Press Story

Based on case study research carried out in the North West earlier in the year, the report - Supporting community and social enterprise in deprived communities: A Good Practice Guide - identifies a series of barriers and opportunities facing community organisations as they seek to take up the Coalition Government's Big Society challenge.

The guide encourages community organisations to take an 'enterprise leap' by:

building an 'enterprising team' with strong leadership and a clear vision and purpose to avoid the 'mission-drift' caused by chasing available funding;
becoming more business-minded - identifying market niches and carrying out market research; and undertaking organisational reviews to identify core strengths and weaknesses;
developing key skills within the organisation including:
- Financial management, with particular attention to cash flow;
- Marketing, networking and building the organisations' profile;
- Procurement and bidding for public sector contracts;
- Carrying out regular risk management processes to foresee future problems.

The guide recommends that to support community and social enterprises, local authorities should:

carry out research to properly understand the size and potential for community and social enterprise in the local area;
review their commissioning and procurement processes in partnership with the voluntary and community sector;
involve the community and social enterprise sector in wider economic development activities - especially those targeted at deprived communities;
provide enterprise 'seedcorn' grants and support, and training programmes such as 'schools' for social entrepreneurship.

Ed Cox, Director ippr north and co-author of the report said:

'Lots of community organisations rely heavily on government grants and with spending cuts on the way many will struggle to survive unless they become more enterprising, efficient and well managed.

'To do this, they need support from local government, often in the form of practical advice and skills building. With the right support, community organisations can make the 'enterprise leap' and become sustainable businesses. Given the depth of cuts to public spending, if community organisations don't adapt and change, vital services will be lost and people will suffer, particularly in deprived areas.

'For its part, local government should not take easy option of first cutting grants and contracts with community organisations in the search for spending reductions. The Big Society will not be built on the rubble of dismantled community groups.'

Notes to editors:

The report was launched at an event today (Monday 6 December 2010) in Greater Manchester with guest speaker Andrew Stunell, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government.

This guide builds on research carried out by ippr north for North West Together We Can which explored the critical success factors for community and social enterprise in deprived communities in the North West of England published in June 2010 which is available here.

Contact:
Tamsin Crimmens, Media Officer, 0191 233 9051/07800 742 262 or t.crimmens@ippr.org