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Corporate supply chains are changing. Big businesses increasingly look at environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations when it comes to who they spend their money with, and we’ve been at the heart of this shift. Our Buy Social Corporate Challenge is now entering its ninth year of supporting big businesses to bring social enterprises into their supply chains. Since launching at Downing Street in 2016, £477 million has been spent with social enterprises by 30 major corporate partners across all business sectors. The premise of the Challenge is simple: working with corporates to use their core business spend to create positive social and environmental impact. Buying from social enterprises allows companies to make progress across ESG priorities, through spending their money with organisations dedicated to addressing social issues and protecting our planet. Our latest annual report shows the Challenge had the most successful year ever, as partners spent £123 million with social enterprise suppliers. These range from businesses tackling period poverty and re-purposing old office furniture to those creating jobs for people marginalised by the labour market - such as those experiencing homelessness, refugees and the long-term unemployed. Around 4,515 social enterprise jobs have been created thanks to contracts won through the Challenge, with 992 social enterprises supplying Challenge partners last year alone. The number of trading relationships between social enterprise suppliers and Challenge buyers has increased by 74% in just the last two years, showing rising interest in social procurement. Charlie Wigglesworth, Deputy Chief Executive of Social Enterprise UK, said: “These latest results show that our Buy Social Corporate Challenge is not some well-meaning experiment for businesses willing to try something different – it’s a powerful force for change in corporate supply chains. We’re proud to see social enterprise at the forefront of this transformation. “Crucially, every single one of our corporate partners reported that social enterprises deliver comparable or higher quality products or services compared with other suppliers – a glowing endorsement and reminder that doing business with purpose beyond profit doesn’t mean compromising on standards. “With millions being reinvested in people and planet through our Challenge and the wider social procurement movement, we hope our vital work continues to inspire the public and private sectors to take action for the future of business.” Click here to read the Buy Social Corporate Challenge Year 8 Impact Report The Buy Social Corporate Challenge partners are Amey, AstraZeneca, AXA, CBRE, Compass/Foodbuy, Co-op, Deloitte, Equans, EY, John Sisk & Son Ltd, Johnson & Johnson, KPMG, Landmarc Support Services, Lendlease, Linklaters, LV=, Mitie, Nationwide, Nestle, NFU Mutual, PwC, Robertson Group, SAP, Siemens, Sodexo, The Crown Estate, Wates Group, Willmott Dixon, and Zurich Insurance Group. To find out more about our social procurement work and how your business can get involved in our programmes click here or contact socialprocurement@socialenterprise.org.uk

The various forms of repayable finance in the social investment sector play an important role in the social enterprise support eco-system, and can be vital for growth and development. However, the sector has been subject to scrutiny in terms of staff and portfolio diversity - particularly in terms of racial inclusion, and its ability to direct investment where it is most needed. Our new report, published with the London School of Economics and supported by the Connect Fund, uses elite education as a proxy to investigate aspects of diversity not yet well analysed in the sector: socio-economic inclusion, and the role of power and privilege among those who work for social investors.  The LinkedIn profiles of individuals working at social investment institutions were used as the main source of information to inform this research. Findings showed that 19% of employees had studied at an elite university with 12% of those sampled having studied at Oxford or Cambridge, more than ten times that of the UK population. Elite-educated employees represent a higher proportion of employees in social investment organisations than in the population in general, and a similar proportion to those in the mainstream investment sector. Given the variety of types of social investment providers, the research looked at the educational background of staff at different sorts of investors - with venture capital investors and social investment ‘wholesalers’ containing the highest proportion of individuals with an elite education, while social banks and Community Development Financial Institutions contained the least. The education of social enterprise leaders themselves was also studied, with analysis suggesting that being privately educated did not mean you were more likely to access funding or finance. However, interviews with those working in social enterprises who attended a state secondary school raised the need for investors to have a better understanding of working-class businesses in working-class communities. Whilst many social investors are taking steps to address imbalances in terms of diversity, it is important that the role of socio-economic advantage is incorporated into this work, so that investment can be better directed to people and communities that have been historically disenfranchised. The research was supported by the Connect Fund

