How joining our network can help you deliver on your ESG goals

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.

ChangeKitchen CIC is a social enterprise based in Balsall Heath that is passionate about food justice in our city, and has launched a September crowdfunding campaign to create positive change in the local community. Their Crowdfunding UK campaign focuses on increasing the health and wellbeing of people and families in the local community, reducing food poverty, and enabling job creation for those experiencing worklessness. Match funding from both Aviva and Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, means that for the first £150 of each donation ChangeKitchen CIC can claim match funding of x5 until 29th September 2024. Meaning £25 becomes £125, and £150 becomes a huge £750! Why is this needed? Communities are still struggling with the cost of living and food poverty, especially among families. Balsall Heath is a deeply rooted, multi-cultural neighbourhood that is also one of the most deprived in the country. ChangeKitchen CIC are proudly located in the heart of the Balsall Heath community. In the last year, ChangeKitchen CIC has seen the need for free community meals rise from 200 per week to currently over 500 per week. With this Crowdfunding campaign they are being ambitious and aiming to raise £50,000 to ensure the nutritional health and wellbeing of individuals and families during this continued cost of living crisis. What ChangeKitchenCIC will do ChangeKitchen CIC can provide a free community meal for £1 – so every £1 donated can make a real difference to a real human who is experiencing real hunger right now. ChangeKitchen CIC are using this crowdfunding campaign to raise awareness of Birmingham food insecurity, help change the financial ability of families to feed themselves nutritiously, and create added social impact: Produce and distribute more free community meals to people experiencing food poverty. Provide healthy eating training within the local Balsall Heath community supporting meal planning and promoting good household budgeting. Create and seek out more work experience and employment opportunities (for those who are struggling to find work in catering and hospitality). ChangeKitchen CIC will do this by developing their ready meal offer and creating more sales, therefore creating more income, meaning more profits will be re-invested into the ChangeKitchen CIC social enterprise aims. In the first week, over £25,000 has been raised and is already making a real difference. Local people have been donating already and businesses can book catered events through the Cooking Up Change for Birmingham Crowdfunder UK campaign page. Birgit Kehrer, founder of ChangeKitchen CIC, says, “On behalf of the whole ChangeKitchen CIC team, we are so incredibly grateful for the support and kindness of our network and the community. It’s a firm belief within our social enterprise that no one should be going hungry in this day and age. Many parents give up their own meals to ensure their children have something to eat. There is a taboo, a real sense of shame, around people not being able to afford a basic human need such as nutritious food. We, at ChangeKitchen CIC, are committed to changing that, so we’re #CookingUpChange and asking people and businesses to get behind our crowdfunding campaign and donate to make a difference this September.” The crowdfunding campaign runs until 29th September 2024. Read the ChangeKitchen UK crowdfunding journey here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/changekitchen About ChangeKitchen CIC A social enterprise based in Balsall Heath providing catering and hospitality services with profits invested in reducing food poverty, reducing food injustice, reducing food waste, and improving skills, life opportunities and healthy eating by providing volunteering, training and community meals for vulnerable people in the local community. www.changekitchen.co.uk/ _ _ _ About Crowdfunder UK At Crowdfunder, we're on a mission to spread positivity across the globe. United for good, our team is dedicated to turning innovative community ideas into meaningful realities, going beyond the confines of traditional fundraising. We're a unique force in crowdfunding, driven by a desire to think creatively and address societal challenges through community-driven change and engagement. www.crowdfunder.co.uk/ _ _ _ About Cooking Up Change for Birmingham We're Crowdfunding to ensure the wellbeing of our communities during this cost of living crisis. This new initiative allows us to use our experience as a social enterprise event caterer to share our delicious and nutritious recipes with everyone! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/changekitchen/

