In late 2020 we published a strategy to develop social enterprise in Plymouth. We have reviewed progress over the last year. The full review can be found here.
BUT we also do a lot of work in the ‘background’ and we think this is no less impactful – it is long-term and about advocating for social enterprise and building an ecosystem for a better future. So we wanted to say a little bit more about this representation, strategic, policy and advocacy work and what impact it has had, is having and will have for our members and Plymouth’s economy more broadly. We think this is important strategic work for our city and our social enterprises. If you want to find out more please get in touch. See below or click here for a summary: PSEN Impact
Activity
Impact
Representation on Resurgam Plymouth plans especially on inclusive economy, Resurgam Charter, Plymouth Growth Board and at Spend4Plymouth strategic planning with Plymouth City Council (PCC)
· Inclusive economics embedded in local strategies
· Social Value in procurement enhanced – leads to more opportunities for Plymouth’s social enterprises
· More awareness of Plymouth’s social enterprise sector
Advocacy for social enterprise specific business advice with partners such as PCC, HOTSW LEP, Devon County Council.
· Business advice programme via PCC for start-up social enterprises secured
· Groundwork laid for social enterprise advice in Shared Prosperity Fund in 2022
Advocacy with funders and investors such as Rank Foundation, Power to Change, Community Renewal Fund, Community Ownership Fund, Shared Prosperity Fund, Resonance, PCC and via the Plymouth Partners and Funders Forum
· More investment in Plymouth social enterprises = over £8.5 million over eight years
· Rank Foundation announced a three-year investment worth over £1 million for Plymouth’s social enterprises.
· Issues relating to social investment raised will lead to better deals in future
· Plymouth projects in pipeline for national funding
Representation at Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership (HOTSW LEP) Inclusive Growth Panel
· Inclusive economics embedded in strategies
· Greater awareness of Plymouth’s social enterprise sector regionally
Partnership with Social Enterprise UK especially around Community Entrepreneurship Zones (CEZ), Social Enterprise Places. Speaking at All Party Parliamentary Group on Social Enterprise and supporting SEUK with their research and policy work
· Plymouth a case study in CEZ proposal to national government – potential for us to be a zone and attract more support and investment
· More awareness of Plymouth’s social enterprise sector nationally
Advocacy and partnerships with University of Plymouth, Marjon, City College Plymouth and Plymouth College of Art on issues such as civic university, virtual internships, knowledge exchange programme and on student experiences/teaching and other events
· Internships delivered for Plymouth social enterprises
· Social enterprise concepts more embedded in University of Plymouth courses
· Opportunities for Plymouth social enterprises through City College European programme
· More awareness of Plymouth’s social enterprise sector
Responding to consultations/strategies such as PCC’s environment plans, Social Investment Tax Relief (SITR), Plymouth Culture Plan, PCC economic policy and strategy, HOTSW LEP Industrial Strategy and via Social Investment Commission
· SITR extended in national budget
· Social enterprise flagged in Plymouth Culture Plan as opportunity for future
· Social enterprise concepts and inclusive growth embedded in local and regional strategies
· Issues relating to social investment raised will lead to better deals in future
Ongoing work with local partners such as with POP on SIMPL project, with RIO on State of Us events, information sharing with Chamber of Commerce/FSB and others, EU application with City College
· Social enterprise concepts embedded in events
· Better partnerships leads to more opportunities for Plymouth’s social enterprises
· More awareness of Plymouth’s social enterprise sector
· EU funding secured – project will provide opportunities for social enterprises in Plymouth
Attendance and speaking at international social enterprise events such as Social Enterprise World Forum, Estonia national event and ongoing contact and work with SEUK and British Council
· More awareness of Plymouth’s social enterprise sector internationally
· Keeps spotlight on Plymouth and will provide opportunities for social enterprises in future
Gareth Hart, Director of PSEN, reflects on another week of social enterprise events and several ‘firsts’
“Well delivered, practical, really helpful, brought clarity to my thinking, directly relevant to my job. Great timing!” Festival attendee
Two weeks ago, we held annual Plymouth Social Enterprise City Festival. It was our eleventh event and for the first time it was held entirely online. Now that the dust has settled after a hectic week, I wanted to reflect on the event this year.
The week is part of Global Entrepreneurship Week and across the world this is a chance for social enterprises to raise the profile of their work but also to reflect on what kind of economy, society and businesses do we want.