Based on a quarterly survey of our members, the latest Insight Paper on our Social Enterprise Knowledge Centre gives us a snapshot of sector conditions and expectations. This new research focused on social enterprises’ ability to increase turnover and generate profit during ongoing economic turmoil but also explored property status, trading with local government and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in the sector. We found that the challenging economic conditions faced by all businesses are starting to impact the financial performance of social enterprises, with a downward shift in the proportion reporting a growth in turnover. However, half of all social enterprises surveyed reported increasing their turnover in the past year, compared to the 34% of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) who reported turnover growth. Whilst social enterprises are outperforming SMEs in this respect, profitability is significantly lower among social enterprises than the wider SME community. A key issue affecting social enterprise finances is rising property costs and uncertain tenancy statuses. The research looks at how this is  affecting social enterprises’ ability to meet their missions, with more resources going to meet costs like rent –  and also their ability to benefit from government support, such as the VCSE Energy Efficiency Scheme, which was designed to help organisations reduce energy costs but is only available to those with long-term arrangements for their premises and permission to make adaptions. This quarter’s paper shows economic instability starting to really impact our resilient sector, which has weathered several years of economic shocks. The experience of social enterprises is now more closely aligned with the wider business community: surviving but failing to thrive. In the run up to the July election we will be campaigning hard to make sure political leaders not only understand the issues our sector faces but put in place measures to unleash our full potential, so that social enterprises can continue to tackle the most pressing societal challenges while supporting wider economic recovery.

Earlier this month, the Social Enterprise UK team was at The Workplace Event 2024 at Birmingham NEC and together with our partners Waste to Wonder Worldwide and Nineteen Group we were proud to launch the first ever Social Enterprise Village at an event of this scale. With 25 leading social enterprises exhibiting and over 5000 delegates attending across the three days, there were plenty of opportunities for the social enterprises to showcase their products and services and the social and environmental impact they have. From recycling services to tea, and from tackling period poverty to air quality, the event showcased the strength and diversity of the sector. In addition to giving the social enterprises a platform, it was great to see the number of organisations looking, often for the first time, to work more with our sector. More and more businesses are engaging with social enterprises to support their social value and environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives, highlighting the value of collaboration as the business community works towards creating a fairer and more sustainable society. We would like to thank all the social enterprises who participated in the event, as well as our partners, Waste to Wonder and Nineteen Group. We will continue to work together to drive the growth of the social enterprise movement and we look forward to the return of the Social Enterprise Village at The Workplace Event 2025.To find out more about the event, watch the video below produced by social enterprise, Inside Job Productions: https://vimeo.com/946139860 This is what some of our members who were exhibiting had to say about the event: Planet First Energy CIC "Planet First Energy CIC had an exceptional experience at the Workplace Event hosted at the NEC Birmingham within the innovative Social Enterprise village, facilitated by Social Enterprise UK and Waste to Wonder. Our Managing Director, Steve Silverwood, delivered an insightful session spotlighting our social enterprise's mission, services, and our commitment to tackling fuel poverty, drawing significant interest from attendees. Furthermore, we had the privilege to network with key personnel from Social Enterprise UK and forge valuable connections with fellow social enterprises, gaining insights into their impactful initiatives and exploring collaborative opportunities. The event served as a great platform to showcase our endeavours, exchange ideas, and strengthen our collective efforts towards creating positive social change. We look forward to attending next year." Nuneaton Signs "We were very impressed by the Social Enterprise Village at the Workplace Show, it was great to network with other Social Enterprises and discover how they interact with the FM and workplace market. The chance to meet some of the Corporate Challenge partners was welcomed, we hope to continue our business development in this sector with them and look forward to following up. The pre event promotion was exceptionally good with the organised approach to Social Media posts being particularly valuable, we had a significant amount of interest, with many existing customers getting in touch." Belu "We enjoyed attending, especially meeting and chatting to our fellow social enterprises at the Workplace Event. It’s a relatively small world and great to meet likeminded folks who are using business as a mean for good! Social Enterprise UK is a fantastic organisation and are helping build a community with a rapidly growing influence in the UK economy"

