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Visit the People’s History Museum Manchester with Midlands Co-operative Society

January 31, 2011
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
Thursday 10th February Depart Birmingham 8.30am, arriving back by 6pm Tickets £10 All Welcome! The Midlands Co-operative Society Member Relations Department is organising a visit to the Pumphouse People’s History Museum in Manchester on Thursday 10th February. Transport from Bir
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‘The social enterprise brand must not become diluted by “nearly social enterprises”’

January 28, 2011
by Alun Severn
5 Comments
That was what participants at iSE’s Big Society Symposium said back in October of last year.  You can read the post and download the  report of that event here. Well, how right they were. Third Sector online has just furnished an excellent example of exactly the kind of muddled
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Breaking news update….death knell for Brum’s CAB network?

January 27, 2011
by Alun Severn
6 Comments
In an update to this post…. Birmingham CAB chief exec has announced that with the loss of funding from Birmingham City Council — which has withdrawn some £600K on the grounds that its own advice centres can provide this service — it is likely that all five CAB centre
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Make sure the new Enterprise Allowance Scheme can be used by groups and not just individuals

January 27, 2011
by Alun Severn
3 Comments
Further to this post about measures being introduced by BIS to support business growth, there has been some discussion amongst members of  the Co-operativesUK group on Linkedin here (if you can use that link without being a Linkedin member/user — I’m not sure) about the im
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Breaking news…

January 26, 2011
by Alun Severn
3 Comments
I couldn’t manage to stay up-to-date without the free email daily bulletin service Third Sector Online provides. If you don’t use it I heartily recommend subscribing… These stories grabbed my attention today: Paul Twivy, founder of the Big Society Network tells NCVO
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Building the market for Social Impact Bonds

January 25, 2011
by Alun Severn
1 Comment
Social Finance is holding one-day events during March at which social enterprises, potential investors, service commissioners and others can find out more about the emerging market for Social Impact Bonds. The Birmingham event is on the 14th March at Austin Court and is FREE — r
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New blog & new SE Mark holders in Brum

January 21, 2011
by Alun Severn
2 Comments
Dave Lane at iSE has (finally — his words not mine) launched a new blog covering all kinds of social enterprise and business support issues. Well done, Dave….and, er, not before time. You can read DiSE here. This post congratulates two more Brum social enterprises that hav
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Co-operative Enterprise Hub publishes first annual report

January 19, 2011
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
The new national source of specialist development and support for those starting or running co-operatives, the Co-operative Enterprise Hub, funded by the Co-operative Group, has just published its first annual report. You can download it here.
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‘Bigger, better business’ — BIS announces plans for supporting and growing SMEs

January 18, 2011
by Alun Severn
6 Comments
If you are wondering about the future of business support following the wind-up of the old Business Link service,  then wonder no longer… The Dept for Business Innovation & Skills has just issued a document called Bigger, better business: Helping small firms start, grow and
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The laissez-faire big society

January 13, 2011
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
Polly Toynbee had an excellent piece in yesterday’s Guardian here. While to a degree I think she was venting her own bitter disillusion with the Lib Dems and taking the opportunity to thrash Simon Hughes — Toynbee has periodically endorsed the LIb Dems as a tactical voting
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“David Cameron could learn a lot from a conversation with Brian…”

January 10, 2011
by Alun Severn
2 Comments
So says the Birmingham Post. For those who may have missed it, BVSC’s chief exec Brian Carr has a very good interview with the Birmingham Post’s Tom Fleming here. Brian takes the opportunity to bang home a key message: There is a huge potential for the sector and volunteer
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SEC reports on barriers to ‘social franchising’

January 06, 2011
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
The Social Enterprise Coalition has just published what I think is probably the first in-depth study of the use of — and barriers to — social franchising as a means of starting and growing new social businesses. The report concludes that while ‘replication’ doe
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BSSEC response to Office for Civil Society consultation on infrastructure support — update

January 05, 2011
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
Further to this post, BSSEC’s response to the Office for Civil Society consultation on infrastructure support has been completed and sent. Thanks to all who took time to comment/contribute. The completed response can be downloaded here.
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Anthony Collins Solicitors responds to government consultation on modernising commissioning

January 05, 2011
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
Further to this post, colleagues at Anthony Collins Solicitors have done an above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty job during the Christmas holidays to collate a detailed response to the Cabinet Office’s consultation document on modernising commissioning and making public sector purc
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BIRMINGHAM & SOLIHULL SOCIAL ECONOMY CONSORTIUM C.I.C., trading as BSSEC. A community interest company registered in England and Wales with company no. 07992674. Registered office: c/o Anthony Collins Solicitors LLP, 134 Edmund Street, Birmingham B3 2ES | All rights reserved | Copyright 2013-BSSEC | Created by Citizen Click