 The Social Enterprise Coalition has announced the names of fourteen social enterprises shortlisted for the 2006 Enterprising Solutions Awards.
The Awards - run by the Social Enterprise Coalition on behalf of the Small Business Service, RBS and NatWest, in association with the Cabinet Office, Defra, Social Enterprise Magazine and The Observer - recognise and celebrate the best social and community enterprises that are passionate about social change.
Eleven social enterprises are contending for four Social Enterprise Awards: Bulky Bob's (Liverpool) ,SCA Group (Southampton), Westminster Children's Society (London), Larne Enterprise Development CO (Larne, Northern Ireland) Sunderland Home Care Associates (Sunderland), Vision Support Trading (Chester), Cae Post Ltd (Welshpool, Wales), Galeri Caernarfon Cyf (Gwynned, Wales), Ruralnet (Kenilworth, Warwickshire), Focus to Work CIC (Kent) and The Phone Co-op (Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire).
Three social enterprises are contending for one New Social Enterprise Award: Blue Ventures (London), AFC Telford United (Telford, Shropshire) and Green Estate Ltd (Sheffield).
The overall winner will receive a cash prize of £10,000. Three other finalists and the winner of the New Social Enterprise award will receive £5000. Winners will be announced at the Enterprising Solutions Award ceremony at London's IMAX cinema on 25th October 2006.
Ed Miliband, Minister for the Third Sector said:
"These awards recognise just what we want to celebrate about social enterprises - their capacity to provide solutions to social challenges that are innovative and self-sufficient. This is a shortlist which shows the fantastic attributes of Britain's social entrepreneurs: dynamic and innovative, with a profound commitment to social justice. I look forward to congratulating the nominees face-to-face when Margaret Hodge and I co-host the Enterprising Solutions Awards ceremony in October."
Jonathan Bland, Chief Executive of the Social Enterprise Coalition said:
"Social enterprises that take a truly entrepreneurial approach to solving social and environmental problems are making a huge impact in communities across the United Kingdom. I want to see social enterprises succeed in every area of the economy to ensure people everywhere reap the social, environmental and economic benefits these businesses can bring."
ENDS
For further information please contact Lisa Knowles on 020 7793 2318/ pressoffice@socialenterprise.org.uk
Notes fo Editors
- The Social Enterprise Coalition (SEC) is the UK's national body for social enterprise. Acting as the voice for the sector, it supports and represents the work of its members, influences national policy and promotes best practice. www.socialenterprise.org.uk
- Social enterprises are dynamic businesses with social and environmental aims. Well known examples include The Big Issue, Cafe Direct and Jamie Oliver's Fifteen, but there are many other social enterprises operating in a wide range of industries from farmers markets and recycling companies to transport and childcare providers.
- According to figures from the Government's Annual Small Business Survey 2005 and existing data for the social enterprise sector, there are at least 55,000 social enterprises in the UK with a combined turnover of £27billion per year.
Notes on the shortlisted social enterprises
Bulky Bob's - the award winning bulky household waste collection, reuse and recycling company - is a social business that really delivers on its 'triple bottom line' objectives of commercial sustainability, social change impact, and environmental benefit. Financial viability is achieved by operating large scale fee earning contracts for local authorities such as Liverpool, Halton, Warrington, Sefton and Oldham. Social change is delivered through Bulky Bob's innovative 12 month training programme that gets 73% of previously long term unemployed staff working on the 12 month training programme into work. Additionally Bulky Bob's promotes social inclusion by successfully targeting the sale of great value 'pre-loved' goods towards low income shoppers. Environmental benefit is created by the very fact that Bulky Bob's diverts thousands of tonnes of material from landfill every year and through the use of environmentally efficient processes and resources - such as a bio diesel enabled logistics fleet. Bulky Bob's expanding into local authorities throughout the UK.
Cae Post is pioneering charity and social firm which provides work experience, employment and training for people with learning difficulties and those disadvantaged in the job market. In partnership with Powys County Council it runs a commercial scale Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) at Trewern, near Welshpool, funded by a 15 year recycling contract. It has designed the recycling tasks and lines in its Materials Recovery Facilities to be as inclusive as possible and employs about 30 people on full and part-time contracts, with some being supported by Shaw Trust. In addition Cae Post has a contract with Powys County Council Social Services for work placements for 24 adults with learning disabilities. These 'supported volunteers' work with and alongside employed staff on our recycling tasks. Cae Post is a unique forward looking enterprise which has inclusion as the heart of its activities. It seeks to tackle long term environmental, social and economic problems. Environmental change, as we teach sustainability to schools, visitors and the wider community; social change, as we employ and offer work opportunities and training to disadvantaged people; and economic change, as we offer disadvantaged people skills to improve their lives and obtain gainful employment. We have judged our success as a company this year as we exceeded performance targets, improved recycling throughput and reduced overall costs to the council.
