Wednesday

25th July 2007

Mosely Community Development Trust

Moseley

Birmingham

A Half-Day Research Dissemination Workshop

Agents for Change - Public Sector and Social Enterprise

Introduction

Benefitting the Economy and Society Through Procurement is a major initiative, based in the East Midlands region, that aims to improve the correlation between public sector expenditure and public benefit, positioning social enterprise as a key delivery vehicle in acheiving this goal.

The Sustainable Developement Research Centre (SDRC) is working as the research partner on the BEST Procurement Programme.

As part of the research dissemination exercise SDRC is holding a series of workshops in each of the regions of the UK. Each event is designed to create a forum for communicating the research findings and sharing best practise with and among leading practitioners in the area of social enterprise development and public sector procurement.

Aims

The aim of each workshop is to communicate the findings from the research understaken in the East Midlands and to listen to and share best practise with other regions. In this way, we hope to build a UK-wide perspective of activity.

Workshop Objective

This workshop will, through discussion and case study examples, explore the policy context, barriers and drivers for change in access to public sector markets. We will hear the experiences of speakers from both the East Midlands and your local area. We invite you to join our discussion.

13.00

13.30

13.40

13.55

14.15

14.35

14.45

14.55

15.15

17.00

Programme

Registration and Coffee

Welcome and Introduction - Carrie Weekes, Regional Development Manager, Development Trusts Association & Emma Torrance, Head of Finance, Social Enterprise East Midlands (SEEM)

Dr Sarah-Ann Munoz and Heather George, SDRC - Programme update

Viv Bolland, Procurement and Partnership Manager, North West Leicestershire District Coucnil and BEST Procurement Partner

Jenny Murray, Voluntary and Community Sector co-ordinator Worcestshire County Council

Coffee Break

Pauline Roche, Lead Officer for the Beacon Dissemination Project, Birmingham City Council

Heather George, Research Assistant, SDRC Case Study

Group Discussion, exchanging experiences:

• Types of Change
• Policy Changes
• Challenges for Social Enterprises and Local Authorities

Close

Venue - Moseley Community Development Trust, The Post Office Building, 149-153 Alcester Road, Moseley, Birmingham, B 13 8JP

Registration - Please contact Wendy Galloway on 01309 678111 or email:

wendy.galloway@sdrc.uhi.ac.uk to register for the workshop