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In memory of Mark Ellerby — social entrepreneur, activist & friend

March 13, 2019

It is with great sadness that we announce the sudden death on the 7th March 2019 of our friend and colleague Mark Ellerby. There will be few in the social enterprise sector who didn’t know Mark in one way or another, whether through his own social enterprise, Cloudberry Innovati

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In memory of Jane Slowey CBE

October 11, 2017

Tributes from across the voluntary and community sector are being paid to Jane Slowey CBE, who died on Saturday 7th October 2017. Many of you will know and remember Jane. She served for thirteen years as the chief executive of The Foyer Federation (whose own tribute is here), but prio

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‘The freedom of freelancing, the muscle of mutuality’

April 25, 2016

The number of self-employed people in the UK has risen to nearly five million, the highest level since records began, their ranks being swelled by people trying to avoid unemployment, those who have been made redundant, and especially public sector workers — such as music teache

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NHS outsourcing and mutuals in crisis?

April 13, 2016

An independent enquiry into the collapse of the largest single integrated health outsourcing contract so far let by the NHS has just been published. The contract, worth £725m over five years, was intended to integrate community care for over 18 year olds, acute emergency care for the

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The Women’s Enterprise Hub Sparkbrook is Officially Open – Come and See Us!

November 24, 2015

by Sarah Crawley

Mariam Yate, Michelle Smith, Naomi Robinson, Sarah Crawley, Second Pedals CIC, Sir Albert Bore, The House Nannies, women in business, Women's Enterprise Hub Sparkbrook

Women across Birmingham can now take advantage of the space and business support on offer from the new Women’s Enterprise Hub in Sparkbrook. Our aim is to help women gain the confidence and skills they need to aim high and realise their full potential in business. The Hub will be man

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Business, academia, community finance — all mourn Sir Adrian Cadbury

September 08, 2015

The death of Sir Adrian Cadbury on the 3rd September 2015 aged 86 has just been announced. Sir Adrian was chairman of Cadbury and Cadbury Schweppes for over twenty-four years. But in his long and busy life of business, public service and civic activism he was also much more than this.

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NAO says PbR schemes are ill-co-ordinated, lack an evidence-base and have unrecognised risks

June 29, 2015

I am indebted to my old friend Tony Clabby for spotting this… The National Audit Office has just published Outcome-based payment schemes: government’s use of payment by results (June 2015). → Press release NAO website → Summary → Full report The report considers six

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The People’s Orchestra — an evening with John Altman and friends

June 25, 2015

The People’s Orchestra presents… Internationally renowned composer and saxophonist John Altman will be performing at The Ruddock Performing Arts Centre on Saturday 1st August. Mr Altman, who is famed for working with international artists such as Amy Winehouse and Mark Ron

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Birmingham Changing Futures Together launches with call for more partners

June 25, 2015

by Sally Edwards

Big Lottery Fund, Birmingham Changing Futures Together, BVSC, Colonel Duck, Ian Cuthbert

The official launch of the £10m Birmingham Changing Futures Together project on Friday 19th June was an inspiring event. The eight year project, led by BVSC, has just reached the end of its first year and is aiming to find new and better ways to support people with multiple and compl

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NewStarts Bromsgrove secure future — with help from Charity Bank and Big Issue Invest

June 12, 2015

“People often turn to NewStarts at the point when they have exhausted all other avenues. For us, the reasons they find themselves in a difficult situation isn’t relevant; we will help them if we can.” — CEO Marion Kenyon, NewStarts Bromsgrove charity NewStarts, which pro

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SEUK to buy out SEWM

May 21, 2015

I suspect many will read with some sadness the report in Third Sector today that Social Enterprise West Midlands is to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of SEUK. Businesses — including social enterprises — sometimes have to do whatever is most likely to gu

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“Gerrymandering social enterprise”

January 14, 2015

There are people…who are trying ever so hard to ‘gerrymander’ the word Social – separate it from the word enterprise, better still kill it off altogether… There’s a very interesting and provocative piece over on the Can Cook — The Food Campaign blog about ̵

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£7.6m, five years, help for 1000 unemployed young people — that’s Talent Match

October 10, 2014

The latest successful BIG Lottery-funded project for Birmingham & Solihull is about to launch. Talent Match Birmingham & Solihull, a pre-employment programme for 18-24 year olds, is officially launching with a week-long “roadshow” starting on 13 October 2014. The MOVE truck w

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Hurd quits in reshuffle with “love and respect” for sector “undimmed”

July 15, 2014

Nick Hurd, who served as minister for civil society for the coalition government’s first term of office, has fallen casualty to what some are calling Cameron’s “cull of the white males”, and others “getting rid of the old lags”. Third Sector refers

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New £40m fund to support voluntary sector & social enterprise sustainability — consultation until 24th July

June 10, 2014

There is news flagged up here on the footprint associates website and here on the BVSC website regarding a recently launched consultation exercise which is important to the third sector and to social enterprise. Over the coming weeks — until 12:00 noon on the 24th June July 201

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£170 million to help young people find jobs

May 15, 2014

The Dept for Business Innovation & Skills has just announced that £170m is being made available to fund programmes for youth employment. This new funding, the Youth Employment Initiative, will target five areas of the UK to help young people into work and will be split as follows:

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Jazz, Russian classics, great coffee, homemade cake — St Barnabas has it all

April 25, 2014

St Barnabas Church Centre (which I have written about before on this blog) really does have something for everyone, you know. As well as forthcoming music from the Russian classics — Borodin, Glazunov and Tchaikovsky — the cafe also hosts a latin-flavoured jazz trio on the

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Govt launches new fund to encourage local authorities to transform and mutualise services

January 10, 2014

The Cabinet Office and the Dept for Communities and Local Government have just announced the launch of a £1m fund aimed at encouraging local authorities to transform services through the use of new delivery vehicles, including third sector delivery or mutualisation. The fund will offe

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Centro offers free cycling training and activities

November 14, 2013

As part of its Smart Network, Smarter Choices project, Centro has funding through until March 2015 to offer a range of cycling activities including: adult cycle training (from learning to ride to improving confidence for riding on roads); adult cycle maintenance sessions; Dr Bike safe

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National Consortium of Social Enterprises seeks members

November 11, 2013

A new national bidding consortium called the National Consortium of Social Enterprises was launched in July 2013. Its aim is to offer a membership consortium for social enterprises that want to be part of joint bids for public service contracts. The consortium is supported by 3SC, So

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