Thought Leadership

An update on our collective policy campaigning from Cwmpas, Social Enterprise Northern Ireland, Social Enterprise Scotland and Social Enterprise UK  Although the new UK Government’s first Budget marked positive shifts like investment in public services, many social enterprises have concerns about how it could affect their business, which we’re currently working to urgently address.  Social enterprises are committed to paying a living wage and providing good jobs, often for those furthest from the labour market and in the most deprived areas – but many will struggle with additional costs from increased wages and employer National Insurance Contributions, particularly those reliant on public sector contracts. It’s not yet clear if some providers will be exempt from additional costs, or reimbursed in some way, or neither.   Different departments have given contradictory messages, so we’re seeking clarity on details of the plans and their potential impact; Scotland’s First Minister has also committed to pressing the UK Government on this. To deliver manifesto commitments around community services and prevention, government must recognise the essential role of social enterprises in their delivery across the country. We’re liaising urgently with politicians and policymakers in all four nations to ensure they understand these issues and work towards a fair resolution.   We’re also engaging partners and wider stakeholders impacted by the changes to maximise our collective impact, as this could have serious consequences for social enterprises who provide vital services every day. There are calls to protect GPs and social care providers, but we know this issue goes further – from healthcare to hospices, school meals to children’s homes, leisure facilities to community transport, all over the country.   To help shield the many vital social enterprises reliant on public sector contracts from these potentially crippling costs, please add your voice to our petition.  We hope the Chancellor will use her additional spending power to create the conditions where mission-led businesses like social enterprises can thrive, which will ultimately build a stronger and fairer economy – but we won’t just wait and see. We exist to be a strong voice for social enterprise, so we’ll make sure that central and devolved governments understand our needs on this budgetary issue and beyond. 

This holiday season, discover a gift that embodies luxury, social purpose, and sustainability with Amplify Goods' new Solidarity Gentle Exfoliating Bar Soap. Crafted for conscious consumers who want to make a meaningful impact with each purchase, the Solidarity Bar Soap is designed to nurture individually and collectively. The Solidarity Bar Soap isn’t just a washroom essential; it’s a gift that gives people and packaging a second chance. Each bar is carefully packaged at our base within Crisis’ warehouse, creating living wage paid work experience for people facing diverse barriers to work, including those experiencing homelessness. Our bar packaging also opens up to create a bookmark, by tearing along the inbuilt perforation. Each case of 175 soaps provides two hours of vital work experience, empowering individuals with the skills and confidence to (re)enter the workforce. When bought in bulk, the packaging process uses repurposed materials like newspaper offcuts and reused cardboard boxes to keep waste at an absolute minimum, embodying our commitment to reducing carbon and creating circular-enabled products. The Solidarity Bar Soap brings a premium feel to your routine with a blend of natural ingredients: 96%+ Naturally Derived Ingredients: Carefully selected to provide a nourishing and gentle cleanse, suitable for all skin types. 100% Vegan & Cruelty-Free: Certified by The Vegan Society, ensuring zero animal testing. Upcycled Olive Stone Granules: Offering a gentle exfoliation, this eco-friendly feature repurposes olive stones to reduce waste. Infused with 100% Essential Oils: Natural fragrances with orange and herbal notes. Plastic-Free Packaging: Our packaging is as mindful as our ingredients, designed to reduce environmental impact without compromising on quality. Each individual soap box can be repurposed into a bookmark, giving it a second chance of life. Amplify Goods Co-Founder Camilla Marcus-Dew, says: “Soap without compromise, I‘m so proud to launch this! Long ago, I used to have products in 1000 supermarkets doing good, and it’s exciting to bring something back to market that we know, at scale will do SUCH great things – let's make sure more products put people and planet first, and where better to buy this year that Crisis, ensuring all profit are used for good.” With an RRP of £3.75 per bar and also available in bulk orders, the Solidarity Bar Soap makes a meaningful and affordable addition to holiday hampers, stocking fillers, or corporate gifting. It’s a beautiful, socially impactful way to spread the spirit of giving this holiday season. For more information, contact us at hello@amplifygoods.org Shop Solidarity Bar Soaps on the Crisis store: https://shopfromcrisis.org.uk/products/solidarity-soap

