How is Social Enterprise arranged in the South East?

In the South East, there are 18 key stakeholders who make up South East network. 

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Please click here to view a chart detailing the organisation of the South East Social Enterprise Network (SESEN).

Please click here to go to the South East Social Enterprise Network blog site.

It's business but not as we know it!  Click on the title to view the Enabling Framework for the South East.

Challenges facing Social Enterprise.

We are looking to raise awareness of social enterprise across many audiences, to show that financial success and social and environmental benefits can be achieved together.

The South East of England is often seen as one of the most affluent and entrepreneurial parts of the UK. Common misconceptions are that we have no poverty and no problem with resourcing public services. The high cost of living, lack of housing supply and the lowest potential to receive government sponsorship to deliver services to the most excluded means that if you are poor in the South East you are amongst the poorest people in the UK.

It was this primary driver; a need to find alternative ways to deliver services and support communities, as part of SEEDA’s wider Social Enterprise programme, that led to the development of the South East Social Enterprise Strategy, written by SEEDA, in 2005. The strategy brought together a wide range of partners from across the region with the primary task of developing a strategy that would create the environment that would enable social enterprises to develop and evolve quickly and sustainably.

The traditional and accepted representation of business has focused on generating a financial return, but in reality this is only one of the reasons that entrepreneurs may look to start up a company. What motivates an entrepreneur may be as much about tackling social or environmental concerns as it is about generating a return for shareholders. At the same time, both employees and customers are demanding more socially responsible behaviour from businesses.

Successful social enterprises such as ECT Group, Greenwich Leisure and the Eden Project show that it is possible to combine financial and social objectives. But the DTI’s Household Survey found that only 26 per cent of people were familiar with the concept of social enterprise. This lack of knowledge is likely to restrict people’s ability to make decisions about the type of business they set up, choose to work for, buy from, or invest in.

The lack of information may also restrict the ability of social enterprises to influence the wider business culture. Other businesses may be unaware of the tools and techniques needed to measure their social impact, or the possibility of meeting their corporate social responsibility obligations by making ethical purchases from social enterprises in their supply chains.

Sector representative bodies have a big role to play in raising awareness of what social enterprise can offer. Individual social enterprises could make better use of information about their social and environmental added value in the way that they market themselves to customers and policy makers. But government also has a role in helping to overcome the information failures.

Government can compile the evidence of the impact and role of social enterprises; and use this evidence to raise awareness of social enterprise among young people, businesses and other potential founders and employees.

 Click here to view the National Social Enterprise Action Plan 2006.

Social Enterprise Coalition