We hosted twenty-two events covering issues from health and the economy; proving, sharing and writing about your impact; working with young people; making a difference to your community; working digitally; engaging with schools and much more! There was even a social enterprise tropical bingo night hosted by Nudge Community Builders – surely a WORLD FIRST!
We were as ever blown away by the time and energy PSEN’s members put in to helping us curate this celebration of all things social enterprise in the city. We are already looking forward to 2021’s festival. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do more face-to-face events, although digital delivery has certainly increased our reach and encouraged a different type of access. Also huge thanks to all our sponsors and supporters this year. Without you we couldn’t put this on.
The feedback from the festival has been very positive too. No-one said that the online format stopped them attending and 65% of people liked or even preferred the virtual delivery of events. 100% of attendees said that the festival was a good thing for Plymouth’s business community. Suggestions for the future included advertising more and earlier, sharing with students and graduates and seeking more national and international speakers. Quotes included:
“Shows the diversity and encourages a supportive network.”
“It is a great way to celebrate, highlight and illuminate Plymouth’s social enterprise scene”
“It was so powerful hearing about how other people are in similar positions to me and feel the same way.”
A bit of history
We held the first festival in 2010 – a small event in Plymouth University – where we elected the first members of PSEN. I’ve attended all of them. The Social Enterprise City festival has its origins in work undertaken in 2009/10 to look at whether there was a need for a social enterprise network in Plymouth. This research suggested there was a need for such a network. One of the early activities was to celebrate what was already going on in the sector as, at that time, there was very low awareness of social enterprise in the city. Over the years the event has grown from half a day to a day to week to two weeks and gone back to a week.
In 2012, I wrote a piece for the Guardian on why we were running the festival. I recently re-read this and found a lot of what I said then – as we were emerging from the 2008/9 financial crash – resonates now.
I said: “A key aim for us is to push social enterprise into the spotlight and make it central to the way the city does business. I think we need to make sure that social enterprise is understood by a wider range of people and captures the general public’s imagination. We want it to be the model of choice when setting up a business. There is more awareness than ever of the need for new economic concepts, fresh ideas and a fundamental shift in the way we do business. This is high on the political, economic and academic agenda. If we do not radically rethink our business models we will continue to recreate the same problems in the future. We want this festival to show that social enterprise can be the solution to the current economic and environmental crisis. That we can generate wealth sustainably, create meaningful and well-paid jobs and tackle some of society’s most intractable problems.”
The recent Covid-19 crisis has shown us that many of the same issues exist and we still need to re-think our economy to ensure we tackle all these issues more effectively. This is what the festival showed us: that that a better way of doing business is not a work of fiction. It is real; right here and now and it is growing. We need to continue that trajectory. We look forward to another decade of social enterprise festivals.
Some more quotes from attendees:
“Lots of interesting discussion and good attendance. Lots of questions and great panel.”
“It was so productive and useful! I’m going to wave my draft impact report at a lot of other organisations!”
“Engaging and great sense of community, well facilitated creating a safe space for sharing.”
“Great to hear about what is happening on the cutting edge from a well connected speaker.”
“The festival renewed enthusiasm after lots of time stuck at home, connected with other social entrepreneurs.”
“I have got a much better understanding of what social enterprise is.”
“Made me feel connected, motivated again and inspired. Thank you :)”
Plymouth Social Enterprise Network (PSEN) believes that developing social enterprises is a fundamental way to help Plymouth become a better city to live and work in. Indeed, we feel confident in saying that Plymouth is already a better city because of the great work of our social enterprises, co-operatives and community businesses.
The social economy is leading the way in showing how businesses can create value for communities, individuals and in the protection of our natural world. Many of the social enterprises doing this in Plymouth are highlighted in the strategy.
But we think we can go further. We face serious social, economic and environmental problems in Plymouth and the wider world. These have been brought into sharp focus by the Covid-19 crisis. We must learn from these challenges and build back better. Simply put we need a greener, fairer economy.
We recognise that the current emergencies we are facing – such as climate crisis, inequality, poor mental health, racism and enduring poverty – are symptoms of the way that we organise our world and, particularly, our economy. The Covid-19 pandemic has shown us that we need to re-think our economy to ensure we tackle all these issues more effectively. This includes re-imagining the role that businesses play in our economy and society.
We want to see a city where:
Businesses are good for people and planet
People with good ideas are supported to put them into practice
Business ownership and wealth and power is widely shared
Social enterprise is central to the way we do business
There are a variety of social enterprise models such as co-ops, community businesses, Community Interest Companies and more
Social enterprise is understood and people think of it as the model of choice when setting up a business
Social enterprises have access to the very best business advice and investment.
