Social Enterprise Update 5/5/09
Produced daily by the Social Enterprise Coalition
Ethical brands -How
Green & Black’s struck chocolate gold
Cumbrian farmers to
generate own energy through biogas plan
Continue reading for lots more…
National
Acevo taskforce to
monitor £1bn Future Jobs Fund
John Plummer, Third
Sector Online
Chief executives body
Acevo has set up a taskforce to ensure the voluntary sector has a say
in the Department for Work and Pensions’ new £1bn Future Jobs Fund.
The DWP announced last week that not-for-profit organisations could
submit bids to the fund, set up to create 150,000 jobs for long-term
unemployed people aged from 18 to 24.
….Taskforce members
include the Social Enterprise Coalition, the Community Alliance and
Futurebuilders England. It is chaired by Bubb and Jonathan Bland,
chief executive of the Social Enterprise Coalition, is vice-chair.
The big issues in
nursing
Steve Ford, Nursing
Times
In the wake of cases
such as that of Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, there is now
an onus on every nurse to be a role model for other nurses if the
profession is to avoid criticism. The fact that not all nurses want
to be leaders but all are role models was one of the key messages to
come out of a special round-table discussion between leading nurse
stakeholders, held in April by Nursing Times.
….Ms Cook also
questioned another part of the commission’s remit, which deals with
the development of nurse-led services – and in particular the
increased use of the social enterprise model, which was also
highlighted in the NHS Next Stage Review.
Community nurse
teams face takeover by hospital trusts
Healthcare Republic
Hospital trusts are
hoovering up community services because of the speed at which the DoH
expects PCTs to outsource their provider arms, primary care experts
have warned.
….The report says community health services have
several options as PCTs focus on commissioning. They can become
social enterprises, or link more closely with general practice as
‘integrated care organisations’. But the report adds that ‘foundation
trusts are waiting in the wings’ ready to seize the chance to expand
into community care.
Ethical brands -How
Green & Black’s struck chocolate gold
Ethical Corporation
Asking whether “social
entrepreneurs” created ethical consumerism or vice versa is a bit
like asking which came first, the organic chicken or the free-range
egg.
…Sams believes social enterprises are defined as much by
the interdependent relationships between their stakeholders, and
their financial constraints, as by ethical ideals. The lower capital
base, “encourages co-dependency with all the stakeholders in your
business”, and the result is a more “collaborative and
cooperative approach”.
http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=6456&ContTypeID=43
Cumbrian farmers to
generate own energy through biogas plan
New Energy Focus
Farmers in Cumbria are
teaming up to develop anaerobic digestion facilities to generate
their own renewable energy from agricultural waste. Community
Renewable Energy North West (CoRE NW), a group based in Workington,
plans to set up a number of co-operatives to develop the plants,
which will produce electricity and heat from farmers’ manure and
silage.
…..Social enterprise
NRG NorthEast Renewables Group is to supply and install the digester,
subject to planning permission, with technology expected to be
supplied by German biogas company Biogas Hochreiter.
Voluntary sector
cannot shy away from redundancies
Stephen Naysmith,
The Glasgow Herald, 04/04/09
Charities and social
businesses will have to bite the bullet and make redundancies if they
are to avoid falling victim to the recession, a leading entrepreneur
will warn this week.Liam Black, former CEO of Jamie Oliver’s 15
restaurant, has been invited to Scotland by the Big Lottery Fund for
a seminar titled Leadership in Tough times, which is being held on
Friday.
….Black, who is the
co-founder of Wavelength social enterprise consultancy believes the
event will help charities and social businesses clarify what is most
essential about what they do.
Local
Friends to walk
Thames Path in only nine days
Henley Standard
THREE friends from
Goring plan to walk the length of the Thames to help children in
Africa. Steve Smith, Veronica Reynolds and Vicky Hamilton will
attempt the 184-mile trek in nine days for Changing Futures, a
charity set up by Mr Smith to provide feeding stations and school
equipment. The trio, who all live in the Goring Gap, will stay
in riverside pubs en route and will be joined by friends and families
at various points. Ms Reynolds, of Eastfield Lane, is operations
director of Walk England, a social enterprise set up to encourage
people to walk more often, and founded Goring Gap Health Walks 10
years ago.
http://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/news.php?id=594850
Eccles art shop ‘is
blueprint to revive high street’, says Blears
Salford Online
The decline of high
streets with “eyesores” like empty shops can be stopped by
converting them into social enterprises, Salford MP Hazel Blears said
at a seminar in Stockport yesterday. “Innovative communities”
in the North West would take advantage of empty shops by holding
their own local art galleries, like the one on Boothway in Eccles,
run by Karen Illingworth. Ms Blears chaired a seminar in Stockport
with Culture Secretary Andy Burnham on tackling ‘recession in the
high street’ with councils, business leaders, landlords and town
centre managers.
http://www.salfordonline.com/localnews_page/12525-eccles_art_shop_%27is_blueprint_to_revive_high_street%27,_says_blears.html
Youngster wins
award for his cafe plan
The Plymouth Herald
A 16-YEAR-OLD East
Devon boy has won an award for setting up a youth cafe in Sidmouth.
