UK: Minister for the Third Sector calls for more social enterprise procurement

Phil Hope, the Minister for the Third Sector, called for more local authorities to procure from social enterprises in a video speech shown at the first ever West Midlands Social Enterprise Convention on 29 January 2008.

The event, entitled Focusing on Success, was held by Social Enterprise West Midlands with funding support from Advantage West Midlands ? its regional development agency.

During his speech, the Minister said: ?Social enterprise is crucial?they tackle some of our most entrenched difficult environmental and social goals in some really innovative and sustainable ways and in doing so, I think they do shake up the government as well as the private sector.

?They challenge and they help government to improve the way we design and deliver public services and I think they also raise the bar for ethical business and corporate social responsibility?.

?We want to ensure that social enterprises have access to appropriate finance and we?re working on a new £10million risk capital fund to invite co-investment for social enterprises. And we want social enterprises to work better with government and we?re trying to remove the barriers to the way that government procures to ensure that social enterprises can compete for contracts.

?My vision is for a strong and healthy social enterprise sector. We?re trying to create the conditions to make that a reality, but of course, there?s always more that needs to be done?.

?One area of growing opportunity for social enterprise? the Minister continues, ?is in public services and I want to see more social enterprises involved in the provision of public services. Not only because they can deliver good services, but they bring vibrancy, they bring edge, and I think they bring innovation to community services that sometimes the government finds quite hard to deliver.?

www.socialenterprisewm.org.uk