social enterprise

Reading a short biography of Robert Owen (by Stirling Smith, published by the Co-operative College) recently, a very short passage caught my attention:

‘...at this time great interest in the concept of exclusive trading, that is only shopping with retailers who supported progressive and democratic ideals. The chartists were particularly keen on this idea.’

This struck me as a great idea and one which could increase our own knowaledge of the sector; the products we buy; and consumerism in general. Could it catch on? Would it not need a more defined statement than simply ‘retailers who supported progressive and democratic ideals’?  Perhaps instead: ‘retailers who have social and environment ideals and a form of social ownership’- or in other words-a social enterprise (Marks and Spencer need not apply!).

This idea, forged in the very early days of our movement, is one that may just be about to make a comeback.  Would it be possible in today’s society to purchase exclusively from social enterprises?

This question tempts me to undertake an inverse Super-Size Me, a film in which Documentary Maker Morgan Spurlock just eats McDonald’s food for 30 days. Ian, our Information and Membership Officer, has put a poll together for the site. So here’s the challenge to you:  I need 100 people take part in the poll and if the majority vote ‘yes’ then for a whole month I will try and purchase everything exclusively from social enterprises!

So how will this work? If I need a computer peripheral I could buy it from Airedale Computers; office equipment from Re-Work Furniture; food from the Co-operative Group; clothes at Arkadash. This list goes on. Doesn’t sound too difficult does it...! I will give it a go and blog about the experience, keeping records of goods purchased.

Alex Sobel - General Manager, SEYH.

Last week I attended a briefing on the Future Jobs Fund organised by GOYH. If you are interested my advice would be to talk to your local authority or if in health, the strategic health authority.

I have put the contact details for the local authorities and some other info on the frontpage and in the news section.

If you want an informal discussion about this drop me a line.

This morning I attended the brief on the future jobs fund which is the £1billion the Government has allocated to help the long term unemployed in the recession.

Health Warning: This blog is going to include some technical and complex stuff and also my opinion on how I think the implementation will go.

The fund is primarily targeted at 18-24 year olds who will have been unemployed for 12 months or more from October 2009, the fund will also support those unemployed in hotspots which are wards with more than 5.7% unemployment. The fund will provide a wage subsidy of up to £6,500 for each job created which will last for 6 months. The Government also want to create10,000 green jobs from the scheme, although they do not have a definition ofwhat a green job is!

The first bids will be submitted to DWP this month and the first jobs will be created in October, the DWP were keen to stress that they wanted thingsto happen quickly. The onus is on partnership bids, however it is clear thatLocal Authorities will be bidding in most areas and although more than 1 bidcan be submitted per area, Government Office who are assessing will look to match organisations up and link different bidders in the same area together.It was clear that local authorities were preparing bids and had only engaged social enterprises in a small number of cases. A particular example of good practise was highlighted at the meeting were North East Lincolnshire council had already engaged with the third sector and were writing them into their bid, it was clear the DWP would be encouraging this sort of approach.

Although the scheme does not require match funding many areas were looking how to link it to other funding streams such as LEGI, WNF, TTG and Skillsfor Jobs.

Some useful references from the day are:

Future Jobs Fund Site:

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/campaigns/futurejobsfund/pdf/fjf-guide.pdf

Jobseekers Claimant count information:

https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/Default.asp

So if you think you can create jobs for long-term unemployed either for18-34 year olds or in a hot spot then what should you do next. I would suggest the first thing is to contact the officer in your local authoritywho is preparing the bid and look at being a partner on their bid, I haveasked for a list and will publish it on this website once I have it. If youwant to more advise or want to lead your own bid I am happy to tell you moreabout the presentations from the event.

Finally, I think this is an opportunity for social enterprises who can create sustainable jobs through using this bootstrap funding to create or develop income streams so that the jobs last much longer than 6 months whichis a real concern with the jobs created by local authorities. I think thereare particular opportunities for green jobs through recycling, energy efficiency, micro-generation and through improving the built environment.