Thought Leadership

The Chancellor is in an almost impossible position, faced with high government debt, low growth, unprecedented pressures on public services at home, and conflict and trade wars abroad. In response, Rachel Reeves’s spring statement announced cuts to the welfare budget, increases in defence, and reductions to overseas aid. For many, this will all feel pretty depressing. Yet real hope lies in every community across the country. As Neal Lawson of Compass puts it, “one critical area to boost is the alternative economy, of co-ops, social enterprises, employee-owned workplaces…  Not only can these organisations help kick start economic renewal, but they can do so in a way that is fairer and more democratic.” We welcome the Government recently committing £10m to community energy, and £20m to co-operative housing. But these relatively small drops won’t double the size of the co-operative and mutual sector, as Labour’s manifesto promises. You can’t grow diverse businesses by investing less with one hand than you are taking away with the other. National Insurance rises for public service providers - without either shareholders or customers to absorb the costs - are undermining viable, mission-led alternatives to the outrageous profiteering and negligence we see in the water industry, in children's care and beyond. Social enterprises, co-operatives and community business are delivering real prosperity that people can feel on their high streets, in their neighbourhoods, and in their pockets. This is where hope lies.

How do you encourage some of the most traumatised and disempowered people in the country to access healthcare? The Butterfly Project shows the way How can my team connect and work with the most marginalised people and communities in society? It’s a question that is asked repeatedly within the public sector.  And as we become increasingly aware of how inequality damages health and drives up pressure on public services, it is a question asked with ever greater urgency.  There is perhaps no more marginalised and ignored group than female prisoners. The vast majority have suffered layer upon layer of disempowerment. Many come from poor and excluded communities. Over half have experienced further disempowerment and trauma in the form of domestic violence, sexual violence, and abuse as a child. Then, of course, there is imprisonment itself which is very deliberately a form of marginalisation and disempowerment which has a disproportionately negative impact on women.  The proportion of female prisoners self-harming is seven times higher than male prisoners, while alcoholism and drug use is twice as high. In short, trauma, exclusion and distrust of authority are part of the everyday lives of female prisoners. This is not a group that is likely to engage positively with the state in any of its forms no matter how benign.  So, when a frontline innovation manages not only to engage but generate measurable positive outcomes with female prisoners, it is probably worth the rest of the public sector paying attention.   Releasing the Butterfly  That initiative is The Butterfly Project run by a social enterprise called Spectrum. The Butterfly Project set itself a simple but challenging goal: to increase the cervical screening rate to 90% for the 500 prisoners held at HMP Styal in Cheshire. This was ambitious. The screening rate at the prison was only 64% when the initiative began in 2020. The rate for the English population is not much higher at 69%. So, this would mean encouraging one of the most excluded groups in the country to massively exceed standard screening rates.   The Butterfly Project secured its goal. 92% of women at HMP Styal underwent cervical screening between 2020 and 2022. An achievement that has proved sustainable with a 91% rate by 2024.  So, how did The Butterfly Project do this? There are four key principles to their work. Principles that have wide applicability beyond engagement with prisoners.  1. Go where the people are  It may not sound radical but one major innovation was conducting cervical screenings at the prison itself. Most medical procedures occur outside the prison walls requiring prisoners to be escorted, often in handcuffs and prison vehicles, to a hospital or clinic accompanied by a prison officer. A process that reinforces stigma and inevitably adds considerably to the anxiety of any medical procedure. Conducting screenings in the prison eliminates that barrier.  This goes to the heart of an assumption underpinning much of public sector activity, namely that people should come to us. Vast swathes of the public sector’s work is conducted in buildings and places that suit the public sector rather than the people and communities they are serving. This inevitably creates an immediate barrier for engagement requiring people to invest time and money and to overcome mental and physical health barriers to interact with the public sector. It is telling, for example, that the Community Led Support initiative that has had such a positive impact on social care invests a great amount of time and energy into finding the right venue for their service.  Indeed, the principle has been taken a step further at another prison, HMP Low Newton, where a colposcopy unit has been set up so that any abnormalities identified during screening can be followed-up on site.  2. Let trusted people with relevant lived experience do the engagement  Peer mentors are at the heart of The Butterfly Project. These are prisoners who play a vital role not just in spreading the message about cervical health but also in discussing directly with those who may be anxious or doubtful about undergoing screening.   