Thought Leadership

7 July 2022 Statement from Peter Holbrook CBE, Chief Executive Officer, Social Enterprise UK “The Prime Minister has resigned and we will now see a contest to replace him.” “The country faces significant challenges from the cost-of-living crisis to the climate emergency. We need the next Prime Minister to be someone who understands that we cannot go on with business as usual. We need bold leadership if we are going to get Britain back on track.” “The present situation has shown the importance of integrity and why all our institutions, not just our politics, need to be governed with a sense of social responsibility. Government and business must put people and planet first.” “Social enterprises have a huge role to play in our future. There is no route to levelling up and bringing prosperity to all parts of our country that does not involve growing the social enterprise sector.” “SEUK will work with all Conservative leadership candidates to help them to understand the potential of our sector and we look forward to working with the next Prime Minister.”

July the 1st 2022 saw Leading Lives mark its 10-year anniversary as an employee-owned social enterprise, with a combined birthday celebration and awards event in Bury St Edmunds.  It also acknowledged the contribution of Tony Carr, who retires as Managing Director after 41 years in the Suffolk care sector. Leading Lives has grown significantly since it was established as an employee-owned social enterprise in 2012 and is now an award-winning social enterprise that delivers innovative high-quality care services to over a thousand people, with an annual turnover that has increased to £10.7m. Social care provision includes 24 hr supported housing, overnight stays to give family carers a break, bespoke 1-1 care in the community and in people’s homes across Suffolk.  Their community hubs provide a range of skills development and leisure activities as part of a county wide daytime, evening, and weekend offer. They have an expanding offer bespoke to young people with learning disabilities and autistic people 13-25yrs that is grant funded by Activities Unlimited. They have embraced new ways of working and used technology to support people during the pandemic through their Digital Lifeline Project, which won Innovative Practice at the 2021 Suffolk Care Awards. Leading Lives put much of their success down to their business model of employee ownership and not for profit. The board of directors is made up entirely of employee elected directors, voted for by their colleagues.  Leading Lives invests heavily in the wellbeing of employees and involves them in the running of the business, employees feel valued and that their ideas and opinions matter.  All profits go back into the organisation and to the local community. This year Leading Lives gave away £25k to local charities and third sector organisations in Suffolk.  Strong on values and always putting the person at the heart of what they do, Leading Lives is well respected nationally and locally within the care sector winning numerous awards including Health & Social Care Enterprise of the year 2015 at the SEUK national awards (and finalists in 2021), winners at the Suffolk Care awards in 2021 and named in the top 50 Employee-Owned businesses in the UK.    Tony says “I have thoroughly enjoyed working in these services over the years with so many fantastic people. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to help create Leading Lives and am extremely proud of where it is today and how well positioned it is for achieving even more in the future.” - Tony Carr. Lucy Humphrey formerly Director of Operations at Leading Lives and non-executive director at Care Development East has been appointed as new Managing Director to succeed Tony.  Lucy said “This is an exciting time for Leading Lives and despite the challenges in social care we have a wonderfully loyal and committed workforce. I am positive we will work together to make the leading lives difference over the next ten years.” - Lucy Humphrey. leadinglives.org.uk

GLL case study is on its way...

For so many of us, the pandemic was a chance to revisit our passions, ambitions and dreams for the future.  For me, it was also a chance to try starting my own enterprise – a social impact venture in the education sector.  Here are three things all early-stage social entrepreneurs should know. Uncertainty actually brings opportunity As entrepreneurs (and as humans!), we’re often not a fan of uncertainty.  We want to be sure about things, with our next steps planned out and a set of predictable consequences.  Life, of course, is never this simple – but the last year or so has delivered much more uncertainty than normal.  So, how should we respond?  How can we plan for all the possible eventualities of a pandemic year? The invitation for all entrepreneurs – and especially those starting new ventures during this time – is to see pandemic challenges as bringing new opportunities.  Every major industry has been impacted by the events of 2020-2021, and it’s clear that some are more willing to capitalise on this change than others.  As social impact entrepreneurs, we’re uniquely placed to listen carefully to the market, and respond with a solution that is timely, relevant and important.  We can ask ourselves: what’s the real need that I’m trying to address with my business solution?  How has this need been impacted by the pandemic?  And then, armed with the answer to those questions, we can craft a creative, relevant solution. The next normal awaits It’s clear that the theme of uncertainty will continue to be prominent as we move into the ‘next normal’, but there will also be a lot of other important themes coming into view.  For example, themes of innovation, or disruption, or creative rebuilding.  We’ve been given a unique opportunity to play a part in constructing the post-pandemic world, and it’s up to us – collectively – to decide what comes next. As entrepreneurs, we’re perfectly placed to think creatively about the systems, markets and industries we’re working within.  What will the ‘next normal’ look like for your particular sector?  How will behaviours and preferences change?  How can we shape our actions to create a world we actually want to live in? And on a personal level, as individual entrepreneurs, we’re given a chance to redefine our own working lives.  Many of us will have experienced remote work, and decided not to return to the office.  