Community Dental Services CIC (CDS) has staged three days of action to address the crisis in children’s dental care – specifically to address the “Covid Generation” of children who have never seen a dentist, or whose continuity of dental care has been severely impacted by Covid.  Working with commissioners, CDS identified where care would have most impact e.g. looked after children; and saw over 200 children across specific CDS clinics in Bedfordshire, Norfolk and the Colchester area of Essex.  The CDS team made up of hygienists; therapists; as well as senior clinical staff in management roles who donned their uniforms to provide care; and students with CDS on training placements, worked additional hours to provide the “screen and intervene” initiative.  Children received a check-up, on the spot presentative treatments and, if required, were then referred for treatment in general dental practice with any children CDS recognised as needing their specialist care being triaged into their own services.  The day, supported with materials/consumables and toothbrushing packs by the Henry Schein Dental Group’s “Give Kids A Smile” programme also saw the CDS oral health teams in attendance to share valuable prevention advice to raise families’ awareness of how to care for their children’s oral health longer term.  Glen Taylor, CDS Chief Operating Officer said: “We are very aware that there is a whole “Covid Generation” of children who have never had the opportunity to see a dentist. This means children are not being routinely seen to address dental problems at an early stage and they are not being acclimatised to the dental environment from a young age, leading to greater levels of anxiety. Many of these children are being referred for treatment in our community dental services with high dental need and severe anxiety often requiring treatment under sedation or in hospital with general anaesthetic. Families are also often not getting preventative oral health information. This initiative has enabled us to see a large number of children in a short space of time and we are pleased to have partnered with the Henry Schein Cares Foundation and our colleagues in general practice at Colosseum Dental to deliver an effective screen and intervene initiative.”   About CDS  Community Dental Services CIC (CDS) is a 100% employee-owned social enterprise providing community dental services to the NHS and oral health improvement programmes throughout Bedfordshire, Derbyshire, Essex, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk & Waveney, Nottinghamshire and Oxfordshire.   - Together we will enable our communities to enjoy a better quality of life -  communitydentalservices.co.uk 

To mark Social Enterprise Day (Thursday 21 November) LNER announced a new partnership which will bring life-changing biscuits to the London King’s Cross First Class Lounge. The special snacks have been handcrafted by talented bakers at Half the Story, a social enterprise formed by two charities working together to provide employment and help tackle homelessness. Grace Enterprises and Green Pastures set up Half the Story to offer meaningful job opportunities to people who have experienced barriers to work, such as homelessness and addiction. By providing a Real Living Wage, stable hours and mentoring support, employees can take control of their future and start to move forward in their lives. Thanks to the new relationship with LNER, eight new part-time roles have been created to produce the tasty provisions for the King’s Cross First Class Lounge. Speaking about the impact of Half the Story, Baker Anthony said: “Half the Story has changed my life. I’d experienced homelessness and addiction problems and found holding down a job difficult. But Half the Story has not only given me a job, they’ve provided real and useful support which has enabled me to break away from addiction and live independently. They’ve set me free, and I can’t thank them enough.” Richard Judge, Head of Customer Experience at LNER, said: “We’re thrilled to be able to offer Half the Story biscuits to our customers. Not only are they delicious, but every bite also makes a real difference to someone's life. We're really excited to be working with Half the Story, helping to offer positive employment opportunities." About Half the Story Half the Story is a joint venture between two charities: Grace Enterprises and Green Pastures. Working together they have started Half the Story to multiply their impact and make an even greater difference in the lives of those people they’re called to help. Half the Story is a social enterprise employing people facing major barriers to work, including homelessness. The whole team is paid the Real Living Wage, and everyone is offered holistic support and mentoring. About LNER  LNER is on a mission to transform rail travel. Our new modern Azuma fleet of trains continue more than a hundred years of LNER tradition - setting new, higher standards in comfort, reliability and customer experience. LNER calls at more than 50 stations along almost a thousand miles on the East Coast route, including major towns and cities between London, the East Midlands, Yorkshire, the North East of England and Scotland.   

