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This Month's Feature
►October 2007: SCEDU win contract with Finance Hub SCEDU have won the contract to deliver the "Get ready for that local authority contract" project for the Finance Hub looking at contracting for third sector organisations. THE PROJECT: "The success rate of smaller voluntary and community organisations and social enterprises tendering for public services could be increased with improved information to plan for rapidly changing opportunities. This project aims to improve organisations' chances of knowing when they are ready to secure contracts, by enabling their self assessment against new pilot benchmarks and pricing of services. This will also indicate how organisations are contributing to local authority floor targets." WHO? SCEDU have been commissioned to undertake this project by the Finance Hub. The Hub is making sense of funding and finance in the Third Sector through the delivery of an integrated programme of research, development, training and information dissemination. (By third sector we refer to voluntary/community organisations and social enterprises.) WHAT? SCEDU will be developing case studies across England of third sector organisations with public sector contracts. SCEDU will be analysing these examples and draw out benchmarks of success that enabled these contracts to happen. Other areas that will be looked at include the role of floor targets in public sector contracting, VAT issues for contracting and signposting information for contracting. WHO IS IT FOR? The information will be aimed at front line third sector organisations, infrastructure organisations and public sector procurement departments and policy makers. This approach tackles both the supply and demand side of contracting and will provide examples of good practice to encourage further progress in this area. HOW TO GET INVOLVED? We will be case studying examples of successful third sector contracting until January 2008 and all findings will be published on both the Finance Hub website and the Get Ready weblog http://contracting.wordpress.com where you will be able to leave feedback and have input into the work. If you have an example for a case study or would like more information please contact John Dawson at sdt@scedu.org.uk 0114 281 4168
►January 2007: Social Enterprise conference - Voice 07 Fresh from a visit to Scedu's Mowbray street facilities for the South Yorkshire Key Funds APM the previous week, ED Milliband, Minister for the Third Sector opened the national social enterprise conference held in Manchester on 24th January. The conference drew a lot of high profile guest speakers from across the political spectrum, as well as from high profile social enterprises and local government. Scedu had a stand and were kept busy all day. Ed Miliband, Minister for the Third Sector, called on social enterprises to work in partnership with government to realise their full potential as a movement for progressive social change. 'What excites me most about social enterprise is its ability to be the vanguard for a social movement. The vision is this: private and public sectors profoundly changed by social enterprise. 'In the private sector social enterprise is showing business doesn't have to be about shareholder value, it can be about social value. In the public sector you are showing how services can be delivered in a way that is focused around the user. 'Through working together as partners, Government and social enterprises can bring about a fairer society and change millions of lives for the better.' Mr Milband was joined by three other government ministers at Voice 07 in setting out the immediate progress made in delivering on commitments made in the Government's Social Enterprise Action Plan, launched by the Office of the Third Sector in the Cabinet Office last November. Department of Health (DH): DH is continuing its ground-breaking work in setting up social enterprises to work alongside the NHS to deliver health services, by:
Department for Education and Skills (DfES): DfES is pushing ahead on work to nurture the next generation of social entrepreneurs, by:
Parmjit Dhanda, Minister for Children, Young People and Families, said: 'Social entrepreneurs are innovative, creative and sensible risk-takers. We want more students in schools colleges and universities to be social entrepreneurs. Through social entrepreneurship, pupils learn new skills and broaden their horizons - and many schools report it boosts attainment and attendance.' Department for Trade and Industry (DTI): DTI is working to improve the type and amount of business support social enterprises have access to, by:
Margaret Hodge, Industry and Regions Minister, said: 'Britain has some of the most successful and vibrant social enterprises in the world. The sector generates £27bn turnover a year and contributes £8.4bn to GDP. It makes economic sense to enhance their success and give communities throughout the country a great social and environmental boost.' The Office of the Third Sector (OTS), in the Cabinet Office: The OTS is driving forward with the delivery of funding opportunities, and work to expand the research base of the sector, by:
"Partnership in Public Services, An action plan for third sector involvement" was released in December2006 and can be downloaded from the cabinet office website.
