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New support for social enterprises working in the NHS
Following our successful campaign for social enterprises to be included in the NHS pay deal, which won central government funding last year, we’re launching a new programme to support our members working in health and social care.
Social enterprises deliver more than £1bn of vital NHS care across the country, while reinvesting any profits in the communities they serve. Yet the recent fight for equal treatment is a reminder that this contribution is not well recognised, even in the NHS itself. Over the next three years, our new programme will build awareness and understanding of the crucial role social enterprise plays in the NHS family.
As the leading national voice for our movement, we strive to address the key issues and ambitions of our members, to ultimately create an environment where social enterprise can thrive. While we continue to champion social enterprise across governments and industry more widely, this new programme will focus on health and care specifically, engaging system leaders to ensure they have us in mind when making relevant policy and funding decisions.
We know from our previous research that social enterprises are pioneering ways of integrating health and social care services that deliver huge value. Part of our work now is collecting more data and stories on the social enterprise solutions to issues in public services – providing real inspiration for the wider NHS, local authorities and central government.
This growing evidence base will then support our policy advocacy on sector issues where social enterprises just want a fair playing field, such as access to digital funding or recruitment and training. We aim to build on regional workshops we held in recent years to foster constructive engagement between social enterprises, commissioners and system leaders in local and national government. It’s promising to see the ministerial appointment of Paul Corrigan, an architect of the Community Interest Company model and longstanding champion of social enterprise in healthcare, as we look to grow such recognition among key decision-makers.
Our events calendar is always busy, as the world’s largest social enterprise network, but this programme will also curate specific networking and peer learning opportunities for our health and care members. We will collaborate with relevant sector leaders like the NHS Confederation, the Local Government Assocation and the Centre for Mental Health to help deliver for our members and the NHS more widely.
If you’re a social enterprise health or social care provider and would like to get involved, contact our team on membership@socialenterprise.org.uk.