Perhaps you’re part of the ‘great resignation’ – the movement away from the work you previously did, and towards something different; more exciting.  Either way, we have the option to see ourselves as creators of our own working lives.  How do we want our days to be structured?  When are we most productive, and how can we support this with our schedules?  What do we most enjoy doing, and how can we do more of it?  These are questions about the ‘next normal’ that every entrepreneur has the ability to determine for themselves. It can be a lonely journey, but it doesn’t have to be One of the biggest things that struck me, shortly after leaving my corporate job, was the isolation of being a solo founder.  Without a network of colleagues, supervisors and mentors, entrepreneurs can end up feeling alone.  It can be difficult to explain your exact feelings about your business, or the challenges faced in a start-up, to someone who doesn’t have any knowledge of what you’re talking about. But it doesn’t have to be that way.  The shift to digital work has opened up endless opportunities for networking, connection and interaction.  Joining networks (like Social Enterprise UK) can be a huge support as you begin the process of building something new – use them to your advantage! And finally, as you go about your entrepreneurial journey – noticing the opportunities amongst the uncertainty, finding your feet in the ‘next normal’, and building up those connections around you – remember that you might just be part of a new wave of entrepreneurs who are stepping up during this time, to rebuild the world in a better way. AUTHOR BIO Eloise Skinner is a social impact entrepreneur, author and teacher.  She is the founder of The Purpose Workshop, a social impact consultancy, and One Typical Day, an ed-tech start-up.  Eloise’s book, The Purpose Handbook, was published in 2021.  You can find out more about Eloise on her website, or on LinkedIn. The Purpose Workshop The Purpose Workshop is a social impact consultancy, helping individuals and businesses navigate a sense of purpose, mission and values. We believe that purpose-focused work should be available to everyone, regardless of background or experience. As a business, our social mission is to channel profits into creating educational resources, shared with our network of schools free of charge. thepurposeworkshop.uk

Diversity and Ability is a pioneering social enterprise led by and for disabled people. It supports individuals and organisations to create inclusive cultures where diversity is celebrated and people can thrive. Based in Brighton, 85% of its team identify as neurodiverse and/or disabled. The social enterprise provides one-to-one support to people through the education system, runs training and workshops for workplaces and institutions and also runs an international programme which spreads its message of inclusivity and educates people on the practical means through which they can better understand and welcome disabled people. They work to redefine how society views disability, actively working to break down barriers that limit the opportunities and freedoms of disabled people to flourish through centering the importance of lived experience Reframing the discussion Two core modes of thinking run across the social enterprise’s work which inform all of its programmes – the idea of disablement and that of intersectionality. Far from being academic buzzwords these principles are used to both empower marginalised groups and shift attitudes amongst the wider population. The concept of disablement originates in the social model of disability and the disabling situations in which people are placed. Framing things this way shifts the emphasis away from how an individual can change to fit in, to addressing the social barriers which result in people being excluded. In the words of Chief Executive Atif Choudhury, Diversity and Ability’s model looks at “what is a disabling situation and how do we change it”. The second principle of intersectionality recognises the importance and diversity of lived experience respecting how different people live different lives. An understanding of how race, gender, class, sexuality and other aspects of identity interact with each other and with the social concept of ‘disability’ is core to their work allowing the social enterprise to better tailor support and create system wide change. Using the examples of epilepsy, muscular dystrophy or cerebral palsy, Atif highlighted that how individuals experience these conditions is heavily influenced by socio-economic status, their support networks, sense of shame and trauma. Having an intersectional lens allows you to look beyond medical diagnoses to look at how society creates situations of disablement. “Intersectionality is just about basic respect – respecting the idea that people have different experiences to share and that they have been categorised again and again for the convenience of others” What does this look like in practice? Diversity and Ability is underpinned by the desire to “pave the way for a future where everyone is welcomed and included” and all their work, be that with individuals or with organisations is undertaken with this in mind. The social enterprise runs one-to-one support sessions for young people facing disablement providing individualised peer support through further education, higher education and on into the workplace. These are delivered by trainers with shared lived experience of disablement themselves. Individuals are provided with assistive technology training, mental health mentoring, study skills tutoring and also workplace strategy support and coaching. Assistive technology is tech that can help remove a barrier that is presented to an individual, allowing people to fully participate. This can include things like screen readers, screen masks or software to speak into which writes copy. It can also in a wider context refer to items such as glasses or even apps like Google Maps which addresses barriers of access. Diversity and Ability partner with businesses and universities on their Diversity and Inclusion agendas, centering once again the lived experiences of disablement and intersectionality. This work is not just limited to the UK and the business works with grassroots organisations around the world to transform perceptions around disablement and create environments where difference is celebrated. They work to put in place disability needs assessments that