Focus to Work is an umbrella organisation for social enterprises and social entrepreneurs. It provides, via its social enterprise companies, training and employment for people from a range of disadvantaged backgrounds. By offering individuals real work experience in sustainable commercial businesses, Focus to Work enables individuals to become active labour market contributors in a safe and supported environment. Focus to Work provides a unique resource for those groups in society most disadvantaged in the labour market whilst, at the same time, enabling them to achieve independence and obtain remuneration to a level that exceeds benefits and thereby removes them from dependency on the State. The organisation offers individualised packages of training, employment and support within an empowerment framework that is delivered by managers and staff with a wealth of experience in working with disadvantaged groups and their employment sector. Focus to Work's legal structure as a Community Interest Company complements the organisation's key values - to operate for the benefit of the community and society as a whole.
Galeri Caernarfon Cyf is a not for profit community enterprise operating as a Development Trust in the historic town of Caernarfon in Gwynedd, North Wales. It was established in 1992 (under its previous name of 'Cwmni Tref Caernarfon') to "pursue social, economic and environmental projects for the benefit of the community in Caernarfon and its environs". The development of the 'Galeri Creative Enterprise Centre' has been the largest and most ambitious of the Trust's projects to date. It is a brand new £7.5m Creative Enterprise Centre, which opened its doors at the town's Victoria Dock on 7 March 2005. The centre houses a flexible 400 seat auditorium, which also doubles up as a cinema (the first live entertainment venue in Caernarfon in over 20 years), several rehearsal and practice studios, art space, cafe bar, rooms for hire, conference facilities and 27 enterprise units, which currently houses 15 creative companies all engaged in artistic or creative work. Other projects include Property Development - the Trust has refurbished and re-developed 20 previously vacant and run down properties in Caernarfon. These properties currently house 31 commercial units and 6 residential units. These units currently provide employment space for 86 people.
Larne Enterprise Development Company Ltd (Ledcom) is a successful social economy enterprise, established in Larne, Co.Antrim in 1985 to tackle economic decline and unemployment. It was one of the first Local Enterprise Agencies (LEAs) in Northern Ireland and has developed over the years to provide a range of facilities/services including: managed workspace; programmes to support local economic development and the social economy; trade development services; and training, consultancy and mentoring services. With a committed board of fourteen voluntary directors and ten staff, Ledcom over 21 years has had a significant impact in Larne and Northern Ireland including: helping to establish 50 social enterprises, with over 150 jobs created; helping to set up over 500 small businesses with over 800 jobs created; and leverage of multi-million pound investment into Larne from the private and public sectors for economic regeneration initiatives. Ledcom was a founding member of Enterprise Northern Ireland (ENI) the association of Northern Ireland's 32 LEAs.
Ruralnet UK is a rural regeneration charity which promotes a living and working countryside and finds new ways to help rural communities improve and strengthen their local economies. It works to support agencies working on the ground to alleviate disadvantage, to enable social inclusion and social enterprise. Ruralnet UK works through promoting and enabling collaboration, research, consultancy and information transfer. With local partners, it runs projects which put ideas into practice at local level. It has specialist skills in Information, Communications and Collaboration Technologies (ICCTs) and wide experience covering their potential and their appropriate use for rural areas. Ruralnet UK is committed to its social enterprise approach in order to avoid grant dependency and the short term employment contracts associated with grant funded projects. The net:gain programme enables Ruralnet UK to exploit its strengths in IT, its commitment to the voluntary sector, its networks, and its knowledge of social enterprise in an innovative way which enhances the capacity of the sector, introduces more organisations to social enterprise, and secures the charity's own sustainability.
SCA Group was founded by 12 Southampton citizens as an Industrial and Provident Society for community benefit in 1991 in response to the "Care in the Community" agenda which invited independent providers to provide contractual day-care and home-care services for older and disabled people. With start-up grants of £100K, SCA became a large scale provider, working under contract to local authorities as a viable alternative to the private sector. Over 40 contracts are currently held with 6 local authorities in central southern England to a value of £7m per annum. In 2001 a training arm - the Quinn Centre- was established to support SCA and other organisations obliged to provide NVQs in 'Care' to a disparate workforce. To this specific purpose, short courses and joint training with local councils and universities have been added. In 2005 SCA became a healthcare provider; providing dentistry provision in an under-represented county. At present SCA has three dental clinics serving around 20,000 patients. Two further clinics will come on stream by 2007. All are situated in areas of great dental need. Over 50% are in areas of social deprivation. SCA is currently negotiating with "Future Builders" to support a programme of ten further clinics.
