Moray Social Enterprise Network

Wednesday 14 March 2012, The Elim Centre, Glasgow

With austerity measures and Westminster budget cuts affecting The Scottish Government, Scotland’s local authorities and public bodies, there will be an inevitable reduction in spending on public services.

With Social Impact Bond pilots in place in England, we ask if this model, or an equivalent, could help fund outcomes based programmes through private investment. Will this allow Scotland’s third sector to deliver high quality services, create a fairer society with greater opportunity and potentially generate long term savings to the public purse?

The Social Impact Bonds conference, organised by Spectrum Outsourced Solutions, in partnership with Social Enterprise Scotland, Quarriers, Crossreach, Cornerstone, The Clydesdale Bank, The Co-operative Bank and Social Finance, will examine whether the Social Investment Bond model or an equivalent can work in Scotland. You can view the brochure by visiting http://spectrum-events.co.uk

As a member of Social Enterprise Scotland, you are entitled to a discounted rate of £65 per delegate. Please enter the promotion code “SES” when booking your place to receive this preferential rate.

Kind regards,

Kate Walshaw

Social Enterprise Scotland – The Voice of Social Enterprise

Thorn House, 5 Rose Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2PR

T: 0131 243 2650

E: kate.walshaw@socialenterprisescotland.org.uk

W: http://www.socialenterprisescotland.org.uk/

Description

Read more here: http://www.socialenterprisescotland.org.uk/campaigns/1

Starting in February 2012, the Leading Growth Leadership Programme will help you to progress your career as a third sector manager and leader. With support and insight from peers and Social Enterprise Academy tutors you will build your confidence and knowledge of leadership, giving you the tools you need to grow your organisation, lead your team and develop your self-awareness.

Down load information flyer here: Just Enterprise Leading Growth – Inverness2

UnLtd’s Madeleine Gabriel explores why older people are less likely to start social enterprises

At UnLtd – admittedly perhaps predictably – we’ve taken the view that social entrepreneurs might have some of the answers. Our programmes Engage (in England) and Ignite (in Northern Ireland) specifically aim to unleash the social entrepreneurial talents of people who could tackle issues of an ageing society, or who were over 50 themselves.

Over the past two years, we have been working with Middlesex University, our partners in a CASE PhD Studentship, to look in depth at social entrepreneurship amongst people aged 50 and over. We’ve recently published Golden Opportunities, our first findings paper based on this work.

Although over-50s comprise 44% of the UK adult population, they account for only 18% of UnLtd’s Award Winners. Continue reading →

Business Support for Social Enterprises Report by Gordon Allison, Paul Braidford, Maxine Houson, Fred Robinson and Ian Stone. Policy Research Group, University of Durham, October 2011

This document reports on research done over the course of a year, with different sets of social enterprises (in England),  covering the variety of size, growth rates and  enterprise focus. Heavy reading requiring a fair bit of time allocation, but loads of useful insights contained within the pages.

Mentoring opportunities coming soon for interested MSEN members!

Downloads in a new window: 12-566-business-support-for-social-enterprises-longitudinal

Using Our Buying Power to Benefit Scotland: Independent review of Scotland’s procurement process. The review, published by the Jimmy Reid Foundation, breaks down the funding process in Scotland and suggests system reform. Access documents here.

Community Resource Network Scotland FREE TRAINING WORKSHOPS – INVERNESS 14TH FEB 2012

The CRNS are running some free training workshops for the 3rd Sector and there are still some places left on next week’s H&S and Understanding Carbon Workshops in Inverness.

The 1/2 day H&S workshop has been designed to be informative and engaging for staff undertaking reuse,recycling, composting activities directly, even if they have little formal knowledge of H&S.

The 1/2 day Understanding Carbon workshop is looking at ways to measure your service & organisation carbon footprint and what it actually means.

Click here for more information

New report explains issues and sets out key findings

A new report published today by Scotland’s charity regulator provides a ready reference to help charities understand and address potential issues in meeting the requirements of charitable status.

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) has produced ‘Protecting charitable status’ as a summary of its reviews over the past six years to guide charities and inform the public.  OSCR Chief Executive David Robb said that the new report gives reassurance that Scotland’s charities provide benefit to the public in pursuing charitable purposes.

‘As we develop our reviews for the future, this new report provides a summary of our experience and we hope it will be a useful reference document for charities on key aspects of regulation and governance,’ he said.  ‘The report also demonstrates our impact as a public body, reassuring the public that Scotland’s charities are meeting the requirements of the law.

‘We are keen to assist charities in meeting those requirements, and in addition to our guidance material, this new report sets out some key points and real-life examples that will illustrate the issues we consider,’ he added.  ‘It also demonstrates the real diversity of the sector in Scotland and the wide range of issues that can emerge.’

All charities in Scotland must meet the ‘charity test’ set out in legislation, demonstrating that they have charitable purposes,  provide public benefit and meet other legal requirements.  Since April 2006, all applications for charitable status in Scotland have been assessed by OSCR against this requirement, with some 4,949 granted charitable status on this basis.  The new report explains how the Regulator reviewed existing charities in specific ‘priority groups’ where it felt issues may exist as to whether the test was met – for example, fees, private benefit, or control by other bodies or Ministers.

Where OSCR’s in-depth reviews found problems for certain types of charity, such as independent schools, these charities addressed the Regulator’s concerns to meet the requirements of charity law and significantly increase access to the public benefit they provide.

Based on its experience to date, OSCR has determined that there is no need for a full scale review of charities in the Scottish Charity Register, although it has powers to review any charity.  Going forward, OSCR will focus its reviews on those types of charity where there seems to be the greatest likelihood of difficulty in complying with the requirements of charity law.  The basis for its reviews will be broader, covering a range of regulatory issues including governance and an emphasis on international charities.

The full report can be found here: 2012-02-06 Protecting Charitable Status published

Do you have any burning policy questions for Scottish Government Ministers to answer? If you would like questions asked by an MSP to Scottish Government Ministers, as part of oral or written questions, please send your suggestions to: duncan.thorp@socialenterprisescotland.org.uk.