UK: Guide For Charities Starting Social Firms Launched

The guide has been published by Social Firms UK, the non-profit membership organisation set up to support and promote the growth of social firms.

The guide is intended to assist charities that are considering setting up or ‘floating off’ a social firm. It focuses on the legal and technical aspects of the work and addresses such questions as:
? can a social firm trading activity be carried on as part of the charity, or should it be floated off, for instance in a subsidiary or linked company?
? how is running a social firm different from running a charity?
? what support can the charity offer – in cash or in kind – to a subsidiary or linked social firm?
? can a charity transfer its own assets and staff to a social firm, and if so, how?

Says Sally Reynolds, Chief Executive of Social Firms UK: “The social firm sector is a relatively young one but is growing steadily and beginning to show its potential for creating good quality jobs for disabled people. Social firms do tend to be set up by ?parent? organisations and, as the sector grows, we are seeing an increasing need for ?parents? to consider how and when they need to enable the social firm enterprise to start ?going it alone?. Social Firms UK has recognised the need for helping the parent organisations to consider externalisation of their social firm(s) through the production of this guide. We’re delighted with the result and hope it will be of use to many people. We are also planning an equivalent guide to the externalisation of social firms for public authorities.”

A social firm is a business set up specifically to create employment for disabled people. There are three core values that social firms will subscribe to within their businesses, orientated around enterprise, employment and empowerment. Secondary to the values-led approach to social firm development, social firms will aim to employ at least 25% of their paid, contracted workforce that are people with disabilities, and they will aim to achieve at least 50% of income through sales, to reflect their ambition to reduce reliance on grants and subsidies.

www.socialfirms.co.uk