are enabling for an individual and which take advantage of free open-source technology. The work with organisations is similar to that with individuals – focused on shifting the language used and how environments can be changed in order to create “an anticipatory welcome for everyone.” Work with students is funded by the Disabled Students Allowance and Access to Work schemes as well as earned income through organisational training programmes and the social enterprise’s international work. “if it’s not intersectional, how can it be relevant” The lens of disablement and intersectionality is applied throughout these three workstreams of individual support, organisational training and international work. Diversity and Ability deliberately challenge the habit of corporate diversity and inclusion work to break off conversations into silos of race, gender, sexuality and disability recognising that dividing lived experience into silos takes away from the full experiences of individuals. As senior communications officer Ellie Thompson puts it “that’s not how disablement is experienced, that’s not how life is experienced”. In this way when a workshop is run on understanding disability and celebrating neurodiversity an understanding is established that these are not universal experiences with each disabled or neurodiverse persons experience being set within their other lived experiences. Shifting the narrative Diversity and Ability is helping reframe the entire discussion on disability, shifting the narrative to one focused on the societal challenges which place people within a situation of disablement. Their commitment to this and to intersectionality has led them to not just work within the education systems and in EDI training but to partner with organisations such as Crisis, St Mungo’s and Homeless Link to tackle homelessness and digital exclusion through building digital literacy skills. Over the pandemic they worked with local and national charities to provide internet access to those in emergency accommodation in the Brighton area, providing 100 tablets and Wi-Fi dongles as well as delivering personalised digital skills training workshops to digitally excluded people throughout the country. Research carried out by UnLtd and the New Economics Foundation has proven the incredible impact the social enterprise is creating showing that for every £1 spent on Diversity and Ability’s services a return of £16.55 of social value is created. When expanded to look across their higher education work this translates to £9.48 million of social cost-benefit a year. Diversity and Ability’s work is helping broaden the conversation on what disablement means and the harm done when society prevents the meaningful participation of so many people. As Atif puts it “D&A isn’t really about assistive technology or disabilities, it’s about participation and what does it take to meet that participation. What are the barriers involved in preventing meaningful participation and what do we lose as a whole civil society when we lose that meaningful participation” With only around 53% of disabled people in work compared to 81% of other people[1],  the work done by Diversity and Ability also raises an important challenge for the social enterprise community – how can we do more to address barriers to participation and inclusion so difference is celebrated and lived experience is at the centre of our work? As businesses committed to social justice and reducing inequalities it is important that we challenge an economy and society which creates disabling situations in order to strive towards the fairer future we are working towards.  Based on an interview with Atif Choudhury and Ellie Thompson at Diversity and Ability diversityandability.com

By Jennifer Clair Robson - Content Director at Climate Action North The shift toward net zero will bring economy-wide transformation on an unprecedented scale. The transition will impact many industries, jobs, and communities. A Just Transition concerns the fair treatment of workers and communities affected by these changes. It involves investment in new skills and infrastructure while protecting and creating high-quality jobs and employment for a green economy. Approximately 6.3 million jobs in the UK, equating to around one in five, are likely to be affected by the transition to a green economy, according to the Just Transition Jobs Tracker. A Just Transition applies not only to large multinational corporations and governments; it is also critical that small and medium businesses, who play a crucial role in creating employment and are often at the heart of communities, are involved. Yet, while the importance of a Just Transition is a priority for the global climate agenda, it has been noted that many people don’t fully understand what it means. Here we demystify the Just Transition and consider: what is the Just Transition, why should I care, and what can my social enterprise do? What is the Just Transition? The Just Transition movement is a rising concern calling for the fair treatment of workers and communities who will be most affected by the shift to clean energy and the phasing out of fossil fuels. Greenpeace is campaigning to ensure that this move doesn’t leave anyone behind; they want to see workers, especially those in the oil and gas sector, retrained to keep green energy powering the world. The COP26 summit saw a 190-strong coalition of countries and organisations commit to phase out coal power and agree to: End investment in new coal power generation domestically and internationally Phase out coal power in economies in the 2030s for major economies Rapidly scale up the deployment of clean power generation Make a just transition away from coal power in a way that benefits workers and communities The push for clean and renewable energy is important because coal is responsible for nearly half of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. A report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in August 2021 was described as “code red” for humanity; it warned that without immediate deep cuts to carbon, including the phase-out of coal, the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement will be unreachable.  