►December 2006: SCEDU Newsletter The December edition of the Scedu Newsletter can be downloaded here
►November 2006: Holbrook Commerce Park - Starter units now ready to let The pioneering £2.5 million Holbrook Commerce Park has been officially opened, the four acre site has created almost 50,000 sq ft of new premises within the Holbrook Industrial Estate.
►September 2006: Scedu Newsletter The September edition of the Scedu Newsletter can be downloaded here
►August 2006: Selling to South Yorkshire Council’s guide As a result of Scedu’s work with the Sub Regional Procurement Task Force a guide for enterprises wanting to sell to the council’s of South Yorkshire has been produced. This includes details of each local authority’s procedures, rules they work to and some different types of procurement processes. Also there is a list of key contacts within each department for each council. Download the guide here
►July 2006: Social Enterprise and Procurement: New Tenders website for Yorkshire The Supplier and Contract Management System has launched and takes over from CouncilTenders. It has been commissioned by the Regional Centre of Excellence in Leeds and will carry tender information from across all local authorities in Yorkshire. Suppliers can register with the site, upload their details, and search for relevant tenders. Tender details can also be downloaded, and tenders submitted electronically. Any social enterprises looking at public sector procurement can see what contracts are currently available, and which contracts have been awarded, if they want to feed into the supply chain. For more details: Also see the bluelight website for tender information from the emergency services:
►June 2006: £41 million spend through Social Economy in Sheffield Sheffield City Council have reported to the Sub-Regional Procurement Task Force the findings of some research into council spend. A figure of £41 million has been uncovered as being spent by Sheffield City Council through the Social Economy in Sheffield. This is excellent news, and has established a benchmark for social enterprises in Sheffield to try to increase in order to expand Sheffield City Council’s desire for a mixed economy. Similar research is currently being carried out in Rotherham with findings expected to be published soon.
►May 2006: Scedu Newsletter The May edition of the Scedu Newsletter can be downloaded here
►April 2006: South Yorkshire Procurement Task Group As part of Scedu's ongoing work around procurement for social enterprise, a South Yorkshire Procurement Task Group has been established, and recently had its inaugural meeting in Scedu's big ROOM. The task group consists of representatives from across the sub-region (Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster and Sheffield) involved in procurement from both the buying and supplying side. This incorporates representatives from the local authorities as well as social enterprise sector and the wider Voluntary/Community/Faith sector. Outcomes The task group will be striving to establish some sub-regional KPIs starting with:
“Drilling down” One of the first outcomes of this task group is an agreement that all four authorities will deliver a baseline report of current spending. This report will ‘drill down’ to measure how current spend is broken down. Be it numbers of SMEs, %local spend, and % currently spent through social enterprise. This represents a sizable investment by local authorities in assessing how their spend impacts upon the local economies. The social enterprise sector will also benefit from this data by having a baseline by which to set targets for social enterprise delivery and assisting the local authorities achieve a mixed economy. Supplier and Contract Management System The Yorkshire and the Humber Centre of Excellence’s Supplier and Contract Management System (SCMS) is being developed to “improve regional economic impact by making it easier for suppliers to do business with Councils in the region”. This should streamline the procurement process for many suppliers, including social enterprise, and give them easier access to supplying more authorities through the principle of ‘fit for one supplier fit for all’. This will be demonstrated at the Meet the Buyer Event to be held on the 16 th May in Sheffield.
►March 2006: Demand for Tender Readiness Toolkit continues. This was the Sheffield Star’s take on Scedu’s Tender Readiness Toolkit:
Scedu has upped supplies of the toolkit to meet phenomenal demand, and it is now being used across the country. “ This toolkit is just what the sector needs right now to help organisations to position themselves to get better at winning contracts for future work” Lorraine Purcell, Head of Contracts and Procurement at Sheffield City Council.
►February 2006: Sorce gain CSCI registration Sheffield based social enterprise Sorce have gained registration with the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI). They are now listed on the CSCI website. They provide domiciliary care services, and practical support across Sheffield. For more information please visit their website: http://www.sorcecare.org.uk/index.htm
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