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Social Enterprise UK have launched a brand-new Social Enterprise Directory. Featuring our members, the Directory is a unique way for social enterprises to connect with potential customers. Organisations and consumers who want to purchase with purpose can use the Directory to find social enterprises they could work with or buy from. All members that are social enterprises can be listed on the Directory. Members can update their profile either through the Directory itself or by contacting our membership team on membership@socialenterprise.org.uk.   The Directory is the place to visit if you want to explore the social enterprise movement- you can search by product type, social/environmental mission or by location.  CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE DIRECTORY

Social Enterprise UK has today launched the Social Enterprise Knowledge Centre – which aims to be a world-class source of evidence and insights on social enterprise. For more than a decade, our data and evidence has been the foundation of much of the research on social enterprise in the UK. Information collected by us on social enterprise activity drives understanding, awareness and progress. It informs public policy, from the creation of Better Society Capital (formerly Big Society Capital) and Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, to the Social Value Act and the development of public service mutuals, as well as the recent Adebowale Commission on Social Investment. The new Knowledge Centre brings together evidence compiled by us with wider sources of data, to make the UK’s most comprehensive source of information about social enterprise. It houses qualitative and quantitative information and will produce evidence for a range of audiences exploring key thematic areas of interest for social enterprises and their support ecosystem. Working in partnership with social investors, foundations, government, support organisations, academia and social enterprises, the Knowledge Centre will produce a wide range of reports and insight to promote understanding and inform positive change. Click here to visit the knowledge centre The Knowledge Centre is the home of our State of Social Enterprise Reports – our flagship piece of research looking in depth at the UK social enterprise community. Published every two years the report highlights key trends in the social enterprise sector. It also houses our quarterly Barometer reports which give a snapshot of social enterprise performance as well as how specific economic and political developments are affecting social enterprises. The Social Enterprise Knowledge Centre is supported by Access – The Foundation for Social Investment. Social Investment Business and Better Society Capital.

Thousands of social enterprises may not survive the winter amid rising energy and operating costs and concerns over accessing contracts and funding, according to the findings of Social Enterprise UK’s latest Social Enterprise Barometer Report. Across the 222 respondents, the report highlighted signs of strain over the last quarter, with cashflow and reserves positions worsened, turnover and growth expectations down, and a decline in staff numbers. 3% of respondents said they expected to close in the next few months, which if applied to the 131,000 social enterprises the government estimates there to be in the UK, would mean around 4,000 social enterprises could be at risk of closure this winter[1] Many social enterprises are uncertain about their growth expectations, with nearly a third (30%) saying that growth is dependent on pending funding applications, income or contracts. In response to the cost-of-living crisis, nearly two-thirds of respondents (61%) said they are seeking new grant funding, half are reducing spend on non-essential inputs and services, more than a third (36%) said they have had to increase prices, and a third (30%) are reducing their profit margin. The main concerns identified by social enterprises within the next three-six months are accessing funding and finance (57%), costs related to staff (40%) and energy prices (35%). Over a third of respondents (35%) are concerned about reduced demand for their products/services and just over a quarter are concerned about capacity to meet increased demand (27%). Respondents were also asked what forms of support would help in the current economic climate. Among the top suggestions, a third of respondents said they would like support with cashflow and cuts to national insurance contributions, a quarter of respondents wanted better terms and conditions on public sector contracts, and around a fifth of respondents wanted support with energy bill payments and cuts in business rates. Peter Holbrook, Chief Executive of SEUK, said: “It’s clear from this report that the combined crises surrounding energy, inflation and recession have many social enterprises concerned for their future. “Our past research has shown that social enterprises prove more resilient to economic challenges than other businesses, so the degree of strain social enterprises are experiencing demonstrates the scale of the difficulties they are facing. “Most social enterprises work with people directly affected by the rising cost of living and they themselves need government support to brace the barrage of economic and financial instability. “Social Enterprise UK will closely monitor Government support announcements as it must enable social enterprises as they tackle the issues facing our communities and our planet. It is a matter of urgency.” The Social Enterprise Barometer report can be accessed through SEUK’s new Social Enterprise Knowledge Centre. Launched on 9th November, the Social Enterprise Knowledge Centre seeks to be the UK’s most comprehensive source of evidence on social enterprise. [1] Based on the new government estimate of 131,000 social enterprises in the UK: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1101560/Social_Enterprise_Market_Trends_2019_-_Middlesex_University.pdf