Our strategy sets out a wide ranging and bold five-year vision for social enterprise in Plymouth. And for us social enterprise means co-operatives, community businesses, trading charities, community interest companies and more. If, as a city, we deliver on this strategy we think we can go a long way to delivering the vision above.
Our strategy is developed on strong foundations. In 2013 Plymouth became the UK’s first Social Enterprise City. That award – from Social Enterprise UK – recognised the scope, depth and activities of the social enterprise community in the city. The Social Enterprise City ‘badge’ has led to investment and business advice schemes; it has raised awareness of this type of business and has helped social enterprise become better understood and respected in Plymouth. But there is much more to do.
Social enterprises need great business advice, increased access to finance and markets and courageous institutional policies that enable and support. We need to stimulate start-ups, raise awareness with the general public and work in schools to inspire young minds and show that social enterprise is the past, present and future. We need to build a movement for social change through business.
The strategy builds on research we conducted with social enterprises in Plymouth in 2019 and 2020. It has been developed in partnership with a range of partners in the public and private sector and with social enterprises themselves.
Over the previous five years social enterprise has grown in our city. There are more of them. They employ more people. They work in the most disadvantaged areas of Plymouth and bring in more, much needed income to the city’s communities. But going beyond that; the last five years has shown that a better way of doing business is not a work of fiction. It is real; right here and now and it is growing. We need to continue that trajectory for the next five years.
PSEN cannot do this alone. We already work in partnership with the organizations named in the strategy and we need them and others to be bold and ambitious in creating a better world.
So, join us. Help us deliver this work and this vision over the next five years. We believe we can, collectively, create a prosperous economy for all that tackles deep-rooted social and environmental problems.
Last week we attended three important meetings and promoted Plymouth’s social enterprises.
The first was Plymouth Resurgam Growth Board. At this meeting we heard from Public Health about the latest on Covid-19 in the city and how plans to build back better with a greener and fairer economy are progressing. We presented the new strategy for social enterprise in the city. The strategy was well received and the board was particularly interested in the social value and supply chain elements of the strategy.
We then attended the national SEUK Social Enterprise Futures conference and took part in important debates about government policy and the future of social enterprise. There were great speeches from:
Paul Polman (ex-Unilever CEO) who said: “Social enterprises shouldn’t just be at the table, they should OWN the table!”
Kate Raworth (Doughnut Economics) who talked about the need for businesses to have more “living purpose, going beyond themselves”and the importance of ownership and finance.
Gordon Brown (ex-PM!) who said: ”There is no route the future that does not have social enterprise at its centre”.
June O’Sullivan (CEO, London Early Years Foundation) who wanted to see a: “high street of social enterprises”.
Finally, we took part in the Spend4Plymouth round table meeting – exploring how we can get Plymothians to spend more with Plymouth’s business and particularly our great social enterprises. This work ties in with elements of the social enterprise strategy for Plymouth.
Plymouth Social Enterprise Network (PSEN) has today launched a Social Enterprise Strategy – a five-year plan to boost Plymouth’s social enterprises and help create a greener, fairer economy. The plan also aims to retain and build on Plymouth’s reputation as the UK’s leading social enterprise city.
PSEN Board Member, Gareth Hart, said: “We want to build upon our achievements so far, develop these and go into whole new areas such as technology and digital. Social enterprise seems to answer many of the questions being raised as people look towards a post-Covid society.
“This strategy is full of examples of Plymouth’s great social enterprises and shows how businesses can create value for communities and individuals, making our city and the wider world a better place to live and work in.”
The five priorities highlighted in the strategy are based on two years of consultation and development and are underpinned by the belief that a prosperous economy can also support a community, tackling deep-rooted social and environmental problems.
Plymouth became one of the UK’s first Social Enterprise Cities in 2013, recognizing the scope, depth, and activities of the social enterprise community in the city. Since then, there has been a significant international interest with people from Sweden, South Africa, Jamaica, Italy and others visiting Plymouth to find out more about our success. The five year plan will help to ensure that the city retains its place as the UK’s leading social enterprise city.
Gareth continued: “Social enterprise has become better understood and respected in Plymouth, but there is more to do. Social enterprises need more support, the general public need to be made more aware of what they can achieve and young people need to be inspired if we want a more compassionate, fairer, more diverse and more environmentally sustainable society.”
