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Douglas Alexander MP - Former Minister of State for E-Commerce and CompetitivenessThe Social Firms UK Conference |
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| (Left DTI 29/5/02) | |
Good afternoon, and thank you for inviting me to come today to your conference. It is a great pleasure to be here in Birmingham. Since taking responsibility for social enterprise I have been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and dedication of its practitioners. From all those here today I can see that Social Firms UK has done a great job in gathering together many people whose involvement in the social economy has brought real change to people's lives across the country. Today I'd like to talk about the Government's approach to the Social Economy; how social enterprise can help to deliver some policy objectives; and what the newly created Social Enterprise Unit in DTI can contribute. I will also look briefly at some of the support for Social Enterprise available elsewhere in Whitehall, an area already touched on by Maria Kenyon. So let me begin by saying a few words about the Government's commitment to Social Enterprise. We see social enterprise as providing innovative solutions to some of the challenges faced by many communities across the nation. They a have key role to play in providing the opportunities of employment and training to those outside of the mainstream employment market and they encourage entrepreneurship to grow in disadvantaged areas. As Patricia Hewitt and Gordon Brown reaffirmed only last week at the CBI Conference, enterprise and productivity are two vital areas we are focusing on in this Parliament. Successful social businesses are a great example of the way that the spirit of enterprise can make a genuine difference to the lives of people in disadvantaged communities. Working in businesses such as those represented here today allows individuals to recognise the valuable contributions they make to improving the quality of life for their customers and to generating income for their area. Social enterprises can open up enterprise for all sectors of society, achieving important social goals and encouraging economic development and prosperity for all. Social Enterprise also has an important role to play in the delivery of the Government's social and economic policy objectives. That is why the Social Enterprise Unit was launched on 9 October at a seminar I chaired, attended by 50 practitioners. It was opened by the Secretary of State, Patricia Hewitt, because she was determined to show her personal commitment to the work of the Unit. Personally, I believe that the DTI is the right place for the Social Enterprise Unit, because social enterprises benefit from the interface between traditional perceptions of how to achieve social aims and how to run a commercial enterprise. But is there, as some suggest, really a conflict? Social businesses are, after all, exactly that – businesses - requiring similar skills to those of mainstream business. For a social enterprise to deliver on its social objectives, it has first to deliver as a business. It is important, then, that social businesses benefit from all that is being done to support and promote the development of small business across the nation, much of which Maria talked about this morning. However, it also vital that we recognise that social enterprises may also have specialist needs and may, therefore, require different kinds of support. Social enterprises are nothing if not diverse, and the challenge for us comes in finding ways to meet the support needs that this diversity creates. Mainstream business and the social economy have much to learn from one another and we hope that having the Unit in the DTI will make it easier for this mutual transfer of knowledge and experience to take place. So how then will we take forward our work? Firstly the Unit will promote understanding of social enterprise within Whitehall – and more widely – so that policy development and implementation takes into account the opportunities that they can offer. Secondly, the Unit will work with others to identify issues, and following research and consultation as necessary,recommend measures that Government should take to facilitate the development and growth of social enterprises. And thirdly, it acts as a champion for the sector.It will contribute to the dissemination of best practice and work with providers to ensure that existing enterprises have access to the support they need. It will also encourage the setting up of new and sustainable social enterprises. Definitions can be contentious and that's why the Unit has decided to keep its definition of social enterprise purposefully broad. Its focus will be businesses with a social purpose whose profits are reinvested in the business or the community. We recognise that there is huge diversity of forms of social enterprise and we feel that this definition allows us to be inclusive in our research. These are obviously quite ambitious goals. But they are goals that can be met. We will work with practitioners like those here today, as well as key stakeholders in business, government and the public sector to ensure that we find the best way to encourage and support sustainable social enterprise. To this end, the Unit is working with a number of social enterprise-led working groups, looking at various aspects of the social enterprise agenda. The groups will look at Legal and Regulatory frameworks, Finance and Funding, Business Support, Promotion, Mapping and Central and Local Government Procurement. We have included in these groups representatives from different sorts of social enterprise and from all over the country. We have tried to involve as many stakeholders as possible while keeping the groups to a "working" size, but that is not to say that the input to these groups is limited to its members. If any of you here today feel that you would like to contribute to their thinking, please, do drop a line to the Unit directly and we will see that the group takes account of what you have to say. The Unit will be also be building on the networks of support for social enterprise that already exist across Whitehall and more widely. One of its tasks will be to make it easier for individuals to access the support and guidance they need. Of the many initiatives that together demonstrate the government' s commitment to community enterprise and to helping disadvantaged areas to help themselves, some, like the Phoenix Fund that Maria Kenyon mentioned this morning, fall within DTI and the Small Business Service. But this support for social enterprise exists throughout Whitehall. Take, for example, the Community Finance Learning Initiative run by the DfES. This programme, which is currently being piloted in 3 areas, is aimed at stimulating vulnerable communities to develop financial literacy as a way to build capacity and achieve lasting change. This initiative is focused on micro enterprise, particularly social enterprise, and will, I believe, help build the business capability such organisations must have if they are to be sustained and to grow. I'd like to finish with a practical, local example of the kind of social enterprise that typifies much of why we think such businesses deserve our backing. Many of you will already be aware of the work of The Garden Room in Sandwell. This is an emerging social firm run by SENSE that produces and sells garden furniture. The firm currently employs 13 people, who are variously disabled, in a range of roles, from the supervisory to those who actually make the furniture. This project has brought together all the elements of a successful social business - quality service delivery, a strong sense of enterprise and the ability to make a real difference to people's lives. This is the kind of organisation that we in the Government believe is contributing much of value to our society. Through the new Social Enterprise Unit, I hope we will in the future see more examples of such an enterprising solution to improving the quality of life for so many people. So can I thank you for the invitation to speak today and wish you well in your ongoing work to advance the social enterprise agenda. Thank you very much. |
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Other speeches by Douglas Alexander MP - Former Minister of State for E-Commerce and Competitiveness
(the following are available from the archive) |
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