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Birmingham City Council launches new Match My Project portal

August 16, 2021

For some while now Birmingham City Council has been considering methods for making it easier for businesses to support local community projects — whether they wish to do this as part of their CSR commitments or in pursuit of specific Social Value pledges a company may have made

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New project to boost digital literacy and inclusion in Northfield & Edgbaston

July 08, 2021

Northfield Community Partnership, Age UK and Gateway Family Services are just starting a new project focused on improving digital literacy and inclusion amongst the over-50s in Northfield and Edgbaston. The project is seeking to recruit 2 x Digital Literacy Project Workers. These are

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Roots HR CIC announces free HR toolkits

July 01, 2021

If you’ve been planning to build up up your in-house resources on HR and recruitment, now is a very good time to do so. Social sector HR specialist Roots HR CIC has just announced that as part of delivering on its social mission it will be releasing a free HR toolkit every month

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iSE welcomes new chief executive

May 13, 2021

Further to this post, the Chair of iSE’s board of directors, Dr Steve Harding, has issued a statement welcoming iSE’s new chief executive, Cathy Brown. Cathy will replace Sarah Crawley, iSE’s founder and only CEO since the company’s formation, on the 1st July.

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Subscribe to BSSEC news, updates & information

May 29, 2020

This post is a sticky — newer posts appear beneath it To receive news, updates and information from BSSEC you can subscribe by filling out the contact form HERE or simply drop me a personal email asking to be added to our mailing list. You can also follow BSSEC on Twitter @

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Coronavirus — who gets paid and how much? Managing coronavirus as an employer

March 05, 2020

If you are already planning for how your workplace will manage the implications of coronavirus infections — by using the excellent guidance that NCVO has recently published, for example — you may be interested to know that BSSEC member Anthony Collins Solicitors has publis

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Social Enterprise Mark CIC announces new entry-level accreditation scheme for younger and new-start social enterprises

July 17, 2019

Social Enterprise Mark CIC, the organisation behind the nationally recognised Social Enterprise mark accreditation scheme has just announced the launch of a new accreditation for new-start and young or emerging social enterprises. Called the Aspiring Social Enterprise accreditation, t

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Healthwatch Birmingham receives national recognition and wins contract to continue providing service

July 03, 2019

Healthwatch Birmingham, the independent champion representing public and patients’ experiences of using local health and social care services, has just published its Annual Report 2018/2019. The report details the organisation’s most successful year to date: 59% more peopl

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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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