The strategy priorities include boosting business advice and access to finance for social enterprise; stimulating social entrepreneurship and start-ups; building more markets for social enterprises and developing more policy and advocacy work to promote social enterprise. The priorities will be reviewed regularly by PSEN and their partners to assess emerging themes and to make sure the strategy is still addressing the needs of local social enterprise.
The strategy will be launched on Monday 16th November as part of Plymouth’s Social Enterprise City Festival, which consists of over 20 online and in person events on the theme of ‘Educating the Economy.’
This event saw the launch of a government consultation on Social Value in procurement. Oliver Dowden, Minister for Implementation, described how government spending could create diverse and safer supply chains, improve inclusion and wellbeing, reduce environmental impact and encourage development of employees. There was a timely BBC news story about it too.
These are warm words but the devil is in the detail and this is just a consultation. We urge you to put in your own response and PSEN will lead a collective reply to this as it seems crucially important and, potentially, a great opportunity for members that have business with government. It also sets the tone for a wider range of public sector organizations to follow. Here in Plymouth our local council has done some ground-breaking work on social value and we hope this can be extended across the public sector in the city. Other themes from the event were:
Universities increasingly seeing themselves as ‘in service of society’ and well-placed as large anchor organizations to champion social value and procure with purpose
How the local industrial strategies need to support re-structuring the economy to make it fairer. This is another consultation we urge you to get behind. There is an event on the local industrial strategy on 25th March you should attend if you can. Book here.
On Friday we represented Plymouth – as the UK’s first Social Enterprise City – at the national Social Enterprise Places conference. This brought together some of the 30 counties, cities, villages, towns and zones that are demonstrating social enterprise at its best. The event was sponsored by NatWest and facilitated by SEUK. Key learning from the event:
Need for the places to come together more strategically with SEUK in response to local economic policy making and sharing intelligence
Need to raise public awareness of the social enterprise places movement
Increasing market opportunities for social enterprise in the places through Corporate Buy Social and other campaigns
Opportunities through NatWest on investment and local business support which we will share separately
SEUK are launching some new videos with celebrity patrons in partnership with the Co-op. Watch out for these soon.
To stay up to date with where we are on your behalf please do sign up to the newsletter and follow us on Twitter.
PSEN Director Annette Dhami attended the POP+ Conference earlier in the year and talked about how PSEN founders came together to launch the network, and what this action has gone on to create.
It went back 8 years.
Michelle Virgo from Dartington School for Social Entrepreneurs, Dave Kilroy from Social Enterprise Outcomes, Ed Whitelaw from Real Ideas Organisation and Gareth Hart from Iridescent Ideas CIC sat around a kitchen table on a windy autumn afternoon over coffee. One year before, a research study had been done to see whether Plymouth’s growing social enterprise sector would benefit from a network that could support it. The study found that it could. In 2010 an event was run to discuss getting one started, but representation from the social enterprise community itself was low, and the ball didn’t start rolling. Without Plymouth social enterprises taking the lead, another organization from Exeter was awarded a pot of funding to try to get it going, but – not being based in Plymouth – traction didn’t take, and when their contract ended so did the activities.
Over coffee, Michelle, Gareth, Dave and Ed had a question to discuss: did they, representing their various social enterprises, feel that they could get a Social Enterprise Network for Plymouth going? And where on earth would they start?
They knew that there were things on their side: they were all passionate about social enterprise and the type of inclusive and sustainable economy that it could help to build in Plymouth. They were all committed and willing to chip in. They represented social enterprises in Plymouth, so who better to do it? They decided to try.
Plymouth Social Enterprise Network was formally constituted in May 2011 and began its work by arranging regular meetings of 10-20 people. Learning quickly, a Board of Directors was soon set up to change the focus of these meeting from ‘how do we run a network’ (now done by the smaller voluntary board) to ‘these are the great things are happening in Plymouth and let’s celebrate them’ (with growing participants to do so). Before long, they secured funding to run a large conference – now run as the annual Social Enterprise Festival – and launched the first directory of social enterprises in Plymouth. They conducted research into the state of social enterprise in Plymouth, and started to reveal information about how important the sector was becoming. As this was being published, Plymouth University announced itself as a social enterprise, adding even more weight to the sector. £500 million income and 6,000 jobs were identified from the sector in Plymouth, securing coverage from national press.
They ran an event asking: ‘Social Enterprise City: What, Why and How?’, wondering what it would mean to be a city that champions social enterprise approaches. National speakers became to attend events, recognising the buzz in Plymouth. They began to organise bigger conferences, including the next social enterprise festival, this time a week long.
