December 2016 – Knowledge Bank

Section/Subsection / Title / Link / Description
Starting up – How to start a Social Enterprise
Legal structures for your business / The UK Social Venture Structuring guide / / If you’re confused about the best way to structure your new Social Enterprise, a new guide could help.Social entrepreneurs can navigate through 12 questions. At the end, they will receive a recommendation and a case study showing which legal structure would suit their organisation best. The recommendations apply to England and Wales.
Growing a Social Enterprise
Working with the Private Sector / Big firms can enhance social mobility in 2017 by committing to buy from Social Enterprises / / Kevin Ellis, Chairman and Senior Partner at PwC, discusses his thoughts and ideas on how big businesses can support Social Enterprises.
Working with the Public Sector / Young Foundation partners with Barcelona City Council to help deliver radical project in the fight against poverty / / Barcelona is one of 18 winning cities of the European-wide Urban Innovative Action (UIA) project, an Initiative of the European Commission that provides urban areas throughout Europe with resources to test new solutions to challenges.
The project, B-MINCOME (combining guaranteed minimum income and active social policies in deprived urban areas of Barcelona) will receive €4.85 million over the next 3 years to develop a pilot programme on Universal Basic Income.
The project will test and analyse how effective forms of universal economic support, combined with access to services such as housing, education, work and community participation can reduce poverty.
Putting small charities at the heart of public services / / Three new measures have been announced as part of a programme to help tackle the challenges of getting small charities into the public service supply chain, they are:
  • Developing a placed based Public Service Incubator that helps small charities get commissioned.
  • Exploring the development of a commissioning kitemark that will set out a best practice standard. Commissioners will be able to use this standard to show their commitment to small charity-friendly commissioning. It’s hoped this will lead to positive long-term change, giving the voluntary sector fair opportunities to access the public service market
  • Recruiting a voluntary, community and Social Enterprise crown representative. This role will centrally champion commissioning practices that help small charities contribute effectively to public services. It will also function as an intermediary between government and the voluntary sector.

Social Enterprise Knowledge Vault
Social Impact Measurement / User Voice: Putting People at the Heart of Impact Practice / / This report explains how charities can best harness the views and needs of their beneficiaries in order to improve their impact.
Social Enterprise Policy / On a Mission
in the UK Economy -
Current state of play, vision and recommendations from the
advisory panel to the Mission-led Business Review 2016 / / TheMission-led Business Review was set up by the Government to examine what could be done to encourage mission-led businesses, which it defined as profit-driven businesses that make a powerful commitment to social impact. This report details the advisory panel’s findings and recommendations.
Mission-led business review and what it means for social entrepreneurs / / Unltd’s response to the Mission-Led Business Review report.
Nesta reports / 10 predictions for 2017 / / Nesta explore the trends, social movements and technological breakthroughs set to shape the agenda during the next 12 months.