NHS messages prompting gym-goers to look out for potential signs of cancer will appear in the changing rooms of hundreds of Better leisure centres this summer. Stickers reminding people to check themselves regularly are set to feature on mirrors in more than 240 leisure centres run by Better, the UK's largest leisure charitable social enterprise. The eye-catching stickers will feature the message ‘Check you out’ and ‘Know what’s normal for you’ before reminding people that if something in their body doesn’t feel right, to contact their GP practice. The scheme is the latest push by the NHS to find cancers at an earlier stage, with Better joining several other partners, such as supermarkets and washroom hygiene specialists, to highlight cancer messages to the public in relevant everyday situations. The new initiative comes as a survey of more than 2,000 people by Better found that only 55% of respondents check their bodies for physical changes regularly (at least once a month), and one in ten (12%) don’t check at all. Professor Peter Johnson, National Clinical Director for Cancer at NHS England, said: “Finding cancer early is key to successful treatment and survival, and this means that we need people who have new symptoms to come forward as soon as they spot them. This is why it’s vital that people are aware of their bodies, take notice of any change from what is normal for them, and get it checked out immediately. “The partnership with Better helps us to reach more people and remind them to check themselves at a time and a place that works for them. It’s a simple thing that anyone can do, but it really can save your life.” Joe Rham, Customer and Communities Director for GLL, the not-for-profit charitable social enterprise that runs Better leisure centres, said: “Our aim is to improve health and wellbeing in local communities and we’re delighted to be partnering with NHS England in this vital campaign. “The survey we conducted clearly indicates a need to raise awareness of potential signs of cancer and the mirror stickers will hopefully act as a timely reminder to our customers to check themselves regularly.” NHS staff are working hard to see and treat more people with cancer than ever before, with over 50,000 patients starting cancer treatment in June – more than nine in ten within one month – and over a quarter of a million people referred for urgent cancer checks. The NHS also met the 28-day faster diagnosis standard for the second month in a row in June with more than three quarters of patients (76.3%) – almost 200,000 people – receiving the all-clear or a definitive diagnosis within four weeks.   Lending her support to the scheme, Demi Jones, ex-Love Island reality TV stars, said: “I was just 22 years old when I received my thyroid cancer diagnosis after I found a lump on my neck. I contacted my GP practice straight away to get it checked out and I was quickly referred for further testing that led to treatment by the incredible NHS team in Portsmouth. I’m now living life cancer free and would urge anyone who notices an unusual change not to delay and speak to their GP as they are there to help. It really could save their life, as it did mine.” The survey by Better also found that 59% of respondents are aware of the symptoms of breast cancer – the highest awareness across the UK’s most common cancers. That is followed by skin (50%) and bowel (47%). Worryingly, one in five (20%) said they are not aware of any potential cancer signs - particularly among the younger age groups. 33% of those aged 18-34 said they were not aware of any symptoms, compared to 16% of those aged 35 or over. Of those surveyed, 68% of females and 56% of males said they would recognise a lump or swelling in a part of their body as a possible early sign of cancer and would seek medical advice. Rhiannon Morgan, 34-year old regional health manager for Better in London and Surrey, was diagnosed with breast cancer after finding a lump during a hiking holiday in Canada in 2019. She said: “When I found the lump, I was alarmed but I had no other symptoms and felt perfectly well so I wondered if it was just where my rucksack had rubbed against the skin.”  “Eight weeks later, test results showed that the lump was cancerous, so I needed chemotherapy and underwent a mastectomy during lockdown. Now I’m living cancer free and I would advise other people to know what’s normal for your own body and get yourself checked if something doesn’t seem right.” David Bateson, 49 from Ampthill, Bedfordshire, was diagnosed with melanoma after going to his GP about a bleeding spot on his scalp. He’d noticed the spot wasn’t healing and his wife, a nurse, encouraged him to get it checked. After being referred to a specialist for a biopsy, David was told it was cancerous and within months had surgery to remove it. Despite the cancer returning the following year, immunotherapy has meant that he is now cancer free. David said: “I am living proof that early diagnosis is so important. Although I never dreamt that this spot on my head would end up being skin cancer, it turned out to be one of the most aggressive types. I dread to think what would have happened if I’d not gone to my doctor when I did. “I think these stickers are a great idea. I play football at my local leisure centre, and – when you’re in the changing room or showering – it’s the perfect place to think about changes in your body, so it’s the ideal setting to remind people to be aware.” About Better Better is the consumer facing brand for GLL.  Established in 1993, GLL is the largest UK-based charitable social enterprise delivering leisure, health and community services.  Operating under the Better brand, it manages 250 public sport and leisure centres, 113 libraries and 10 children’s centres in partnership with 50 local councils, public agencies and sporting organisations. www.better.org.uk