Introduce more considered partnership planning to increase the opportunities for effective, need-driven partnerships between social enterprises and private/public sector organisations. Create better regional/national links and improve networking opportunities

Rationale

The purpose of this priority is to improve co-operative thinking city wide as a means of increasing social enterprise activity and therefore access to the resources needed for development and growth of the sector.

Social enterprises are often able to mobilise considerable resources and extend their social impacts by thinking co-operatively about resources and support that can be secured in-kind or at low cost from private businesses and public sector bodies. These resources are not just concentrated in large organisations - they can also be mobilised from a large numbers of small and medium-sized organisations. Underlying the priority is a unique approach that suggests that with the right support there are more resources and bigger benefits available than are currently being exploited.

Research suggests that the benefits are difficult to mobilise because social enterprises are unaware of what opportunities are available, what the different parties are likely to gain from working together, and how individuals with specific needs can approach one another as potential partners.

For a private sector business, the challenge is to consider what may be gained in return for support. Many businesses already involved recognise the considerable pay-back in terms of staff motivation and engagement, improved communication and exceptional local publicity.

Public sector employers could also benefit from this activity. It is worth noting that public sector bodies do not just contribute through regulation and commissioning other groups activity. They too have much to offer in terms of management and administration skills, and much to gain as employers from improved motivation and communication that co-operative thinking can bring.

Key issues:

• Ensure effective brokerage between social enterprises looking for support and potential providers of this support. Clear, well considered needs can be easily met provided that the right contacts can be found at the right time.

• Ensure that training is available for 'partnership planning', covering areas such as how to approach potential partners and how to manage mutually beneficial relationships. This means that potential partners can work effectively together without having to go through a third party broker as they develop skills and begin to engage in wider networks.
• Ensure a structure is established to promote co-operative success, engaging more organisations in a central Social Enterprise Framework to fuel long-term sustainability.

• Ensure that opportunities for growth and development are not just local, but also provide easy routes to regional, national and international social enterprise and business networks.

• Ensure opportunities for effective, need driven-partnerships in Brighton and Hove add value to specialist providers, such as Business Link, University of Brighton and others.
• Improving links with infrastructure and support bodies, including the Chamber of Commerce, Wired Sussex, Business Links, Community and Voluntary Sector Forum and others. This is to ensure that the experience in the social enterprise sector can impact on the private and public sectors.
• Ensuring that these issues are united in a programme of activities that gives organisations of different sizes and sectors easy routes to improving co-operative thinking and partnership planning.

Activities:

• Improve the capacity of brokerage bodies in the city. This may involve introducing a Social Enterprise Framework to ensure that organisations of different sizes, and different sectors, get what they need from working in co-operatively.
• Enhance the role of the Community University Partnership Programme so that academic resources can be matched with social enterprises that have specific research needs.

• Increase the capacity for regular training in the city that will enhance the quality and quantity of brokerage between social enterprises and public and private sector bodies. This will encourage public sector bodies engage in this training on the same basis as organisations from other sectors.

• Extend training outside the Brighton and Hove region to improve the possibilities for matching local social enterprises with support on a regional and national level. This may entail working closely with regional partners, on joint projects, particularly the South East Social Enterprise Network.
• Increase the number of joint events, seminars and workshops conducted in collaboration with sector-specific infrastructure groups.

Potential partners:

Uniting these activities within a Social Enterprise Framework ensures that a wide range of partners get what they need from co-operative thinking. The Framework would have to work in close partnership with existing infrastructure and support organisations in the city. Key partners would include:

• Brighton and Hove City Council
  
• Brighton and Hove Business Community Partnership
• Education Business Partnership
• Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce
• University of Brighton - ProftNet
• Community University Partnership Programme (CUPP)
• South East Social Enterprise Network
• SEEDA
• Voluntary and Community Sector support organisations

Indicators:

• Number of projects brokered, value of resources exchanged, numbers of case studies prepared
• Numbers of academic partnerships with the University of Brighton
• Number of training sessions conducted and attendance figures
• Presentations and seminars conducted with infrastructure bodies
• A 'meeting place' for the model established and running

Potential outcomes

A feasibility planning tool has been prepared as part the background research to this strategy. This has indicated that a Social Enterprise Framework can engage 500 organisations by 2013, and generate over £1 Million in in-kind resources exchanged every year. The Framework would work with 200 social enterprises, 50 Community Groups, 40 public sector bodies and 210 private sector businesses of various sizes.