Why should I care about the Just Transition? Without a Just Transition, many workers, particularly those in the oil and gas sector, will lose their livelihoods creating unnecessary hardship for them and their communities. Many will have spent a significant proportion of their life employed in their area of expertise and will not have the abilities to work in evolving professions. New jobs may not be available in the same locations that jobs are lost, and they may not be available at the time when people become unemployed. This is a pattern that has been repeated around the world, closer to home it happened when coal miners across the North of England lost their jobs in the 1980s. Sunderland City Council Deputy Leader Claire Rowntree told Climate Action North: “it’s vital that we do all we can to ensure the communities and jobs most affected by the inevitable switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy receive the levels of support required as we plan for a cleaner, greener future.” Fossil fuels is an obvious example, but the impacts will affect other industries such as automotive production, agriculture, construction and housing, manufacturing, and scientific and technical services. All affected industries will need to upskill their workforce or hire new employees. It is often forgotten that the Just Transition applies not only to large multinational corporations and governments. It is also relevant for small and medium businesses and social enterprises who may struggle to adjust without support, advice, and incentives. Yet the International Organisation of Employees (IOE) has stated that it believes that not enough focus is placed on small businesses in the Just Transition. It is essential social enterprises are engaged. They add a huge amount of value to communities and are connected through employees and their families. Any changes made in a social enterprise will spread out through the community via its workforce. Businesses that fail to act will face mounting pressure from investors, customers, staff and potential recruits, and legislation. In a nutshell, embracing a Just Transition to net zero and a green economy can help ensure the sustainability not only of the planet, but also of your enterprise. What can my social enterprise do? The most important step you can take is to commit to act. Simply making a Just Transition priority by including it in your goals will ensure it gets the attention it needs. Look at your social enterprise and find the smallest, easiest ways you can begin to make a difference. Start with your own impact and what you’re able to do. Get a holistic picture of risks climate change pose to your enterprise and operations with the Climate Action North business toolkit. Scrutinise your resilience against climate risks, identify areas of improvement, and put in place an action plan to reach net zero. It is important that those in the supply chain take account of their social impact when on the net zero journey. As well as working to strengthen local supply chains, you must consider regulations, apply due diligence for your workforce’s best interests, and ensure all environmental impacts are considered. This will make it easier to secure funds and contracts and enjoy the wider local economic and community benefits this brings. A Just Transition may bring challenges, but it will also present opportunities such as the upskilling and professional development of you and your workforce, and the creation of new jobs. These benefits need to be accessible to everyone so engage with your workforce to make sure they’re heard and are actively involved with all issues and opportunities. Climate Action North hosts events that focus on achieving a Just Transition in the North of England. They focus on strategies to create green jobs along with retraining opportunities for small businesses to help them be ‘skills-ready’ for the Just Transition to a cleaner, greener future. Sign up to our newsletter for details on events as they are released. Follow Climate Action North projects and get in touch to support our work and get involved. Our actions now will make a difference to tomorrow.

The area around Anfield has a proud sense of community and at its heart was Mitchells Bakery, selling pies to locals and to football fans on match-days. However a lack of investment in Liverpool coupled with what has been described as the controlled decline of the city resulted in people moving out of the area, rising unemployment and boarded up housing. Mitchell’s Bakery was forced to close. In 2002 the area was identified as a ‘market-failure’ with properties designated to be demolished and rebuilt under the Housing Market Renewal Initiative. When this scheme was pulled in 2010, the area was effectively abandoned. Taking regeneration into their own hands What followed was an ambitious attempt by members of the local community to save the bakery and take ownership of the local area to steer development to benefit residents. It all started with an arts project, 2 up 2 down, which worked with local people to rent out the bakery space and use it as a site for public discussion on planning the future of the area. It was decided by residents that the bakery should be re-opened as a community led business and in June 2012 Homebaked Bakery Co-operative was formed. The following year a community land trust (CLT) was formed to take on responsibility for the development of the bakery building and future community assets. A bakery at the heart of the community In October 2013, Homebaked Bakery was opened as a social enterprise dedicated to feed, employ and train the local community with an absolute commitment to improve the local area. The bakery’s strapline is ‘more than a pie’ with the shop employing local people, running training courses and using the space as a community hub. What started as a small business has now grown into a thriving social enterprise turning over £500,000, employing 16 people and supporting many more through its training programmes. Pre-COVID-19, 90% of the business’s income came directly through trading. Football income from matchdays is used to subsidies affordable prices and the business’s pies have attracted national fame and recognition Despite taking a hit during the pandemic the bakery continued to be a constant source of support for the Anfield community– providing freshly baked loaves and rolls to local foodbanks and organising the delivery of free school meals. The bakery is emerging out of the pandemic with ambitious plans for the future, looking to increase pie production beyond 3,000 a week, build up stronger links with both Liverpool FC and Everton and to continue to find more ways to feed, employ and support the local community.

The Sewing Rooms have designed and are manufacturing The Sew Fab Thermal Cooking Bag which reduces the amount of cooking fuel consumption by up to 70%  with the potential to save hundreds of pounds per year. The SewFab thermal cooking bag is inspired by medieval ways of cooking, the straw and haybox method as well as third world versions. The fact is, we use our ovens to cook casseroles for 3 or 4 hrs a time not realising that ovens are among the most energy-demanding appliances in our homes. Aside from our fridge, the oven is likely responsible for the highest energy consumption out of all our kitchen appliances.  Lots of us are feeling the pinch and having to make choices about where we can save money. Some of us have tougher choices to make than others.  The elderly and food bank users, already experiencing hardship, are finding that this latest hike in living costs is forcing them into fuel poverty and into impossible living conditions.  And we at the Sewing Rooms wanted to be part of the solution. As Iceland’s managing director, Richard Walker reports: “It’s incredibly concerning. We’re hearing of some food bank users declining potatoes and root veg because they can’t afford the energy to boil them.” To hear that those people already struggling to feed their families sufficiently are now unable to heat the little fresh food that they do have access to, is heart breaking. We hope through this campaign to raise a minimum of £5000 to help us to distribute The Sew Fab Thermal Cooking Bag to Food Banks  and community initiatives across the country we need your help to reach this goal. The more successful we are the more SewFab Thermal cooking bags we can gift to our most struggling communities. How does The Sew Fab Thermal Cooking Bag reduce fuel costs?  The thermal bag is based on medieval methods of cooking and more recently “Haybox Cooking”; a process which has been developed over the years and now, here in Skelmersdale, we have produced our own modern, portable, washable version. By choosing The Sew Fab Thermal Cooking Bag over your usual oven method, you can reduce cooking fuel consumption by up to 70% per meal, saving on average 1 ton of carbon emissions per year (based on twice weekly usage)  We estimate that 1 family using this cooking method  wice a week can save on average  £6 per week on fuel costs, that’s a saving of around £312  per year.   A family using this method 4 times a week can save around £12 per week with an estimate saving of £624 per year  That also a saving of 2 ton of carbon a year*.   Oven cost per hr Times per wk using oven 3.5 hr oven usage cost Cost of fuel oven use over the year times per wk using sewfab bag Cost Saving on fuel per week Cost saving on fuel per year 61p 1 £2.14 £111.28 1 £2.14 £111.28 61p 2 £4.28 £222.56 2 £4.28 £222.56 61p 3 £6.42 £333.84 3 £6.42 £333.84 61p 4 £8.56 £445.12 4 £8.56 £445.12 61p 5 £10.70 £556.40 5 £10.70 £556.40 61p 6 £12.84 £667.68 6 £12.84 £667.68 61p 7 £14.98 £778.96 7 £14.98 £778.96  So, How does it work?   This short video explains how the Sew Fab Thermal Cooking Bag works: https://twitter.com/SewFabAcademy/status/1538900662469156864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1538900662469156864%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.socialenterprise.org.uk%2Fmember-news%2Fthe-sewing-rooms-presents-the-sew-fab-thermal-cooking-bag-a-product-that-helps-us-in-the-fight-against-fuel-poverty-and-climate-change%2F What is it Made of?  Environmental impact The Sew Fab Thermal bag will use unwanted rolls/roll ends of textiles which are gifted  to us by Lancashire based companies, The Senator Group and Panaz Fabrics. Their help and support is invaluable as we will repurpose this fabric for the thermal bag, in addition we will be using their offcuts/scrap pieces of foam/textiles/polyester,  which we  shred to create a hybrid filling for the thermal insulation. Each Sew Fab Thermal Cooking Bag saves approximately 6 kg. of materials from going to waste.  Support the Crowdfunder! CEO and co founder Paula Gamester explains: “So many people are facing difficulties and hardship, and we at the Sewing Rooms wanted to be part of the solution so we did some research and designed the SewFab thermal cooking bag. We have launched a crowdfunder https://crowdfunder.co.uk/p/sewfab-bag  our target is £5000, however the more we raise the more people we can help.