Social Enterprise Barometer – Employment and policy priorities

This paper, published in partnership with the Living Wage Foundation, delves into the quality of employment created by social enterprises compared to the wider business community. From recruitment to paying the Real Living Wage (RLW) – the report takes a comprehensive look at just why social enterprises represent business at its best when it comes to work, finding that social enterprise employers are more likely to pay better, offer training, involve employees in organisational decision-making, and retain staff.

Our Buy Social Corporate Challenge is now entering its ninth year of supporting big businesses to bring social enterprises into their supply chains. Since launching at Downing Street in 2016, £477 million has been spent with social enterprises by 30 major corporate partners across all business sectors. The premise of the Challenge is simple: working with corporates to use their core business spend to create positive social and environmental impact. Our latest annual report shows the Challenge had the most successful year ever, as partners spent £123 million with social enterprise suppliers. Read on to find out more about the transformative impact of social procurement.

Our new report, published with the London School of Economics and supported by the Connect Fund, uses elite education as a proxy to investigate aspects of diversity not yet well analysed in the social investment sector: socio-economic inclusion, and the role of power and privilege among those who work for social investors.