The mentors bring two vital aspects to the engagement. Firstly, they are far more likely to be a trusted source of advice and connection than a public service professional particularly when the population in question will have all been in conflict with the state and may have suffered mistreatment and discrimination at the hands of the public sector. Secondly, they bring an inherent and profound understanding of the lives of their fellow prisoners because they lead that life themselves.  There is clearly a lesson here for the public sector as a whole. Many public sector organisations assume that public sector staff or elected representatives are the best people to lead engagement. In fact, this assumption should be turned on its head in the case of marginalised groups by understanding that the public servant may well be the worst person to lead engagement. Instead, find those from the community who have the trust and shared experience of the community to act as connectors and conduits.   3. Take time to listen and understand  The role of The Butterfly Project’s peer mentors is not to meet targets or to push people into screening but to listen to their fellow prisoners and understand their fears and hopes. That can take a long time, particularly when working with people dealing with profound trauma. But it is time well spent for it enables trust to be built and allows mentors to develop a deep appreciation of the barriers preventing the women at HMP Styal accessing healthcare.  It’s an approach that extends to the Project’s medical personnel as well, who will often take considerable time to explain the screening procedure alongside the mentors and help address any concerns.  This is not an easy message for much of the public sector to hear. Time is a very scarce resource in a world shaped by constrained finances, rising demand and an obsession with top-down targets. The emphasis too often is on processing people as quickly as possible rather than taking time to listen and understand. But if any public sector body is serious about engaging with excluded individuals and groups, then ways must be found to carve out the time to build the necessary connection and trust.  4. Keep it friendly and welcoming throughout  Finally, and perhaps most obviously, The Butterfly Project places a premium on friendliness and providing care in a welcoming environment. Those who undergo screening often comment on the kindness of the doctors and nurses in the unit at HMP Styal. The necessity of this is obvious, particularly when engaging with people who may have suffered mistreatment and trauma. It is not only the most human approach but clearly it is the best way to ensure ongoing engagement and trust.    What The Butterfly Project teaches us is that with the right practices, enough time and a considerable dose of humility, it is possible to transform engagement with even with the most excluded people and communities. As health inequalities rise and demand pressures keep growing, this is a lesson the public sector needs to learn as quickly as possible. 

On the fifth anniversary of the first lockdown, academic research shows that social enterprises not only survived during the pandemic - they thrived. Professor Richard Hazenberg and Dr Claire Paterson-Young from the University of Northampton explain.  At the five-year anniversary of Boris Johnson’s lockdown announcement in March 2020, there remain many questions as to the impact of the pandemic on the country’s economy and society.  One area that we still know relatively little about is the impact that the pandemic had on social enterprises and their ability to serve their communities.   Social Enterprise UK research in 2021 found that social enterprises proved resilient, retaining staff and having lower closure rates than other forms of business. But our team at the University of Northampton’s Institute for Social Innovation and Impact (ISII) has now found that social enterprises performed even better than previously thought.  With our new research, we found that not only were social enterprises resilient, but they also grew their turnover and increased staff numbers. Despite the challenges of operating during a pandemic, they also increased the number of people they were helping.   We looked at the financial performance and social impact of 1,507 social enterprises both before and during the height of the pandemic, covering the years 2019-2022.  It used data from the Social Enterprise Support Fund (SESF), delivered by Big Issue Invest and partner organisations, through funding secured from the National Lottery Community Fund.   Misson makes for resilience   Our analysis revealed that in the three years between 2019 and 2022, social enterprises in the sample increased their turnover by 28% and their profits by 89%. As social enterprises, those profits were largely reinvested into their social missions, supporting the groups and communities hit hardest by the pandemic. Not only did the financial statements make for good reading, but staffing levels and the number of beneficiaries supported both rose by 11%.   Moreover, these figures did not come at the expense of trading income. Whilst there was an increase in grant funding, overall proportions of trading income barely changed (-0.7%), illustrating that increases in turnover was balanced between both income streams (grant funding accounted for just over one-third of turnover increases).   How did the sector achieve this during a time of such immense challenge? It should perhaps not come as a surprise, as previous studies during earlier crises (such as the 2008 financial crash), have shown that the nonprofit sector tends to be resilient.   