Social Enterprise and Equality

We would like to invite you to a meeting in the House of Commons hosted by Chris White MP on social enterprise and equality. In 2010 Chris introduced a Private Member's Bill - the Public Services (Social Enterprise and Social Value Bill).

Chris believes that social value is a simple concept. It means seeking to maximise the additional benefit that can be created by procuring or commissioning goods and services, above and beyond the benefit of merely the goods and services themselves. For example, running a local health campaign is a benefit in itself for a community. However, by procuring leaflets and posters from a local business that hires long-term unemployed, extra benefits in the form of social value can be created by stimulating the local economy, keeping people in work, promoting social inclusion and reducing the strain on local public services.

This meetup will look at the role of social enterprise in the equality agenda, how can and do they deliver social value in such a way as to create a more equal society. Can social enterprise be a driving force to achieving equality in the decades ahead or will it create divisions making equality less likely. Will it benefit all or will marginalised groups be excluded. How can social enterprise be designed to support equalities. These are some of the questions that we will be discussing at this meeting. The speakers will be

Chris White is a member of the International Development Select Committee. He is a strong advocate of social enterprise and says – “The concept of social enterprise has inspired me, being a fusion of private sector innovation with the dedication of the voluntary and public sectors.”

Simon Teasdale who has been involved in the field of social enterprise for 15 years, beginning at the Big Issue in the North in the early 1990s, will present this Webinar. Since then he has been employed as a researcher at the Institute for Volunteering Research and Crisis, while lecturing part time on the University of East London’s BA Social Enterprise. He moved to Birmingham in 2009 to take up a position as research fellow within TSRC.

Miia Chambers is Director of Development at P3, a social inclusion charity and social enterprise - a provider of homeless, offender and mental health services. She is also seconded part-time to NESTA working on public service innovation. Previously Miia worked for Camden Council’s Communities and Third Sector team on policy development, outcomes based commissioning and supporting social innovation, co-production and timebanking. Before Camden Miia worked as a Policy Advisor on social inclusion, and as a lecturer and a consultant. Miia is a member of NCVO’s Public Service Delivery Network Advisory Group.

In developing this meeting we are working with the Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC).A national research centre co-funded by OCS, ESRC and Barrow Cadbury Trust and hosted by the Universities of Birmingham and Southampton, to offer third sector organisations and policy-makers access and input into robust research, aiming to bridge the gap between research and the third sector. The TSRC Social Enterprise research stream is led by Middlesex University in collaboration with researchers from the University of Birmingham to undertaken a programme of research exploring the contribution of social enterprise to social cohesion.

In organising this we are also thankful to

To MessageBase (http://www.messagebase.co.uk/telephone-answering-service/overview) who have supported us for this event.

Although membership of our site is free we do expect all those who attend our events to pay a subscription of £10 for a whole year that covers attendance not just to one meeting but also to the vast majority of our meetups and webinars for any one year. It also allows you to bring one guest free to every meeting or webinar.