Calling all social enterprises - Social Enterprise Day 2022 is on Thursday 17 November. The day is a great platform to help raise awareness and understanding of social enterprise and make some noise about your social enterprise and the way your business is making a difference.At SEUK we’ve been working on three different ways that you can get involved this year. Social media This Social Enterprise Day we want to celebrate the work of the wonderful social enterprise community. We’re asking you to take to social media to tell everyone about what you or your social enterprise does. You could also post about some of the people from your team who make it happen. Please tag with #SocialEnterpriseDaye.g.  Here at Acme products we are celebrating #SocialEnterpriseDay and we are proud to say that we’ve been making amazing social enterprise products that make a real difference for the last ten years. Let’s introduce you to some of our lovely team:[Insert image of one of the team]This is [name] and their job is to look after our wonderful customers! Media We have sent SEUK members a template press release to send to local newspapers, radio or TV stations to help raise the profile of the work they are doing and any activities planned for Social Enterprise Day. If you are an SEUK member and have not yet received the template release, please do contact our press office – pressoffice@socialenterprise.org.uk   To find out more about joining membership click here.We’ve created a press release template that you can adapt and send to your local newspaper, radio or TV station telling them about your business and any activity you have planned for Social Enterprise Day. You can find your local media’s contact details on their websites. Campaign with us You can make your voice heard as part of our Dormant Assets campaign – (find out more about what we’re campaigning on here). We are asking social enterprises to contact their local MP ahead of Social Enterprise Day to call on them to support investing dormant assets in social enterprises and community businesses. Find out more about the campaign and take action here.

SEUK is campaigning in support of the Community Enterprise Growth Plan – a plan which will support social enterprises get access to the suitable and affordable finance they need to develop and grow. We’re calling on all social enterprises to support the campaign by writing to their MP using our simple template letter and online portal. The letter asks MPs themselves to write to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to ask the Government to invest dormant assets in social enterprises and community businesses through the Community Enterprise Growth Plan. Click here to contact your MP The Community Enterprise Growth Plan is part of a wider campaign to direct dormant assets towards social enterprises. Dormant assets are financial products, such as bank accounts, which have not been used for many years and which have proven to be impossible to reunite with their owners. Over the next decade the value of these assets could be worth as much as £700 million and we’re calling for these to be used to help drive more inclusive access to social investment, to reform the market and ensure social enterprises are able to access the finance they need. We are campaigning for this money to be invested into social enterprises and supporting communities develop stronger local economies. You can find out more  in this blog by SEUK’s Director of External Affairs, Andrew O’Brien. Please do take 5 mins to send our template letter to your MP. All you need to do is enter your postcode and our campaign tool will do the rest! Click here to take action We need to put social enterprise front and centre of the minds of political decision makers – as a way to help level up the country, to reduce inequalities in health and opportunity, and as a means to grow a more inclusive economy. Contacting your MP will help raise the profile of your work and the work of the broader social enterprise community as well as giving them a concrete action to take to Government calling for better support for the sector. If you write to you MP and they get back to you please contact Andrew with the response andrew.obrien@socialenterprise.org.uk

24 October 2022 Peter Holbrook, Chief Executive of Social Enterprise UK, said: As Rishi Sunak becomes the new Prime Minister, we look forward to hearing his plans to bring stability and clarity for business in the coming months. The Prime Minister has stressed the economic challenges the UK faces. It is time for a reset of Government economic plans. We urge the new PM to address the challenges we are facing as a society and unlock the potential of social enterprise in tackling the issues facing our communities and our planet.