As part of our research, we held interviews with 17 social entrepreneurs and 16 stakeholders from the wider social enterprise ecosystem. These revealed that, for social enterprises, their inherent hybrid focus on both financial and social missions aided their reactions to the pandemic.   Indeed, it was their social focus, commitment to their communities, and ethical approach, which alongside their ability to problem solve and reshape their offers, allowed them to continue to deliver support. Community support offered by social enterprises was significant in reducing isolation, including the delivery of support to enable people to access technology, expansion of counselling for children, and online educational provisions.  It was therefore the multi-mission focus that lies at the heart of social enterprise approaches that supported this resilience.  Lessons to learn from   What does this mean for the social enterprise sector and those seeking to support it? Our sample is not illustrative of the social enterprise sector as it did not contain many micro social enterprises. The data also only runs through to 2022, so doesn’t determine how the organisations developed through the remainder of the pandemic and beyond.   However, the data does show that focusing on both financial sustainability and benefiting communities can prove an asset for organisations, at least when reacting to crises. Supporting more businesses to improve the integration of social mission at strategic levels and critically assess their community operations can support not only their resilience and sustainability but deliver wider economic and social benefit.    Perhaps most importantly, the data shows that social enterprise proved resilient and focused on delivering for their communities, despite the many challenges faced. As the UK faces ongoing challenges in public services delivery, spending cuts, and social tensions, support to allow social enterprises to expand further is vital, not least as a protection measure against the next big crisis.  The full, open access paper with the complete findings of the research, can be found here.  This article is part of SEUK’s Social Enterprise Knowledge Centre University Network – to find out more please contact research@socialenterprise.org.uk

Social enterprises present a great opportunity to improve life in the UK. Now a group of MPs will collaborate to help realise their potential. Patrick Hurley, MP for Southport, explains why he wanted to chair the group.  In my constituency of Southport and the wider area there are many social enterprises, cooperatives and community businesses delivering vital public services, community cohesion, innovating products and services and generating employment and inclusion. Businesses like these are powerful as they offer real value for people and planet and many do so at scale. They offer a fast-track solution to improving life in the UK for millions. Yet they still represent just 5% of UK businesses.  There have been numerous false dawns for social enterprises over the past twenty years. So much so, that any new attempt to create a buzz around the concept is likely to be greeted with a raised eyebrow and a knowing smile. Much more pragmatic, then, to accept that the path to a social economy is a gradual one, a path that accepts the reality of a mix of business structures, a path that is not paved with gold, but which is covered with a thicket of brambles needing to be cleared.  Late last year, as a relatively new MP, I was elected to be the new Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for our sector - a group we chose to call the Social, Cooperative and Community Economy APPG - and have since been working to develop a programme of work and an approach to growing the capacity and potential of the sector in the current economic and political landscape. Working closely with others in both the Commons and the Lords over the last couple of months on our plans, we’re now keen to make tracks on our agreed priorities for the year.  The business and governmental context that the social economy sector works in has changed fundamentally over the past couple of decades; indeed, it has changed fundamentally more than once. The availability of finance on a patient basis, the ability to trade while fulfilling community interest requirements, the need to step into the gap left by retreating public services - all these factors and more have evolved, and impacted the way social economy organisations go about their business. The time is therefore right to see if the regulatory systems, the legislative environment, and the funding landscape are what the sector needs for the next 10-15 years.  The UK is home to a robust ecosystem of support networks that encourage innovation within the social enterprise sector. From accelerators to mentorship programmes and collaborative hubs, these resources help early-stage social entrepreneurs navigate the complexities of scaling their impact while staying true to their core values. By fostering a collaborative environment, the UK has become a hotbed for social innovation, leading the way for other nations to follow suit. But there is always more we can do, and the APPG committee is determined to help grow the sector in a way that hasn’t been possible in recent years.   As we look ahead, it is clear that the future of business in the UK should increasingly be shaped by social enterprises. As the government makes decisions on public service delivery and as local government begins to rebuild after a prolonged period of austerity, it’s an opportune time for the sector to step up once again to help shape the future of the UK’s business landscape and tilt it in a more social direction. 

