Tuesday

25th September 2007

Out of the Blue

Drill Hall

Edinburgh

A Half-Day Research Dissemination Workshop

Resource Capacity and Future Social Enterprise Development

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.

Over recent years, social enterprises have started to bid for, and win, public sector contracts. However, debates and discussion surround the capacity of social enterprises to continue to win public sector contracts in the future. The future development of the social enterprise sector may involve new ways of working, such as social enterprise consortiums and mergers, as well as new ways of funding.

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 prospects for social enterprises to continue to win public sector contracts in the future as well as the different ways in which the social enterprise sector could evolve. 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

13.55

14.15

14.35

14.50

15.20

15.40

17.00

Programme

Registration and Coffee

Welcome and introduction - Elizabeth Ball, Regional Development Manager, Development Trusts Association Programme & BEST Procurement Programme - outlining the BEST Procurement Programme and outcomes

Dr Sarah-Anne Munoz - SDRC - BEST Procurement Programme Research Update

Matt Jarratt, Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition - What social enterprises can bring in the way of addedd value to public procurement contracts.

Coffee Break

TBA

Jackie Scutt, Director, Social Enterprise Academy - Contracting Know How Project and future social enterprise development.

Group Discussion, exchanging experiences

• How can social enterprises continue to win public sector contracts?
• What will be the new ways of working for social enterprises?
• What are the new ways of financing that social enterprises should be looking towards?

Close

Venue - Out of the blue, The Drill Hall, 30 - 38 Dalmeny Street, Edinburgh, EH6 8RG

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

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