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Last updated: 22 October 2009
22 October 2009
Angela Smith, Minister for the Third Sector, toured some of the East End’s leading social enterprises on October 22nd and met with twelve of the country’s Social Enterprise Ambassadors.
The east of London has become a hub for some of the most exciting social enterprises in the UK and there are estimated to be around 4000 registered social enterprises in London, providing over 100,000 jobs, with a combined turnover of £4bn.
The minister visited several of the leading social enterprises in the area: first stop was Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen, managed by social enterprise ambassador Penny Newman. The minister had breakfast with ten social enterprise ambassadors and discussed the contribution social enterprise can make to business, public services and the community.
Minister for the Third Sector, Angela Smith said:
“Jamie Oliver’s restaurant is a great example of how a social enterprise can really make a difference. Fifteen has a very positive impact on the local community and has helped young people learn new skills and build a career in the restaurant business. People like Jamie and the Social Enterprise Ambassadors are doing a great job raising the profile of social enterprise and I hope they can inspire others to consider setting up their own social enterprises.”
The tour took the minister to visit two other ambassadors’ social enterprises: Dai Powell’s thriving transport business HCT Group and Maria Donoghue-Mills’ Novas Scarman Group which supports around 6,000 marginalized people every year.
HCT Group, headquartered in Hackney, provides training and jobs for hundreds of long-term unemployed people, while operating a profitable business model. Chief Executive Dai Powell started out at HCT Group as a volunteer bus cleaner; his social enterprise now has a turnover of £20.4m. The profits from HCT Group’s commercial services – 97 per cent of HCT Group’s turnover – are ploughed back into delivering better community services.
Novas Scarman Group (NSG) works across England. Their ‘Contemporary Urban Centre’ in London Bridge, operates a range of businesses which provide work and learning opportunities for people from disadvantaged backgrounds. NSG helps people with drug or alcohol dependency, mental health difficulties, women fleeing domestic violence and refugees, helping them become independent and enter into employment. Over the last year NSG worked with 960 people with an offending background of which only an average of 10 per cent of its customers reoffend – against 60 per cent nationally
The Minister said:
“During my tour today I’ve met some truly inspirational people, from bus engineers to sous chefs and carers for people living in very difficult circumstances and have seen first hand the real support and regeneration to communities provided by social enterprises in the East End. I look forward to seeing the development of more and more social enterprises across the country, providing viable solutions to social problems in their communities."