Sunderland Home Care Associates (SHCA) is an employee owned limited company currently employing 170 staff. Since 1994, SHCA have offered a high quality range of care packages and services for people in the Sunderland area. SHCA has a number of major contracts with Sunderland Social Services, the University of Sunderland and Sunderland Colleges. It is structured so that people will always come first. As an employee-owned social enterprise, staff members get a vital role in the decision-making process because they own a share in their company. This means that any financial surplus is utilised on providing a better service or towards rewarding all staff. In 2004, SHCA won the Best Participation Award and the Best of the Best Award from the North-East Social Enterprise Partnership (NESEP). As a result of the success of SHCA, a company called Care and Share Associates (CASA) has been set up to replicate the highly acclaimed SHCA model in other parts of the company including North Tyneside, Newcastle and Manchester.
The Phone Co-op is the UK's only telecommunications co-operative, providing low cost calls, broadband and line rental services on behalf of its customers, many of whom are co-operatives, charities and other not-for-profit organisations. The Phone Co-op's service has been taken up by over 15,000 customers, including Christian Aid, Amnesty International, Triodos Bank, the Centre for Alternative Technology, Leeds Co-operative Society, Manchester City Council and Unison. Its emphasis on good service has made the organisation very popular with residential customers and it was highly rated by a recent Which? Magazine survey. As a co-operative owned by its customer members, The Phone Co-op distributes any profits which are not re-invested back to members via a dividend based on each member's spend and through a loan fund which supports other co-operatives. In addition, The Phone Co-op has generated over £400,000 of income for its third sector affinity partners.
Vision Support Training (VST) is a social enterprise based in Chester. Its business is the transcription of printed information into a range of alternative formats, braille, large print and audio for people with a visual impairment. Clients include Financial Companies, Telecoms, Utilities and Pharmaceutical companies. The profits from VST are covenanted to Vision Support, a registered charity providing services for people who are visually impaired across Cheshire and North Wales.
Westminster Children's Society (WCS) is the capital's largest charitable chain of community nurseries. WCS's aim is to change the way nurseries in the UK are viewed and managed. WCS promotes the belief that a parent's choice of nursery carries with it significant moral and social responsibilities. The organisation manages to subsidise all the places at its 15 Westminster-based nurseries by a determined fundraising effort, with children from lower income parents receiving the largest subsidies. In this way, the income from wealthier parents helps subsidise part of the fee for lower income parents which in turn helps foster the "cross-sectional" experience WCS strives to achieve for all the 800 children in its care.
New social enterprise shortlist
AFC Telford United was formed in 2004 after the financial collapse of Telford United Football club. The new club is wholly owned by supporters and the community through Telford United Supporters Trust (An Industrial and Provident Society) and is an effective partnership between the club, supporters, the local authority, local college and other key partners. Positive partnership working has resulted not only in the creation of a new, stronger and community owned football club but also in one of the most imaginative sports and learning complexes in the country: a unique Sports, Enterprise and Learning Village for Telford.
Blue Ventures is a not-for-profit conservation organisation that develops responsible ecotourism initiatives to support pioneering marine conservation projects in the developing world. Its team comprises scientists, educators, coastal managers and volunteers, who work in close partnership with local communities, governments and institutions to carry out a wide range of projects that encompass capacity building, environmental education, ecological and socio-economic research, and the establishment of community-run marine protected areas.
Green Estate is a social enterprise based within some of the most deprived wards in South Sheffield which grew out of a five-year grant funded environmental regeneration programme. It now employs around 45 staff generating income from 'green' sales and services and embedding fair trade ethos into all its trading. Green Estate returns profit for the management of a number of public park and community garden sites which previously had no other funding. It provides a lead role on behalf of partners to drive up quality standards across all of the 300 hectares of open space land in the beneficiary area, regardless of ownership. The Company's mission is to create an inspiring and valued urban 'estate', where all open space is transformed from a liability into a productive asset, managed in a way that protects and enhances the local heritage, demonstrates environmental excellence and delivers social justice, both now, and for future generations.
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