation process will consider the effectiveness of both of these programmes over four and a half years, enabling us to build up a close and productive relationship with both Nationwide Foundation and the supported charities.
We will be working with Nationwide colleagues to evaluate:
- The extent to which the Investor Programme achieves its aims and the level of its success
- How effective partnership working is between the charities working on each aim of the Investor Programme and the added benefits of supported partnership working on such a programme
- How effective the Small Grants Programme is and the extent to which it adds value to the Investor Programme
- Lessons learned from the grant programmes and how to increase the impact and benefit of The Foundation's future grant making.
Our key to providing the relevant information will be to consider what information will make a difference and how this can be turned into intelligence by effective mechanisms for collection and dissemination. The outcomes of this evaluation also need to be practical and make sense to key partners.
We will be using a mix of quantitative and qualitative research methods to capture information and robust evidence as well as the insights, perceptions and aspirations of a range of organisations and individuals. We will be using our bespoke tools to help in the evaluation process.
For more information on this evaluation project please contact Andrew Carter
Assessing bids and proposals
The second round (2007-10) of the London Development Agency's Opportunities Fund was launched September 12th. This will be conducted through an open and competitive two stage bidding process. The Fund provides grants to support a range of innovative and pilot projects across London and part of the LDA's commitment is to support the development of strong community-based projects; therefore they are keen to receive applications from local, third sector organisations especially minority-led organisations. In particular the LDA is seeking projects that will deliver:
- Skills and employment support for equalities groups - targeting London's new and newer communities and addressing the needs of specific groups.
- Capacity building for minority-led organisations.
- Opportunities for engagement in London 2012 - ensuring London's diverse communities are engaged in, contribute to and share the benefits of the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games and associated opportunities.
- Industrial estates - improving the working environment through collaborative working
We have developed an easy to use scorecard for the LDA's Opportunities Fund process in order to reduce the subjectivity that can creep into the scoring of numerous applications. The LDA commissioned this after our production of a bid assessment tool for Round One of the Opportunities Fund.
Each bid assessment tool is tailored for specific projects and organisations. Clients who have used this scorecard technique for bids and proposals include:
- North East Centre of Excellence
- Future Builders Scotland
- Learning and Skills Council
- LDA for ESF funding rounds; regional skills partnership funding; Olympic funding as well as the aforementioned Opportunities Fund.
Julie Brown from the North East Centre of Excellence stated, "We were very pleased with Rocket Science's bid assessment tool. It achieved the desired outcomes and the evaluation recommendations were helpful in supporting NECE decision making on funding allocations."
For more information on our bid assessment tool or a tool tailored to support your decision making processes, please contact Ruth Evans.
Young Scot: Smart Citizenship
Young Scot: Smart Citizenship is a new youth-led approach to citizenship in schools which has been developed by Young Scot - the national youth information agency. During the 2005/06 school terms, Young Scot worked with over 120 pupils, teachers and local authority staff in 11 secondary schools across Scotland, supporting them to research and develop their own citizenship programmes and activities, which they delivered to all pupils in their schools. We designed and facilitated the initial event to kick start the programme.
As part of the project, we were involved in working with the young people, teachers and youth workers to develop their own set of evaluation criteria to allow them to carry out a self-assessment of the impact of the programme over the year. These tools have been developed to measure group progress, individual progress of young people and also of youth workers and teachers. Young Scot: Smart Citizenship is now being rolled out across Scotland, with a huge amount of interest from schools, and we are supporting the work by licensing the evaluation tool developed for use in the schools.
Louise Macdonald of Young Scot stated "Our partnership with Rocket Science has been fantastic and their commitment to working with young people has really benefited this project. We are delighted they are staying on board with a project which is having a powerful impact on young people's understanding of citizenship."
For more information about Young Scot: Smart Citizenship check out www.youngscot.net and follow the link for "Teacher's Resources" or email Juneo@youngscot.org
For more information on our youth projects or similar projects involving self-assessment tools or our evaluation and facilitation work please contact Debbie Adams.