After 20 years, at the end of March 2025, Richard Beard will be handing over the reins as Chief Executive of JERICHO, a leading Birmingham charity and family of seven sustainable social enterprises.  JERICHO is an award-winning charity that provides supported work opportunities for people facing extreme challenges in getting a job. The organisation primarily supports marginalised young people and survivors of modern slavery. What is truly different about the JERICHO model is the combination of vital support and activities which are offered alongside supported work placements. The person-centred JERICHO approach helps reduce isolation, support recovery, promote inclusion and ultimately supports people to become more employable and transform their lives.  JERICHO’s people are the key to success, and Richard learnt from the ground up. After a career in engineering, he joined the JERICHO staff team in October 2004 to lead a project training people with lived experience of substance misuse, homelessness or offending in construction skills. In 2005, he was appointed Deputy CEO and then taking on the role of Chief Executive in 2006.  His aspiration was to scale and grow the charity, further develop the social impact and to increase the proportion of income that came from trading rather than grants.  In Richard’s first year, JERICHO trading income was less than 10% of £420,000 annual income. As Richard steps away from JERICHO, group income is above £4 million with 80% trading income…. So, mission accomplished!  Incoming Chief Executive, Katie Webb, says, “The work to create a fairer society doesn’t stop. There is still so much to do to help level the playing field and providing supported work placements for people who need them most must continue so we can help change lives and improve life chances. My aspiration for my term leading JERICHO is to build on Richard’s amazing legacy, continue innovating and to keep trying to build a fairer society.”  “We are already developing new employability-focused projects and programmes that will help us support more people with barriers to entering the workforce. Going forwards, as well as focusing on training and supporting people to progress to roles in foundational sectors, we would love to create new supported work opportunities that equip and upskill people for the ‘jobs of tomorrow’ as well enable routes into mainstream work in key areas where we are already seeing labour shortages such as health and social care, childcare and manufacturing.”  Richard’s contribution to the West Midlands regional social economy is not to be underestimated. In the November Social Economy Awards 2025, supported by West Midlands Combined Authority,  he was shortlisted for Overall Contribution to the Social Economy (Individual) category.  Under Richard’s stewardship, JERICHO employment outcomes currently range from 84% to 100% annually for people progressing into employment, education or other positive outcomes, and has generated £2million of added social value in 2023/24.   Richard Beard says, “I’m truly delighted to be handing the Chief Executive baton onto an incredibly talented and capable successor who I’m confident will lead JERICHO to the next level.”  “What am I proud of, aside from all those people who have been involved with JERICHO over the last 20 years, is that JERICHO is now known as leaders in the fields of supported employment and modern slavery.”   Colin Marsh, Chair of Trustees, says, “Huge thanks to Richard for his many years of excellent service to JERICHO. I am looking forward to working with Katie Webb in the months ahead.”  jericho.org.uk

What is it, who’s in it and what will they do? Everything you need to know is here. What is the APPG? The Social, Cooperative and Community Economy All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) has been created to increase understanding and support of diverse, mission-led business models (social enterprises, co-ops, mutuals, employee-owned and community business etc). As the name suggests, it will work to address issues important to building a more inclusive economy and try to influence legislative change so that diverse mission-led businesses can reach their potential. APPGs are informal cross-party groups that have no official status within Parliament. They are run by and for Members of the Commons and Lords, though many choose to involve individuals and organisations from outside Parliament in their administration and activities.  