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.