On 2 May we joined hundreds of people from across our mission-led movement for a Future Economy Alliance battle planning session, preparing to push our sector up the policy agenda for the general election and beyond. Chaired by Alex Birtles, founder of our Alliance partner and supporter member In Good Company, the event brought campaigners together to discuss the role of mission-led organisations in the economy and how we can make our way of working the national norm. The need to change ‘business as usual’ The opening speaker was our Chair, Lord Victor Adebowale, who set out why social enterprises and other mission-led organisations are so vitally needed. Speaking from the House of Lords, he noted that life expectancy falls as you go further away from Westminster, with inequalities in everything from education to care and a growing sense of unease across the country.   Summing up the need for the Future Economy Alliance, the people’s peer said: "Everywhere from our trains to our water, you can see it’s possible to run a frankly shocking service while providing vital resources and still make a profit. Most people in this country now feel things aren’t right, we’re being ripped off. There’s a fundamental problem with the system that shapes our lives, our economic infrastructure – so we have to challenge it and change it. We have one economy, we all work for it, and it has to work for all of us too." Emphasising the importance of action before a general election, he added: "If we keep doing what we’ve always done, we’ll get what we’ve always got, and that sense of it not being right will grow. Never before has the choice been so stark about the future that you want to vote for. The public have to get behind us and the politicians have to listen to us. Something different has to happen.” The new Business Plan for Britain The economy is broken and we know that our movement of mission-led organisations can offer solutions to fix it. Our director Dan Gregory set out the key themes of the Alliance’s ‘Business Plan for Britain’, which focuses on five key areas where policy intervention could unlock the full potential of our mission-led movement. Dan represented Social Enterprise UK but was joined by partners across the Alliance, which includes models from co-operatives and employee-ownership to community business and social investment- and what was evident from the conversation was the vital importance of collaboration so we can be stronger together. James Wright, Policy and Development Lead at Co-operatives UK, stated how  important it is for co-ops to be part of a wider movement and highlighted the need to raise awareness of the mission-led sector beyond our individual business models. Oliver Smith, Deputy Chief Executive of the Employee Ownership Association, echoed this by talking about how we have more impact in numbers - emphasising the shared belief that “business and society are better when people have a meaningful stake and say in their work”. Helen Curr, CEO of healthcare social enterprise Here, stressed how it joined the campaign inspired by Nye Bevan’s original vision for the NHS based on a “redistribution of wealth and a re-balancing of society” and the desire to “raise a collective voice of doing things differently”. The final member of the panel was Ian McGrady, Managing Director of North West based social enterprise Edsential, which provides services for schools and joined the Alliance to “give us a larger voice”. Ian said that our sector has been “hiding in the shadows” but we can use the evidence of our collective impact to show that “this sector can be trusted with delivery”. Oliver echoed the importance of gathering and sharing good data on the benefits of our way of working, citing many examples: "We tend to be more productive, we benefit local economies, we do community work and volunteering, we have better supported employees and more diverse workforce – so the more of us that work together, the more we can achieve." The action you can take to fix our economy Through the discussion, the challenge was set out: to make our movement not a part of the economy but the heart of it. The Future Economy Alliance is nothing without the many hundreds of thousands of organisations we represent, and we need your help to make sure our leaders understand the scale and power of our sector. Your voices and stories are vital to showcase the value of mission-led organisations and push our way of working up the political agenda for the election and beyond. To help you do this, we’re going to be providing you with resources throughout this long campaign, starting with our campaign toolkit. This contains a template letter to invite your MP to your organisation, template press releases, social media copy and infographics to raise the profile of the work that you do and our wider mission-led movement. CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE CAMPAIGN TOOLKIT You can watch the full recording of the webinar below:

As a partner in the Future Economy Alliance, we were proud to host a roundtable with West Yorkshire’s Metro Mayor Tracy Brabin, bringing together social enterprises and other mission-led organisations for a discussion of how combined authorities can support them to fix regional economies. With ‘local power’ being a key pillar of our Future Economy Alliance campaigning, the event was an opportunity to show the importance of mission-led organisations to grow local economies and address the big challenges facing communities. Discussion centred on how West Yorkshire can become a beacon for mission-led organisations - which are vital to creating jobs and opportunities, delivering public services and creating safer communities. With valued community assets such as shops and pubs under threat, the role of mission-led organisations in saving these institutions was also discussed, as well as their role in spearheading schemes to protect the environment though running programmes such as recycling schemes. Some of the challenges discussed included the need to get mission-led organisations a seat at the table on key local bodies and to support them to access procurement opportunities. One solution offered was to create a local or regional version of Social Enterprise UK’s Buy Social Corporate Challenge, where big businesses commit to bringing social enterprises into their supply chains, using their everyday spend to create positive social and environmental impact. There was also a call for more long-term support for the sector including making sure mission-led organisations can access suitable finance. Tracy Brabin was keen to find out more ways she could help the growth and development of mission-led organisations and asked for further details on what concrete steps she and the combined authority could take to support the sector. It is great to see the West Yorkshire Mayor, as well regional mayors in Greater Manchester and the West of England Combined Authority, leading the way in recognising the power and potential of mission-led organisations. We now need others to follow suit nationally. We would like to thank everyone who joined the roundtable, especially social enterprise, Shine, who kindly hosted the event. To find out more about the Future Economy Alliance and our Business Plan for Britain visit >> https://www.futureeconomyalliance.co.uk/

We hosted an event with centre-right think-tank Onward this week to explore how social enterprises and other mission-led businesses can strengthen not only our economy but wider society, as part of our Future Economy Alliance campaigning to push our way of working up the policy agenda. Our Alliance chair Arvinda Gohil OBE joined a lively panel discussion including the Minister for Enterprise, Markets and Small Businesses, Kevin Hollinrake MP; Conservative Party candidate for South Norfolk, Poppy Simister-Thomas; CEO of NatWest Social and Community Capital, Victoria Papworth; and Executive Chairman of the social enterprise Community Shop, Gary Stott. The event was chaired by Adam Hawksbee, Deputy Director at Onward. Panellists discussed the power of mission-led organisations to address pressing challenges and the barriers keeping the sector from realising its potential, with a number of common themes emerging from the debate. You can read key insights below or watch a recording of the whole session here: Social enterprises are businesses Social enterprises form a key part of the business landscape, with Minister Kevin Hollinrake pointing out that there are more than 100,000 of them in the UK making a significant contribution to GDP. He stressed that “business and social enterprise are indivisible”, and the support available for traditional businesses should be relevant for those set up for a social or environmental purpose. Arvinda Gohil cited the huge impact of mission-led businesses, which now represent around 5% of UK businesses, creating 4 million jobs and re-investing more than £1bn of profits into communities. With 22% of social enterprises working in the most deprived areas in the UK, they are creating opportunities and reducing inequalities in the areas which need them most. Social enterprises are at the heart of local communities The discussion highlighted how social enterprises, co-ops and community businesses are vital to growing local economies - often running community assets and creating jobs or other vital opportunities for residents. Poppy Simister-Thomas talked about how social enterprises can “defy some of the economic constraints that big business has”, focusing on their strong community links and how many run local institutions like shops and pubs at a time when many businesses are shutting. She was also critical of the ESG efforts of some big corporates, which can appear as just a “nice to have” whereas social enterprises bring a “clarity of purpose” to their operations. This emphasis on community was brought to life by Gary Stott explaining how his social supermarket is reducing food poverty, bringing people together and supporting them to transform their lives.  