Is the UK government supporting social enterprise?

In order to secure passage he/she must win support from colleagues, but the nature of the bill and its content are of their own choosing.

We at ClearlySo were delighted when Chris White MP, who won that lottery this year, chose to put forward the Public Services (Social Enterprise and Social Value) Bill, now before Parliament. Its purpose, put simply, is to make sure that public contracts consider social value in their awarding process, and not only “value for money”. For too long the commissioning process was too tightly focused and broader benefits to society were ignored. We applaud this bill and Chris White MP, who recently spoke at our seminar on taking over public sector assets. Although initially receiving widespread support, the Government’s amendments to the Bill have been criticised and have sparked fears its impact will be watered down. We remain sanguine and continue to see the bill in a positive light.

The agitation about removing the words “social enterprise” from the Bill gives us no cause for concern. The point is about the social value created, not the organisational form of who happens to be creating it. Whether the organisation is a CIC, a charity or a private company is of zero concern to us. By removing the words we can also get away from the tedious debate about what is or is not a social enterprise. I would far prefer high social value from a profit-seeking business than low social value from something that happens to be called a social enterprise.

However, I am very confident that social businesses and enterprises (SBEs) will perform better were this bill to pass. Delivering positive externalities is their “stock in trade”, and the playing field is definitely being tilted in their favour. If they then cannot compete, it is a more serious problem for them, but not one which legislation can resolve.

Also, I have been concerned about the extent to which contracts wind up with social enterprises as a sort of “affirmative action” in their favour; not as a function of their competence. This worries me because eventually poor performance will reflect badly on the entire sector, undermining what the many outstanding SBEs do achieve.

One final criticism relates to the absence of a requirement on Government to publish a “national social enterprise strategy”. I think we have had more than enough banal statements about intent. We have killed too many trees publishing grand visions”what we now need are actions. Thus far the Government has been rather active in this regard, although these are still early days. Getting the long-awaited Big Society Capital off the ground, expected early next year, will also be a massive achievement. The time for strategy papers is over”this this is now the time for deeds. This change to the bill also gives us no problem”we await its passage.