In 2013 Social Enterprise UK launched their Social Enterprise Places badge, looking for hotspots of activity in the country where social enterprise was thriving. With all the work done in previous years, PSEN was able to quickly evidence the case for Plymouth and over a few days worked to pull together a bid. It was successful, and in September 2013 Plymouth was announced – along with Bristol – as the first Social Enterprise City in the UK. Plymouth was put on the national map as a go-to place for social enterprise, and international universities, major funders and large organisations started to travel to Plymouth to find out more.
In the last five years PSEN has leveraged this opportunity to develop the support for Plymouth’s social enterprises further. It launched a paid membership model, to ensure that trading income was at the heart of its work and that the network would be financially accountable to social enterprises in the city. PSEN Board members began to be invited to influence governmental policy, sitting on the Plymouth Growth Board and the Plymouth Inclusive Growth Flagship; at the Local Enterprise Partnership level; and working with Social Enterprise UK, national government and other powerful players to champion social enterprise as a way to create a more inclusive and sustainable economy.
Between 2013-2015 PSEN ran even bigger social enterprise festivals, with – for example – over 2,000 people attending over the course of two weeks.
By lobbying for support and raising awareness increasing funding was secured to support social enterprises in Plymouth. Power to Change, the Seedbed Incubator Programme, Esmee Fairbairn, The Rank Foundation and Plymouth City Council are among the supporters that have funnelled over £6 million of finance and support into social enterprise support as a result.
With support for social enterprise growing, social enterprise is increasing its contribution and influence in the Plymouth economy. Progress has been notable, but there is more work to do. We want to see an economy with social businesses not at its periphery but at its core. Whilst we continue to be run by passionate and committed people representing a range of social enterprises in Plymouth, we will continue to try.
Come join us for the 2018 Social Enterprise Festival to learn more about the exciting things happening in social enterprise in Plymouth and ways to be involve.
PSEN attended the Social Enterprise World Forum in Edinburgh last week. What an event! We’ll provide a fuller report of our experience and how the conference applies to Plymouth’s social enterprises at our network meeting on 25th September. A quick summary:
It was a fantastic, energising and stimulating week. Attended by over 1,400 people from nearly 50 different countries the event was a huge celebration of social enterprise alongside lots of politics, debate and discussion on many themes. It was chance to re-connect with old friends and make new ones. There was even some dancing at a Scottish ceilidh (less said about the attempts at this the better!)
We were able to share the work of many of our social enterprises in various events. We went to the launch of Callander as Scotland’s first social enterprise place. We also attended events on building strong networks; tech for good; marketing social enterprises; procurement and supply chain; the UN Sustainable Development Goals and more. Some salient points were:
1. There was an expressed need for more digital social enterprise businesses.
2. We need to create a compelling vision of a better future – one where social enterprise is the ‘norm’.
3. We need to engage with wider audiences (creatives, corporates, small businesses, public sector, schools, general population, etc) – we can’t just talk to ourselves.
4. The importance of political support – Scotland’s ministers seemed to really ‘get’ social enterprise and see it as integral to their economic strategies. This has led to investment and the development of a good ecosystem of support.
5. Getting large businesses to spend more with social enterprises – this will increase impact rather than putting money into CSR initiatives.
6. That social enterprise ‘structure’ and the ability to be held to account were seen as marginally more important than ‘impact’.
The most powerful moment was a brilliant talk by Bruktawit Tigabu of Whiz Kids in Ethiopia. The country struggles with low literacy and Bruktawit said that two thirds of young girls in the country think that domestic violence can be justified. A shocking statistic that illustrates why her work is so desperately needed. Ethiopia will host the 2019 Social Enterprise World Forum.
There was also a great talk by Lord Victor Adebowale, Chair of SEUK. He reminded us that as a sector we need to be more joined up. We need to make alliances in the social economy and with the private sector.
The SEWF reminded us that if we want to create a better future we need to lead or the future will be created for us. Social enterprises employ more women, people from Black and Minority Ethnic communities, young people. Social enterprises work in areas that need economic development. Social enterprises pay more fairly. We should be unashamed of this and we need to BE business. Not charity but business.
We need to talk about anarchism.Once you get past the often misleading, negative, bomb-chucking stereotypes of the proceeding centuries, many of the ideas contained within the, by definition, very broad church of anarchist thought are quite sensible. Indeed, in many cases emphasizing balance and moderation. They also have the potential to provide at least part of the answer to society’s infinitely complex growing list of challenges, from political disenfranchisement to growing inequalities, aging populations, environmental degradation and shrinking public services.
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