Social Enterprise is recognised by Government as a key growth area. They are seen as key to:
• Helping to drive up productivity and competitiveness
• Contributing to socially inclusive wealth creation
• Enabling individuals and communities to work towards regenerating their local neighbourhoods
• Showing new ways to deliver public services, and
• Helping to develop an inclusive society and active citizenship

Social enterprises have three common characteristics:

a. Enterprise orientated: They are directly involved in the production of goods and the provision of services to the market. They seek to be viable trading concerns, making a surplus from trading.

b. Social aims: They have explicit social aims such as job creation, training and provision of local services. They have ethical values including a commitment to local capacity building. They are accountable to their members and the wider community for their social, environmental and economic impact.

c. Social ownership: They are autonomous organisations with a governance and ownership structure based on participation by stakeholder groups (users or clients, local community groups, etc.) or by trustees. Profits are distributed as profit sharing to stakeholders or used for the benefit of the community.

The Merseyside Social Enterprise Initiative is specifically about supporting those organisations that meet this definition. When accessing the support offered through MSEI you will be asked to demonstrate how you meet these three characteristics.

Social enterprises come in a variety of forms, which include:

• Employee owned businesses creating jobs and rescuing jobs as part of economic development strategies.
• Credit unions providing access to finance
• Co-operatives; associations of persons united to meet common economic and social needs through jointly owned enterprises.
• Development trusts; key actors in community based regeneration.
• Social firms providing employment and training to people with disabilities and other disadvantaged groups.
• Intermediate labour market companies providing training and work for the long-term unemployed.
• Community businesses; social enterprises which have a strong geographical definition and focus on local markets and local services.
• Charities’ trading arms enabling charities to meet their objectives in innovative ways, such as Fair Trade companies.”

(Social Enterprise London)

If you are not sure if your organisation is a social enterprise, and if it will qualify for subsidised suppport, contact:

Gary Ellis, MSEI Programme Assistant
Tel 0151 330 0552 or Email garyellis@expandinghorizons.co.uk

The powerful contribution made to economic development by social enterprise has gained recognition by Government. Their vision, contained in “Social Enterprise – a strategy for success” (DTI 2002) is of a “dynamic and sustainable social enterprise sector, strengthening an inclusive and growing economy”. Read this document.

Northwest Development Agency has also recognised the importance of the social enterprise sector. In the Regional Economic Strategy 2003, social inclusion is acknowledged as one of the three key components of sustainable development. Social enterprises and community businesses are seen as key to achieving social inclusion as they offer “alternative models for expanding economic activity whilst securing social gains and building community capacity”. Key Activity 6.2 charges Social Enterprise Partnerships with “developing social enterprises including community businesses”. Read this document