Dan Gigg won a CHANGEit award in the innovation category for the
Giovani Youth Café, which he set up after attending National
Enterprise Week at his college in 2007. The week is supported by
Rise, which is the voice for the South West social enterprise. During
the week, Dan attended Social Enterprise Day, which is aimed at
encouraging young entrepreneurs to develop ideas to do with social or
environmental change.
Women travels from
Australia for exhibition
Evening Times,
04/04/09
AN 82-year-old woman
is travelling from the other side of the world to attend the opening
of an exhibition on the history of Paisley’s Kibble. Judith Parsons,
from Melbourne, Australia, will be flying in with her son, Graeme and
grandson, Kieran after she discovered her late father George McPhail
had been a pupil at Kibble in 1910 when he was just 15.
….As well as
educating young people, Kibble now provides community outreach,
residential care, fostering, secure care and employment training for
care leavers through a portfolio of social enterprises.
Gray’s School of
Art students bring tartan with a Japanese twist to life
Robert Gordon
University News Review, 04/04/09
More
than 100 years since the ‘Scottish Samurai’, Thomas Blake Glover,
became the first non-Japanese to be accorded the honour of receiving
the Order of the Rising Sun, Japan’s appetite for all things Scottish
remains stronger than ever.
….Sakura Scotland, a social
enterprise based in Edinburgh which was set up in conjunction with
International Tartans, is based on a belief that tartan should be
made available to anyone who wishes it, regardless of nationality and
that a share of the profits should go to those in need.
http://www.rgu.ac.uk/news/disp_NewsPreview.cfm?PGE_ID=64388&vmenu=2
Bottom’s up!
Enfield is home to the capital’s first vineyard since medieval times
Hannah Crown,
Enfield Independent
A VINEYARD is being
planted in London tomorrow for the first time since the middle ages.
Volunteers will gather at Forty Hall Organic Farm to begin work on a
new 15-acre commercial vineyard, with the aim of selling bottles of
the wine in local shops in a few years.
…. London has not
had a commercial vineyard since medieval times and will be a social
enterprise project run by Capel Manor Horticultural College, which
has donated the land in Forty Hall Country park.
Of
general interest
Politics:
‘No political fix’
on Royal Mail
BBC News Online
A compromise deal
suggested as a way to avoid a damaging Labour revolt on Royal Mail is
not being considered, Post Office minister Pat McFadden said. He said
proposals to turn it into a not-for-profit company like Network Rail
were just a “political fix”. The government’s plan to sell
off a 30% stake in Royal Mail remained the “most convincing”
option, he said. But Labour backbencher John Grogan said ministers
would have to compromise to win over more than 100 Labour rebels.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8033032.stm
Business:
CBI tested in spat
over Heathrow runway
Jim Pickard,
Financial Times
The CBI is facing a
stern test of its authority as the main voice of business after its
supportive stance on Heathrow’s expansion was undermined by a band
of prominent executives. Ministers have claimed for months that the
scheme has the solid support of business groups such as the British
Chambers of Commerce, CBI and London First. But cracks in that
unified front have appeared after a letter calling for a halt to the
third runway – in favour of more high-speed rail – was signed by
13 business leaders.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/15b06a70-38dd-11de-8cfe-00144feabdc0.html
Society:
Convicted teenager
Kane Beales wins legal fight over ’shame’ jackets
Frances Gibb, The
Guardian
A convicted teenager
who refused to wear a high visibility jacket labelled “Community
Payback” was today told by a court that he had a “reasonable
excuse”. Kane Beales, 19, had been accused of breaching his
sentence by saying he would not wear the clothing. He had been given
a suspended sentence with an unpaid work requirement for possessing a
knuckleduster, a flick knife and an offence of drinking excess
alcohol in September. But the court heard Beales, of Caister,
Norfolk, had refused to wear the garment after arguing it would lead
to “humiliation and embarrassment”.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6226345.ece
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The media monitor is
produced daily by the Social Enterprise Coalition
www.socialenterprise.org.uk
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