BSSEC_logo
Members Login 
Donate Now
  • Home
  • About
    • Who we are
    • What we do
    • Our Members
    • BSSEC Annual Reports
    • Joining BSSEC
  • About Social Enterprise
    • What is social enterprise?
    • How can social enterprise help you & your neighbourhood?
    • Social enterprise in Birmingham **new data July 2019**
    • Social enterprise in Greater Birmingham
    • Social enterprise retailing
    • Social enterprises in the spotlight
      • Colebridge Enterprises — Assembly Operation
      • Textiles by St Annes
      • St Barnabas Church Centre, Erdington
    • The Digbeth Social Enterprise Quarter — Launch
      • The Digbeth Social Enterprise Quarter
  • Policy Issues
    • Introduction
    • Public services & social value
      • Birmingham City Council and social value
      • Useful resources on social value
      • Social Value — one year on
      • Evidencing Social Value — The Elephant in the Room
      • Resources for measuring social value and social impact
      • Social value — key findings from the first two years of our work
      • New Ideas on Social Value — Event Report
      • Social Value — findings of the first government review (Feb 2015)
      • Social Value & Health
      • Public Contracts Regulations 2015: A Guide to the Implications and Opportunities for Social Enterprises
      • Social value — looking forward
    • Social enterprise & public service reform
    • Social enterprise & the ‘right to challenge’
    • Social enterprise & the Localism Act
  • Enterprise Support
    • Introduction
    • Business support organisations
    • Access to finance
  • Links & Downloads
  • Blog
  • Contact

Accord Group emergency volunteering roles to support vulnerable residents — update

June 03, 2020
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
The Accord Group is one of the largest housing and social care organisations in the Midlands, providing 13,000 affordable homes and health and social care to 80,000 people and employing nearly 4,000. In the first few days of April Accord was appealing for emergency volunteers to suppo
Continue Reading →

iSE offers WiSE Wednesday webinar — Mentoring for Change

May 07, 2020
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
iSE CIC is excited to announce the second WiSE Wednesday webinar, Mentoring for Change with Kendra Walsh, Director of Expert Impact, home of the Human Lending Library.   There’s a lot of talk about ‘pivoting you business’ but what does it mean, how do
Continue Reading →

Social economy needs to help plan for economic, social and community recovery — read our briefing paper

April 30, 2020
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
In a spirit of contributing to a wider debate about how we can begin to move beyond the immediate health crisis and plan for economic, social and community recovery BSSEC and the Birmingham Social Enterprise City steering group have produced a briefing paper that we hop
Continue Reading →

Birmingham City Council announces £0.8m community grants fund for groups helping children and families during pandemic

April 18, 2020
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
  Birmingham City Council statement reads: Community, voluntary and faith groups who are helping children, young people and families through the challenges of Covid-19 are invited to apply for grants of up to £10,000 to continue supporting families through this difficult period.
Continue Reading →

Keeping swimming open at Moseley Road Baths — this historic Edwardian pool is now run by a community-managed charity

February 11, 2019
by Alun Severn
3 Comments
There are only three Grade II* listed swimming baths in the country still in use for public swimming and of these Birmingham’s Moseley Road Baths, an Edwardian time capsule which first opened its doors to the public in 1907, is the oldest. It has been saved as a result of a determined
Continue Reading →

New wellbeing portal launched to support Birmingham citizens

October 29, 2018
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
Birmingham residents who are looking for local activities, support and services that encourage wellbeing and an active and healthy lifestyle can now search a new online directory called Route2Wellbeing that describes over 1,500 local, community-based services and activities. This new
Continue Reading →

ART Business Loans, pioneers of social finance in Birmingham, celebrate 21 years and announce new social investment campaign

October 01, 2018
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
ART Business Loans (ART) welcomed Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Co-operatives UK, as the keynote speaker at its 21st AGM this September. Ed Mayo talked about the value of Community Development Finance to the economy and the importance of community economic development. “The process of
Continue Reading →

Success! Birmingham’s social enterprise city application approved

April 16, 2018
by Alun Severn
1 Comment
In this post we drew attention to the closing day of City Drive 2018 when there will be a grand social enterprise festival at the banqueting suite of the Council House [details below]. Well, we have just had news confirming that there really will be something worth celebrati
Continue Reading →

Next DSEQ network meeting considers HS2 disruption with guest construction speakers

January 18, 2018
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
This, just in from iSE and the Digbeth Social Enterprise Quarter… The Digbeth Social Enterprise Quarter networking meeting is upcoming on Tuesday 13th February 2018, 8.30am to 10.00am. We recently completed a successful consultation with members of the Digbeth Social Enterprise
Continue Reading →