17 October 2022 Responding to today’s announcements from Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, Peter Holbrook, Chief Executive of Social Enterprise UK, said: Social Enterprise UK welcomes the Chancellor's commitment to targeting energy support for business and encouraging energy efficiency, as social enterprises are more likely than other SMEs to have been investing in energy efficiency since before the energy crisis began. We call on the Chancellor to consider investing more in the social enterprise sector to help accelerate this work and contribute to an enterprise-led recovery.  Social enterprises are under pressure from increased energy costs now and will need support as long as the energy crisis continues, which is unlikely to stop in April.

Keen observers of social media will have noticed that Social Enterprise UK attended the Conservative Party Conference this year, one that will live long in the memory for the news and content it generated. As with Labour, we were there to understand the future direction of policy and to raise awareness of the social enterprise sector. Social enterprise and levelling up Away from the headlines, there were some positive references to social enterprise and recognition of the value of the sector. On Sunday, the New Social Covenant Unit launched a new paper called “Social Capitalism” (covered in the Times and on Radio 4), authored by 12 Conservative MPs.   The paper made the case for investing in our social infrastructure, the local institutions that make up our communities, and treating it as seriously as our physical infrastructure (roads, railways, broadband). The paper made numerous references to social enterprises from the importance of social enterprises in maintaining this social infrastructure to social enterprises delivering public services in a way that listens and works with communities creating stronger bonds between people. This will require investment in the sector, reform to the way that we deliver public services and greater support for communities to develop social enterprise solutions. The paper was launched by the former Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove and Dehenna Davison, the new Minister for Levelling Up, who both endorsed the vision outlined in the paper. We will be taking this forward to see if warm words can be turned into strong action to support social enterprises and realise their potential to level up the country. There were also positive references to social enterprises at a number of different events, particularly those organised by the sector such as those from Social Investment Business and Big Society Capital. Overall, there was a sense at conference that “enterprise” was the way to help communities to level up – although without a clear sense of what government was doing to stimulate this enterprise. No plan for growth or public services The centre piece of the conference was “growth” and how the government was going to deliver growth. It is clear that accelerating the growth of GDP is going to be the central focus of the government. The problem is that there is simply no plan to deliver it beyond tax cuts. Social enterprise is one of the fastest growing forms of business in the country, yet the ideological view from No.10 is that the business of business must only be business. There is no recognition that alternative approaches putting social and environmental purpose first could drive faster growth and generate greater resilience through encouraging long term investment in people and places. The main positive of the Mini-Budget and its fall out is that the shallowness of the position on tax cuts has encouraged politicians and the media to think more broadly. If tax cuts won’t work, what will improve our economy? The fact that noted economist, Kate Raworth, was invited to speak on Radio 4 in the wake of the Prime Minister’s speech is a recognition in the media that we need a national conversation on what drives growth beyond tax cuts and deregulation. Social enterprises will need to fight to be heard but for the first time in a while, a genuine debate is emerging. The other concerning area is public services. Under the radar of conference, the government announced that departmental budgets would not see their funding increase by inflation. Effectively that is a cut of £18bn for government departments and these savings will be passed through the system, with public services and welfare budgets likely to come under severe strain. Schools and hospitals alone are estimated to have to find £11bn in “efficiency savings” to make up for rising prices. Given the state of public services after a decade of austerity and the impact of COVID, this feels untenable. Backbench Conservative MPs were clearly worried about the impact of further cuts to spending and once Ministers face the reality of these spending reductions, some form of rebellion feels likely. However, the embattled state of the government means that there is no guarantee that this policy will be changed. Social enterprises delivering public services should plan for a difficult two years ahead. A tale of two parties The overriding sense of this conference was a party divided. On the one hand, those that have a more holistic view of society and the economy are concerned that this government is heading in the wrong direction. On the other hand, those that want to see government get out of the way and cut taxes for business feel that they simply need to stay the course. Their plan will work, if it is given time. In the middle are a lot of MPs and activists who do not know what to think. Who will win out in this battle, it is hard to say. Either way, Social Enterprise UK will keep engaging with politicians on all sides to recognise the value and importance of social enterprise for our future. The fastest way to grow our economy and have high quality public services is to grow social enterprise. By Andrew O'Brien - Director of External Affairs at Social Enterprise UK