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Government pledges support for social enterprises
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills publishes response to Social Enterprise Summit
di Staff
As David Ainsworth of Third Sector reported, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has pledged to improve access to business information for social entrepreneurs in its response to the Social Enterprise Summit, held in May.
The department promised it would focus particularly on developing peer-to-peer support and mentoring in the sector. It pledged to “work with the sector, with other government departments, with Enterprise Insight, Business Link and the regional development agencies to ensure our promotion and support activities are inclusive of social enterprise”.
The announcement came as part of a multi-departmental response to the summit, where business secretary Lord Mandelson and several other ministers met third sector leaders.
A new ministerial committee containing the heads of several government departments will meet for the first time after the summer recess “to consider issues relating to the third sector’s involvement in public service delivery“, the response also revealed.
The Office of the Third Sector and the Communities and Local Government (CGL) department have said they will reveal new policies for the sector later in the year.
CLG said it would work with other arms of government identify and remove barriers to the transfer of assets from local and central government to social enterprises.
“We welcome the commitment from government to create better conditions for social enterprises to thrive in,” said Jonathan Bland, chief executive of the Social Enterprise Coalition.
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