The changing face of social enterprise — Impact Hub Birmingham

January 09, 2018
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
For the last two and a half years, a repurposed factory in Digbeth – the creative heart of the city and Brum’s first officially recognised Social Enterprise Quarter – has been home to a new player in social enterprise: Impact Hub Birmingham. Impact Hub Birmingham is part innovation la
Continue Reading →

Social enterprise networking…in Paradise

June 16, 2017
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
This, just in from SEUK WM and the PwC Social Entrepreneurs Club… Social enterprise networking & ‘History in the Making’ Monday 3 July, 17.00 @ Paradise BIRMINGHAM Development Join SEUK WM and the PwC Social Entrepreneurs Club for an evening of drinks, canap
Continue Reading →

Crowdfund Birmingham — new funding opportunities for community benefit projects

May 10, 2017
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
Further to this post, we now have further news about Crowdfund Birmingham, the new joint initiative between Birmingham City Council and Crowdfunder. Launched at the start of the year, Crowdfund Birmingham  is a new campaign to help people with good ideas raise the money they
Continue Reading →

Transformation and Social Value: Social Prescribing Keynote

March 25, 2017
by Mark Ellerby
Dudley, NHS, psiams, social enterprise, Social Prescribing
0 Comment
PSIAMS Systems will be hosting a data focussed conference during City Drive Week in Birmingham. The event will feature a range of presentations and workshops on how data is transforming the way the Voluntary and Social Enterprise Sector are responding to change and the needs of commis
Continue Reading →

Save Our Support plans flash mob demo 27th February — against cuts to services for city’s most vulnerable

February 15, 2017
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
Further to this post, yesterday’s huge lobby against the cuts to Birmingham’s services for its most vulnerable groups showed just how passionately service users, advocacy groups and others are fighting to defend these services (coverage: here, here, here). Save Our Support
Continue Reading →

Birmingham City Council launches Crowdfunding Birmingham

February 06, 2017
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
Birmingham City Council is launching Crowdfund Birmingham and wants to hear now from local organisations interested in raising money through crowdfunding. The council is setting aside £470,000 from its Community Innovation Fund to provide match funding to pledge on projects that will
Continue Reading →

The Pump, premier youth hub in East Birmingham celebrates tenth birthday

February 02, 2017
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
With a music studio, performance space, a dance studio, cyber-cafe, a daycare nursery, room hire, and facilities over four floors with full disabled access, The Pump is the hub for youth work and activity in Kitts Green, in the heart of East Birmingham. And it is celebrating its
Continue Reading →

Save Our Support plans second lobby against cuts to services for most vulnerable

February 01, 2017
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
Birmingham Changing Futures Together is one of the organisations co-ordinating opposition to the cuts currently planned for the city’s various Supporting people services (see earlier post). It has just issued the following statement: I am writing to you asking for your support f
Continue Reading →

Birmingham voluntary sector mobilises against cuts to services for the most vulnerable

January 16, 2017
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
We wrote in this post about the PUBLIC CONSULTATION currently underway on Birmingham City Council’s proposed cuts  to its Supporting People and Third Sector Grant Programmes. This would see cuts of £5m this year, rising to £10m in 2018/9. These reductions com
Continue Reading →

Midland Mencap mass lobby against disability cuts

January 13, 2017
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
The further cuts proposed in Birmingham City Council’s 2017 budget — including cuts across all Supporting People services — will hit the most vulnerable groups in the city hard. St Basils has said, “We absolutely understand the extremely difficult decisions tha
Continue Reading →

Prosperity Parade — new book traces history of Digbeth Social Enterprise Qtr

June 14, 2016
by Alun Severn
0 Comment
I’ve just been reading David Boyle’s new book, Prosperity Parade: Eight stories from the frontline of local economic recovery. The project was supported by The Barrow Cadbury Trust and can be read in full here on the Trust’s website or here on the New Weather Institu
Continue Reading →
12345Next ›Last »

BSSEC Twitter

My Tweets

Latest news on the blog

BVSC/Shuut Videos -- harness the power of smartphone video tech in a free online workshop
Dec 21, 2020
School for Social Entrepreneurs is promoting three new programmes
Dec 17, 2020
Green Paper aims to 'transform' public procurement
Dec 16, 2020
Roots HR CIC is recruiting
Dec 08, 2020

Subscribe to the BSSEC Newsletter

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