What the new Procurement Act means for social enterprises

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

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 tips do you have for other VCSEs looking to work with government? Andy recommends trying to secure contracts with key performance targets, rather than spot purchase arrangements, as this offers a much more stable source of revenue: “When we secured our first contract on the CFO3 provision across the prison service, the fact that we knew we were guaranteed that revenue every month for two years gave us the financial stability to be able to build and look to the future. Yes, we had some tough targets to meet and to evidence, but we knew exactly where we were. At the moment a lot of our contracts are on spot purchase arrangements, so we don’t know from one month to the next how many referrals we’re going to get in and how many successful outcomes we’re going to be able to draw down funding for. See if you can persuade the contracting body or prime to put you on a fixed-term contract with a guaranteed minimum revenue stream every month. It certainly was the building block for us to be able to continue with our growth.” Another top tip is to “network, network, network – get your name out there, go to as many events as you can, get your pitch deck in order and get it done professionally”. One big piece of advice given to Andy when it comes to promoting your business to a contracting organisation is to make sure you focus on the specific issues you can address and how you can work with them to deliver the solutions needed, rather than on broadly talking about what you do: “When talking about promoting your business to primes and to government organisations, start off with the problem you’re going to solve as opposed to what a lot of people do which is saying who we are, what we do, how great we are then at the end talking about the problem. Turn it on its head, go to the prime and tell them - this is a problem I’ve identified that you could potentially face with this contract and this is how we can support you to resolve it.” Based on a conversation with Andy Gullick, Chief Executive at RIFT Social Enterprise riftse.co.uk