Makerspaces in Liverpool that bring creativity to communities and provide hubs for budding artisans and entrepreneurs to flourish in business has become the first beneficiary of a brand new social investment fund ringfenced for the Liverpool City Region. Livv Housing Group, a social-impact focussed housing association based in Knowsley, has launched Livv and Flourish, a significant social investment fund with £4.25 million of support in the form of blended finance available for social enterprise and charities across the Liverpool City Region over the next three years. The fund’s first social investment of £175,000 is set to ‘make’ a meaningful difference to a purpose-driven social enterprise that works across the region. Make, a Community Interest Company set up in 2012, unites and enriches communities through creativity, art and culture at its makerspaces that create places for makers and artisans to turn their passions into prosperity. Making social impact that matters Make CIC applied to the Livv and Flourish fund to support the development of their new premises in Birkenhead, helping to ensure the overall sustainability of the organisation and enabling its network of makers hubs to increase social impact. The social investment from Livv includes a blend of finance, a loan of £150,000 and a grant of £25k, funding that’s helping to make a difference to Make’s residents in turn, creating opportunities to support their livelihoods. That’s residents like Agnieszka, Paul and Cathy’s creative and entrepreneurial endeavours, real life stories, with chapters marking opportunity, collaboration and growth, working out of Make’s Huyton Village location. Budding entrepreneur Agnieszka Holubik opened Once Upon a Plant in May this year, the perfect place for her business to be located in to be part of her local community - and a home for opportunity and ambition to grow with her plant merchant and lifestyle brand business start-up. Sweet entrepreneur Paul Doyle had the idea for his business in the pandemic, starting out in his spare room at home. His vegan-friendly personalised gummy and jelly sweet pouch business has grown from spare room start-up to market scale-up with his venture The Tuck Shop UK. Animator and illustrator Cath Garvey saw the perfect ‘blank canvas’ for her creative business at Make - at the same time as being a place to enjoy working alongside other artisans, being inspired by them and enjoying a true collaboration culture. Liam Kelly, Make CIC’s CEO, said: "This investment from Livv will help to support Make CIC with its work across the Liverpool City Region. Social lending, like Livv and Flourish, is a critical part of making impact work happen in communities. Traditional finance options are often not available to organisations like Make CIC, despite the significant societal impact they generate. So thank you to all those in Livv who have put together this fund to ensure that Make, and organisations like ours, can continue to grow the impact our communities desperately deserve." Tony Cahill, Executive Director at Livv Housing Group, said: “Make’s hubs are places that nurture life-changing social impact, spaces where opportunity meets ambition and true collaboration. They’re spaces for ideas to incubate, for business start-ups to literally start up, to grow and to flourish into established business enterprises that support livelihoods. It’s in recognition of this genuine spirit of social impact that the first investment from our new fund has been made to Make.” Livv Housing Group’s social investment heritage Livv Housing Group’s new Livv and Flourish fund is offering a blend of grant and unsecured loan finance of up to £200,000 per application, with tailored support offered to recipients throughout the process from its team. It is ringfenced social investment for Knowsley and the Liverpool City Region, with the fund open for three years. Socially-driven organisations keen on receiving investment through Livv and Flourish can visit www.livvinvestment.com to find out more and express an interest. Livv and Flourish is part-funded by Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, which works to make sure that charities and social enterprises can access the finance they need to sustain or grow their impact. Access provides patient and flexible investment through blended finance and boosts the resilience of charities and social enterprises through enterprise development. It is supported by funds from the Dormant Assets Scheme, which redirects money from forgotten accounts to good causes, and is distributed via Access. Seb Elsworth, Chief Executive of Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, said: “The Dormant Assets Scheme puts forgotten money to better use, rather than letting it gather dust in inactive accounts. It’s fantastic to see how the scheme is making a real difference in the Liverpool City Region – creating jobs and boosting the local economy by helping social enterprises like Make CIC and the entrepreneurs they support. By combining grants with loans into a blended package, social investors like Livv can offer the kind of small scale, patient and flexible finance that charities and social enterprises need.” Livv and Flourish is the latest in Livv’s social investment fund portfolio, with over £5.2 million of support in loans and grants generating £222 million of wellbeing value in the last eight years. Organisations who received funding previously have used the finance to support thousands of people into employment. Hundreds of jobs were created or sustained, and over 50 new apprenticeships were introduced. Over 29,000 people were supported with training and developed new skills, while 28,000 more were supported with their physical and mental health. About Livv Housing Group Livv Housing Group is a housing business and more. We provide around 13,000 homes across Liverpool City Region and the North West, plus apprenticeships, training, health and local projects to build flourishing communities. We’re positive, respectful partners who take the lead, do what we say and help others to unlock their potential. About Make CIC Make CIC is a social enterprise, founded in 2012 by Kirsten Little and Liam Kelly. It supports its residents to turn their passion into prosperity by providing studio space for people who might otherwise be working at home, composed of artists, makers, creatives and small businesses. It runs a programme of workshops, public classes and courses, exhibitions and support, across sites in Birkenhead, Liverpool’s North Docks and Knowsley’s Huyton Village, which are collectively home to over 147 residents.

Today (21 November) we mark Social Enterprise Day - a time to raise awareness and understanding of our global movement - with new research that shows the impact of business putting people and planet first. Unlike traditional businesses, social enterprises reinvest profits in vital missions, from bringing communities together and creating employment opportunities to tackling environmental issues and stimulating local economies. New analysis on our Social Enterprise Knowledge Centre provides regional breakdowns of our sector across the country - overall painting a vibrant picture of the many and varied social enterprises from Cornwall to Cumbria, driving positive change despite complex economic challenges. We’re proud to shine a spotlight on the great work of our movement. Read the new research