Social Enterprise UK provides the Secretariat for the APPG. We assist the chair and officers of the group with APPG administration including meetings and AGMs, develop and deliver work plans, and manage communications for members and stakeholders. Who’s in it? Chair of the group is Patrick Hurley, the first Labour MP for Southport. Patrick previously worked as a councillor for Liverpool City Council for 12 years and ran the city’s Social Enterprise Network. Vice-Chair Baroness Thornton, one of the founders of Social Enterprise UK, is a long-standing social enterprise and cooperative expert who worked in the Department of Health and Social Care when Gordon Brown was PM and now sits in the House of Lords. The group also has two officers - Josh Babarinde, Liberal Democrat MP for Eastbourne, who formerly ran the social enterprise Cracked It, and Conservative The Lord Balfe, a former Political Secretary of the Woolwich Arsenal Co-operative Society who served in the European Parliament. A growing number of parliamentarians have joined and expressed interest in the group and wish to be kept informed of its progress. You can find a full list here. What will they do? In addition to arranging visits for APPG members to meet social enterprises, coops and community businesses, the group will run two inquiries over the coming months. The first will look at how Labour’s manifesto commitment to grow diverse business models, such as social enterprises and coops, is being delivered, exploring past and planned government activity and the wider context for growth in terms of capitalisation, routes to market and ecosystem support. A second inquiry will explore public services provision and the role for social, cooperative and community business within it. The APPG will also host a Parliamentary reception in June, as part of work to raise awareness in Westminster of the work and contributions of social, cooperative and community business. If you’d like more information, please email appg@socialenterprise.org.uk

Connection Crew, the UK’s only social enterprise in the crewing industry, published their 2024 Impact Report on 20th February 2025, reflecting on a record-breaking year of social and environmental impact, and what that really means. The report, released on the UN Day of Social Justice, highlights the dual challenges of rising homelessness and the urgent need for a just transition; one that reduces carbon emissions without leaving people behind. In 2024, Connection Crew generated 34,384 hours of direct social impact — their biggest year yet. 30.6% of crew who joined them were previously affected by homelessness; 30.2% of their total crew were previously affected by homelessness. But look deeper at the numbers, and you see they're indicative of a harsh reality: more people than ever are at risk of, or directly experiencing, homelessness. According to Shelter, 1 in 160 people were homeless on any one night in 2024, a 14% increase on 182 in 2023. Connection Crew's Impact Crew includes individuals who:  have direct lived experience of homelessness  are at risk of homelessness are long-term unemployed have left institutions such as care, prison, or the military Through paid work, training, and mentoring, they’re helping peoples' journey to rebuild their lives. In 2024, they supported 15 people referred by partners through their Academy and into Living Wage Work, and a further 37 people who applied to them directly. That’s progress. But they accept that they need to go further and push for better working conditions in the gig economy. That means: helping crew access more stable hours advocating for fairer working conditions across the events industry finding new ways to make long-term social impact It's not going to be easy. There are obstacles in their way and the industry relies on last-minute bookings, with freelancing being the norm. Connection Crew's focus is environmental as well as social; to look after people, they need to look after the planet. They hold themselves accountable for their environmental footprint. In 2024, 98.2% of their clients opted into their Carbon Levy, supporting carbon removal projects and behaviour change initiatives within their crew. “A just transition means fairness at every level,” said Warren Rogers, Director at Connection Crew. “Reducing carbon emissions and tackling homelessness must go hand in hand. Our 2024 Impact Report is about being honest about our progress, as well as where we need to do better.” Read the full 2024 Impact Report connectioncrew.co.uk

RIFT Social Enterprise is a Community Interest Company (CIC) that delivers self-employment services across the UK, with its main focus being on a 12-month one-to-one support for people interested in working for themselves. Its vision is to be the leading provider of self-employment support for marginalised people, and its mission is to empower participants to achieve sustainable self-employment and raise awareness that this is a viable option for many. The business has been trading for seven years, delivering a series of courses and webinars beyond its main support programme as well as accredited workbooks. From a team of two, it’s grown to 15 staff members, and in the last year alone supported more than a thousand people on their journey to self-employment. Working to support those in the criminal justice system For the first four years of RIFT Social Enterprise’s existence, the government department it’s worked with most has been His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). It has delivered services via the dynamic purchasing system (DPS) for the prison service and through CFO3 (Co-funding Organisation Round 3), which supported people with convictions to overcome barriers to education and employment. This funding ended in July 2024, but the social enterprise has been onboarded by the majority of prime providers delivering the programme's next iteration, CFOE. Two years ago, RIFT Social Enterprise diversified its services and started delivering for