UK: The first community call centre

Building work has started on a 1,500,000 euro call centre for a new venture by one of Scotland?s best known social enterprises. The award-winning McSence Group, which has helped to transform an ex-mining town in Midlothian over the last 15 years, has launched its seventh company – McSence Communication. The new call centre will create 30 jobs and will specialise in providing jobs and training for unemployed people in the local community. It will also use state-of-the-art technology to enable people with severe physical disabilities to ?tap in? to the call centre remotely and work from home. This innovative aspect of the business has been developed in partnership with leading charities including Leonard Cheshire, the Thalidomide Trust and the Diageo Foundation. McSence chief executive Brian Tannerhill said: ?McSence exists to create jobs and opportunities for local people and makes money to reinvest back into the local community. We are always looking at new ideas that enable us to grow as a business and give more back to the community, and we are confident the call centre will be a big success.? ?We are particularly proud of the approach we are taking to provide good, flexible jobs for severely disabled people. This is the sort of innovation that keeps McSence at the forefront of social business.? McSence Communication is the seventh business in the McSence Group, a £5m business that grew out of economic devastation in the Mayfield and Easthouses area following factory and pit closures in the 1980s. Its other business interests include heating and insulation, computer recycling and contract cleaning services. McSence is one of Scotland?s biggest and best-known social enterprises. All of its profits are reinvested in projects that benefit the local community. www.mcsence.co.uk