As our new government maps out its “mission-based” approach, the Cabinet Office is looking at how public procurement could support this – and as part of our work to build markets for social enterprise, we’re seizing this opportunity to show political leaders the added value unlocked when we work in partnership. Procurement is one of the government’s most powerful economic tools, with public sector bodies spending over £400bn to deliver vital public services and critical infrastructure in the last year alone. Unfortunately, the current system is failing to achieve its full potential, as evidenced by our Social Value 2032 research. With a more effective strategy, these funds could help shape markets to improve business behaviours and social outcomes. We hope this new government consultation is the start of a journey to making public sector procurement more collaborative and innovative, so that it delivers greater value – and we know social enterprise can help accelerate progress here. Our business model naturally aligns to a mission-driven approach, putting people and planet before profit. However, system change is needed to really unleash the procurement power of social enterprise suppliers. Having given insight and advice directly to government as part of the consultation, we also wanted to publicly share the highlights of our response, as we continue to push for more engagement and understanding. A key point is making legislation work better. Our research found £56bn in added value has been lost since the Social Value Act came in, so this must be strengthened alongside updates to the National Procurement Policy Statement. It’s promising that guidance on the upcoming Procurement Act expresses a specific intention to benefit social enterprises, and we’ll share our sector insight with policymakers to ensure they understand our needs and expectations. Going further, commissioners must recognise the intrinsic value of organisations in their supply chain. Rather than narrow measurement processes that relegate social value to a tick-box exercise, commissioners should consider how suppliers in their supply chain might advance wider strategic goals. Ultimately, commissioners need the responsibility and guidance to play the role of market stewards; procurement spending should be recognised as investment, with commissioners obliged to consider how such funds can be used to deliver more for the communities they serve. This should also mean actively limiting opportunities for profit in certain areas. When vulnerable individuals are dependent on specific services like social care, there should be no opportunity to make profit at the expense of investing and providing the highest quality service. The government’s new plans to prevent profiteering in children's homes are a very welcome step in the right direction – but there are concerns about whether profit-driven businesses would make voluntary changes, and questions about how mandatory legislation would work in practice. Where possible, commissioners should look to reserve more contracts for suppliers that have adopted business models where surplus funds are used to invest in services, rather than enriching shareholders. Overall, more transparency is needed across the procurement system. Commissioners need to understand what colleagues across the public sector are doing and pursue best practice in line with their own goals. Similarly, they need to understand how suppliers are using their funds, so they can get an accurate sense of the costs needed to deliver vital services. Procurement can enhance public wellbeing and deliver shared prosperity – but it must be approached in a way that prioritises collaboration and transparency, with greater appreciation of what different organisations may bring to the table. This will allow commissioners to better embed suppliers whose practices, values and interests are aligned with the people and places they serve. Ultimately, this will not only improve services and outcomes but cultivate a more inclusive and dynamic economy. If you want to share your experiences of public sector procurement, and/or get involved with our Social Value 2032 work, contact policy@socialenterprise.uk.

Bloom is returning to Liverpool in 2025, ready to bring together leaders, doers and strategists from the creative and digital sectors. This one-day, future-focused event is designed as a hub for innovation, collaboration, and strategic development, where attendees can immerse themselves in a wealth of ideas and practical insights, forge new connections, and leave with inspiration to take part in real, progressive action. Last May, Bloom made its debut in Liverpool. The event featured: 20 influential speakers sharing their expertise. 15 support organisations offering guidance. 30 exhibitors showcasing their latest innovations. The day was packed with panel discussions, engaging talks, and one-on-one advice sessions, all geared towards ensuring digital and creative businesses are equipped for the future. Attendees not only benefited from expert insights but also enjoyed great food, live music, and ample opportunities to connect and grow their networks. In 2025, Bloom 2025 is thinking bigger. The event will have a focus on the theme of collaboration and will explore how we can make alliances and work together for the greater success of the creative and digital sectors.  Bloom 2025 will bring together businesses across‘ the north’ to connect and explore how those working in the creative and digital industries contribute to and drive the creative economy.  Following on from the success of Bloom 2024, there will be topics on how business leaders can future-proof their businesses and adapt to challenges, advice on how to cultivate the next generation of skilled professionals and the purpose of place; exploring the evolving nature of our cities and how creativity contributes to these shifts.  All of these topics will be weaved by the leading theme of Bloom 2025; collaboration. Bloom is an event for: Creatives, digital leaders, doers, and strategists looking to not only stay ahead of the curve, but help guide where the sectors are going.  Team members seeking expertise to future-proof their businesses. Networkers and collaborators ready to engage, connect, and build lasting partnerships. Bloom expands on your toolkit to ensure your business has the support it needs at every stage—whether launching, scaling, or building resilience. Bloom is a space to learn, share, and act, fostering a collaborative environment where ideas are planted, nurtured, and set to grow.  Mark your calendars and buy your tickets now on Eventbrite before the early bird discount comes to an end: https://Bloom2025.eventbrite.co.uk. /bluːm/ to grow or develop successfully