BSSEC » 2010 » November

“Cutting It” — new NEF report on big society and the age of austerity

November 30, 2010

Anyone looking for briefing materials on the big society and its implications for social enterprise and civil society organisations may like to know that the New Economics Foundation has published a new report — Cutting It: The ‘big society’ and the new austerity. Y

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BSSEC response to Office for Civil Society consultation on infrastructure support

November 29, 2010

Further to this post, BSSEC is working on a formal response to the OCS consultation paper. We think it important to do this from a strong social enterprise perspective because SE support issues are not especially well reflected in the OCS paper. If there are views that you would like

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Bankers seek to buy-off government pressure on bonuses

November 26, 2010

A fascinating snippet in today’s Third Sector online suggests that high street banks are looking to buy-off further pressure from the government on taxing bonuses and transactions by donating billions to the Big Society Bank. The Guardian also has a take on the same story here.

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Cable announces new national network of business support volunteers

November 24, 2010

I missed this. The Central Office of Information news distribution service carries a story regarding Vince Cable’s announcement that he plans a 40,000-strong national network of volunteer business mentors. The Business Secretary says: “The best people to advise new entrepr

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All employers — compulsory pension contributions are on the way…

November 24, 2010

Did you know that from 1 October 2012, new laws will start coming into force requiring all employers in Great Britain to automatically enrol eligible jobholders into a qualifying pension scheme and to contribute to that scheme? Anthony Collins Solicitors have an online briefing on the

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Secret diary of a civil servant

November 23, 2010

The Observer has been running a short column since the election by an anonymous civil servant, called Secret Diary of a Civil Servant. I don’t always remember to read it, but the piece for Sunday 21st November had the chilly tang of authenticity about it — ‘Welcome t

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Social Enterprise Bill Gets Through

November 19, 2010

This morning, the Social Enterprise and Social Value Bill has got through the second reading in the House of Commons, with support from both sides of the House. It now goes to Committee stage. This could clearly prove to be a crucial piece of legislation for social enterprises. See he

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Call Britannia — boardroom battle ousts founder

November 19, 2010

Some may remember that one of the posts here which generated the fiercest debate was this one about the social enterprise call centre, Call Britannia. Founded by self-made millionaire Karen Darby, Call Britannia hit the news just over a year back. With its plans to establish call cent

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A brilliant idea brilliantly executed — Midomo water purifiers

November 19, 2010

One social enterprise that was being heavily name-checked yesterday on Social Enterprise Day, was Red Button Design. This company is the clever creator of the Midomo water purifier, for use in the developing world. The Midomo is a 50-litre water purifier on a rugged wheeled frame. Fil

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Calling social enterprises — apply for Roots HR’s free one-year support package!

November 17, 2010

Now, amid all the doom and gloom, here is a welcome good news story. Roots HR, a CIC providing HR and other services specifically for social mission organisations, has just announced that to mark Social Enterprise Day — which is tomorrow, the 18th November — it is using su

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Guardian launches Social Enterprise Network

November 17, 2010

As of this Monday (15th November) you can now access this free new online resource from the Guardian. It’s available here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/social-enterprise-network. Amongst other things, it has a number of interesting articles in its blog, including a handy guide to t

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Localism Bill will enshrine ‘right to challenge’

November 16, 2010

Minister for decentralisation Greg Clark has confirmed that the Localism Bill — which will be presented to parliament next week — will include legislation enshrining the right of civil society groups and others to challenge local authority provision where they can demonstr

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Birmingham City Council ‘invites’ school support staff to set up co-op

November 15, 2010

Iron Angle in the Birmingham Post has a quite extraordinary story here which suggests that around 4,000 council staff are being encouraged to start a co-op: More than 4,000 staff, mainly low-paid women, are to be invited to set up their own workers’ co-operative in an attempt to chall

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Wilmott Dixon partners Jericho in Spark Challenge bid

November 13, 2010

Midlands construction giant Wilmott Dixon has formed a partnership with Jericho Foundation to assist the social enterprise in bidding to the Spark Challenge. If successful, the bid will secure additional resources to help Jericho develop the first community-based timber recycling ente

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Private Member’s Bill on social clauses due for debate on next week

November 12, 2010

Did you know that a Private Member’s Bill which could have a significant benefit for social enterprises tendering for public sector contracts is due to be debated in the Commons next week (on Friday 19th November)? The Bill, introduced by Chris White MP, is called the Public Ser

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Maude announces extension of ‘right to request’-type legislation to public sector workers

November 11, 2010

I’m prompted by this comment to note that yesterday Francis Maude announced that ‘right to request’-type legislation will be extended to other public sector workers. In principle this would enable public sector workers to leave their jobs, form mutuals (or other kind

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A sceptical view of ‘social impact bonds’

November 09, 2010

Yesterday’s ‘Analysis’ programme on R4, ‘Criminal Rehabilitation: A Sub-Prime Investment?”, was essential listening — it’s here on the BBC iPlayer for the next seven days. Part of the programme looked at the role Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) mi

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Roots of Big Society in US welfare policies

November 09, 2010

Carrying on the theme of this post, there was a very interesting In Focus piece in Sunday’s Observer tracing the roots of UK Big Society policies and welfare reform to the US and again reinforcing the role that Cameron’s “secret weapon”, Steve Hilton, his spec

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Cabinet Office announces distributor for £100m ‘transition fund’ for hardest hit civil society organisations

November 08, 2010

The Cabinet Office has just announced that the the BIG Fund — the non-lottery arm of the BIG Lottery — has been chosen to distribute monies from the £100m ‘transition fund’ announced in the spending review. Read the Cabinet Office press release here. Full eligi

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OCS consultation on support for frontline organisations — update

November 04, 2010

In this earlier post I mentioned the recently launched Office for Civil Society consultation on how frontline organisations can best be supported — what we have previously called infrastructure support. I mentioned that all of the versions I had been able to find of the consulta

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