the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) Restart Scheme. This works with people who have been long-term unemployed, giving them specialist tools and support to get back into the job market. The scheme is primarily contracted out to a series of prime organisations, such as Maximus and Ingeus, and RIFT Social Enterprise currently delivers for 20 different Restart providers all across the country. What are the benefits to government of working with Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise Organisations (VCSEs)? RIFT Social Enterprise’s chief executive Andy Gullick emphasises the additional value that comes through partnering with organisations dedicated to creating a positive social or environmental impact: “Social enterprises have social value at their core. The work that we do is founded in doing it for the right reasons, and profits have to be reinvested back into the business for the greater good of the work we’re doing. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that’s only going to lead to long term benefits for the participants, the local community, and that government contract as a whole.” What challenges have you faced in the contracting process?   Process, transparency and the role of relationships One of the big challenges RIFT Social Enterprise has found when applying for contracts is the time it takes to get onto portals such as the DPS for the prison service. Organisations wishing to deliver government contracts submit eligibility to deliver a service onto a DPS, with the relevant department going to those who have made it onto these procurement platforms to decide who to contract with. Whilst these are set up to simplify the contracting process, getting on the DPS “took hours and hours for a relatively new social enterprise at the time”. For smaller VCSEs, the amount of detail required can prove to be a challenge: “When you don’t have a big team or the experience of bidding for government contracts, it’s quite difficult in terms of bid writing , having to have two years’ worth of audited accounts, or if not providing management accounts and references. Having to go through 90 different questions as part of the due diligence process is really time consuming!” Once on a procurement portal, Andy highlights that many organisations “expect to sit back and wait for call-off opportunities to be published which they can bid for” but in reality it’s often “more about the relationships that you had or forge with particular prison governors of prison leadership teams, rather than it being an equal process”. This focus on forging relationships with commissioning bodies can lead to criticisms about the transparency of the process, and service deliverers sometimes approaching commissioners with ideas on what kind of services to commission. Compared to work with HMPPS, the Restart work through DWP was easier - but there were common challenges around the onboarding process, primarily around working with primes (organisations applying directly apply to DWP to deliver the bulk of the contract). In the example of Restart, a prime organisation would deliver a certain percentage of the contract and subcontract a supply chain to deliver another percentage, then both subcontract RIFT Social Enterprise on a spot purchase arrangement to provide specialist self-employment provision. Each layer required separate due diligence processes. Working with so many primes meant RIFT Social Enterprise had to fill out the same information multiple times and often in different ways; Andy said: “I wish that there was one standard proforma that was used for all VCSE providers that captured all of the information that all the primes need for due diligence.” Capturing broader impact Andy raised concerns that contracting processes don’t capture well the broader impact created by VCSEs, which are set up to tackle social and environmental challenges. He stressed how “stories of change” and the impact of RIFT Social Enterprise’s programmes on individual participants are key to its work, but often beyond the specifications of many contracts. With Restart, prime organisations draw down funding every time RIFT Social Enterprise can evidence that someone is self-employed as a result of the organisation’s work, but what is not counted are the “many softer outcomes for that individual such as an increase in confidence, better relationships with family and the wider community”. “There’s a real dichotomy between us being a not for profit, doing things for the right reasons, but working on a contract, where in a way, they encourage us to screen people out that aren’t going to get to the point of trading because they won’t be able to draw down any funding for that person – it’s a constant battle.” One possible solution to making it easier for VCSEs to apply for government contracts suggested by Andy is to influence primes to work with more VCSE suppliers: “With any new government procurement opportunities, the prime should be mandated so that a percentage of delivery has to fall within VCSE organisations. We add so much in terms of social value and impact but, at the moment, it’s a nice to have.” Based on a conversation with Andy Gullick, Chief Executive at RIFT Social Enterprise riftse.co.uk