A business set up to “build strong individuals and confident communities”, its shops sell discounted products for those receiving welfare support and run community kitchens with food at low prices, as well as delivering personal development programmes to help people find work. All their 12 stores are in areas of high deprivation and 53% of members move on within a year, as their model is fundamentally about supporting people to thrive independently. Access to finance is key Whilst Community Shop has built financial resilience funded by its members, the panel pointed out the importance of access to funding. Victoria Papworth talked about how NatWest Social and Community Capital exists to give funding to mission-led organisations who have been rejected by mainstream finance, highlighting the importance for funders to build relationships with the enterprises they are looking to support. She also hinted at the power dynamics inherent in the investor/investee relationship, stating that “social enterprises need to be ceded power and agency by funders” and acknowledging how “challenging and worrying” questions around debt and loans can be for social enterprises. The Minister agreed that access to finance was “the number one issue” for small businesses, mentioning the Government support that exists in this area and pointing out the importance of alternative finance providers such as community development finance institutions. This was picked up on in the Q&A session, with discussions around how we transform banking through ideas like a Community Investment Act and regional banking systems. Issues around procurement The barriers social enterprises still face when applying for public sector contracts was another key theme. Poppy stated that “procurement processes are often slow and difficult for small businesses to engage with, resulting in the domination of big players like Serco and Capita”. She outlined an issue raised by our Social Value 2032 Roadmap, whereby scoring penalises bidders with core purpose delivery against those adding it for bid purposes, and spoke of social enterprises being used in supply chains as ‘bid candy’.The Minister highlighted features of the 2023 Procurement Act designed to make it easier for small and mid-size enterprises, such as streamlining processes around things like indemnity insurance so that organisations only have to put this in place if successful in winning a product.

Today we brought together cross-sector experts at our Social Value Leaders’ Summit in Manchester, to discuss how this purpose-led approach to procurement and commissioning can be embedded across the public sector and influence spend in the UK’s largest companies. The keynote speech from Manchester City Council leader Bev Craig looked to the future of social value, with insight on the city’s plans for this tool to benefit the local community. Attendees also heard how social value is being used in large infrastructure projects such as London’s new giant Tideway sewer system, and helping drive positive impact for organisations from Liverpool Football Club to National Highways. It was made abundantly clear throughout the day that, when used effectively, social value can be transformative. It can create thousands of employment and training opportunities, unlock billions of investment in new low carbon products, and generate millions for reinvestment in vital infrastructure to benefit people and planet. However, while this agenda has made significant progress since the passing of the Social Value Act over a decade ago, our discussions through the day and the new research we presented also show there is still much more work to do before the full potential of this pioneering approach is truly realised. Launched at the Summit, ‘the state of social value in public sector spending’ showed that while local authority engagement has increased since we last ran this research exercise in 2016, many still never even apply social value. With council budgets squeezed and services at breaking point, a social value approach to ensure commissioning and procurement benefits local communities is needed more than ever – but unfortunately a lack of clarity and consistency across the country means this opportunity is often missed. CLICK HERE TO READ THE REPORT With a General Election on the horizon, Summit attendees discussed not only what changes are needed over the next decade but specifically in the next Parliament to better support our growing movement. If we are to achieve the goals on our Social Value 2032 Roadmap, it’s vital that we continue pushing for better and more complete implementation of the Act.  The Social Value Leaders’ Summit forms part of our ongoing Social Value 2032 programme. This ambitious work delivered in partnership with PwC and Jacobs looks to put social value at the heart of commissioning and procurement, maximising the positive impact of every pound spent. If you’d like to get involved, please email jennifer.exon@socialenterprise.org.uk