Enhance reputation by efficient engagement with local resources from all sectors and links with other citywide strategies. Increase local opportunities for contacts, procurement contracts and policies to boost the local economy and demonstrate success on a regional level.

Rationale:

The purpose of this priority is to ensure that existing resources and opportunities are fully exploited, and that any new resources have the maximum possible positive impact for Brighton and Hove.

Social enterprises can be very good at reaching out to local private companies and public sector bodies but more could be done to ensure that these different kinds of organisations know about each other and understand how they could work together. Acting locally also helps to improve the accountability of social enterprises because it makes it easier to focus on established, local needs. Partners, supporters, clients and customers can more easily see the benefits of social enterprise activity for themselves. Social Enterprises need to maintain high standards of conduct in order to sustain a good local reputation.

Increasing the use of local resources means creating a context for social enterprises to work locally on several levels. This includes increasing the political capital directed towards social enterprises, increasing the total number of organisations interested in engaging with social enterprises, and increasing commercial opportunities for social enterprises to trade with public sector and private sector businesses, as well as networks of local customers.

Key issues:

• Increasing range and number of organisations actively enhancing the impact of social enterprises on the city. This entails developing easy routes of engagement to improve the contact between social enterprises, public and private sector bodies and other Third sector organisations.

• Increasing the number of procurement and contracting opportunities available to the social enterprise sector from both the public sector and the private sector.
• Ensuring that the needs of the social enterprise sector are reflected in other citywide strategies and plans so that new funding opportunities are exploited and directed to key support issues and needs.

Activities:

• Increase the range and number of organisations engaging with social enterprise. It is particularly important to engage more public sector bodies in cross-sectoral events and discussions. Improve brokerage to ensure more public sector groups and individuals are engaged in discussions that are already taking place between Third sector organisations and businesses.

• Hold joint events and seminars on procurement and contracting. Increase opportunities for procurement officers to meet and talk to social enterprises.

• Development of a social enterprise trade directory.

Potential partners:

• Brighton and Hove City Council
• Brighton and Hove Business Community Partnership
• Working Together Project
• Brighton and Hove Community Initiatives
• Brighton and Hove PCT / NHS
• University of Brighton
• Community Universities Partnership Programme (CUPP)
  

Indicators

• Business growth in the social enterprise sector, measured by collective turnover of social enterprises.
• Seminars and events conducted
• Trade directory developed and launched
• Social enterprise addressed in strategies (Business infrastructure improved, social enterprises used to achieve social, economic and environmental targets).

Potential Outcomes:

The 2007 mapping exercises estimated the total worth of Brighton and Hove's social enterprise sector at £21 Million. Accounting for an increase in the size of the sector, growth within existing organisations and a greater breadth of coverage for future mapping exercises results in a projected value of the sector of over £60 Million by 2013.