Goals for 2011
Existing social enterprises that deliver ICT support services flourish
New social enterprises emerging to meet needs of the sector
Key tasks now
Identify current needs of social enterprises that deliver relevant services in the region
Share best practise and support to enable them to meet their needs
Seek additional funding to enable them to meet their needs, especially by working with South East Social Enterprise Network
Work with ChangeUp Consortia to raise awareness of possible models for social enterprise solutions to the ICT needs of front line organisations in their area
What is the problem?
The past five years has seen a boom in the development of social enterprises, which are typically not for profit organisations that may trade like a business but also strive to deliver social or environmental benefits. There are now many types of social enterprise and the Government has even invented a new legal status to fill a gap between charities and businesses, known as a Community Interest Company.
Social enterprise is often seen as a solution to meeting the IT needs of frontline voluntary and community organisations. The most common model people have in mind uses the Robin Hood principle – using profits from people who can afford to pay for services and support to help subsidise prices for people who can’t afford to pay.
This may mean starting to charge for services from within a CVS that has an IT support worker. Or it may be creating a new company, owned by the CVS or others form the local community sector, which runs like a business but feeds profit back into the organisations that own it. Or it may mean an independent business entering a particular market and building a reputation within the local sector as a trustworthy provider of affordable specialist services.
Whatever the legal status and history of the organisation many people are committed to social enterprises as new form of business model, and many see IT as a service area ripe for development by social entrepreneurs.
However, there are very few examples across the country of successful social enterprise-based ICT suppliers. Many start up but fail to survive the initial development phase; others still rely heavily on grant income and lack the business development skills to get onto a stable independent financial footing.
So the problem for anyone interested in using social enterprise to help deliver affordable services to the sector is the need to share lessons about what works and what doesn’t work. And, if social enterprise is to be t
What is the solution?
In the south east we have three established social enterprises specifically set up to deliver ICT services to the sector:
- The Really Helpful IT Company, based in Portsmouth
- RISE Computers, Southampton
- SCIP, Brighton
We also have two specific projects seeking to start up ICT services on a social enterprise model:
- Acorn House IT in Milton Keynes
- Slough CVS
This strategy proposes that these organisations provide the starting point for identifying possible models for future development in the region. They have a spread of organisational models, specialist services and business expertise, and each is at a different stage of development. More work is needed to understand and help address their current problems and identify ways in which the regional and sub-regional infrastructure can help them develop.
There is also an opportunity to work with the South East Social Enterprise Network to access as much support as possible from other sources.
Read more about how social enterprise can deliver ICT support to the sector in this reort from May 2008:
