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Social Enterprise Business Support Improvement – evaluation report

Baseline findings and users’ perceptions from the national evaluation of the Office of the Third Sector project are now available.

The report provides a picture of social enterprise business support activity, enhanced with results from the Business Link Customer Satisfaction survey and users’ perception derived from in-depth interviews with social enterprises.

In October 2008, the Office of the Third Sector contracted with Step Ahead Research Ltd to carry out an evaluation of its Social Enterprise Business Support Project in each of the nine English regions.  The business support project stems from a commitment in the Social Enterprise Action Plan to improve business support for social enterprises.

The evaluation aims to assess the quality of the social enterprise customer experience through Business Link and to measure the impact of Office of the Third Sector funding on the mainstream business support environment in each of the English regions.

The baseline report brings together the results of desk research into the social enterprise sector, in-depth interviews with key staff involved in the design and delivery of the Office of the Third Sector funded activity and management information, including Office of the Third Sector monitoring reports, initial Regional Development Agency proposals, notification of project change and the results.  It is further enhanced by the social enterprise Business Link Customer Satisfaction survey of quarter three 2008/9 and users’ perceptions derived for depth interviews with 71 social enterprises across each region who have benefited from the Office of the Third Sector funding.

Early indications from the Business Link Customer Satisfaction survey suggest that:

 6 per cent of Business Link customers are social enterprises
 88 per cent of social enterprises are satisfied with Business Link service
 72 per cent of social enterprises would reuse Business Link
 75 per cent of social enterprises would recommend Business Link to someone else
 61 per cent of social enterprise had already recommended Business Link to someone else

Emerging issues from the evaluation

The baseline report confirms a number of issues around social enterprise business support...

 social enterprise business support is improving but this varies in each region
 conflicting views on the element of business support which needs the most investment in each region
 social enterprises' business support needs are broadly similar to those of mainstream businesses but the nature of the business model means it will always need specialist support component
 social enterprises value peer-to-peer supporting, mentoring and networking opportunities as part of their development

The evaluation will be completed with the end of the project in March 2011.

Download the full National Evaluation of the Office of the Third Sector Social Enterprise Business Support Improvement Programme baseline report

Download the service user perceptions paper