Social enterprise and public procurement/Supply-side Interventions

Supply-side Interventions

Intervention objectives

The objectives of the supply side interventions are:

• Creating market opportunities for the social economy and develop the capacity of the social economy; and
• To create a number (between 100 and 200) of new market opportunities within the public sector appropriate to the social economy, focused on labour market integration and the needs of underrepresented groups and matched with the potential capacity of the social economy to deliver within the timeframe.
• To provide targeted support to the social economy for it to capitalise on the market opportunities created through winning and sustaining contracts.
• Develop approaches including consortia, partnerships, incubation of new social enterprises and support for the voluntary and community sector to contract with the public sector.

Research objectives

To observe and measure the interventions to establish:

• The extent to which social enterprises are procurement ready and capable
• The extent to which the interventions develop and enhance that capacity
• The conditions under which the interventions are most effective

Supply-side interventions

There were 12 supply-side interventions identified from Action 1. These are summarised in Table 1.

Table 1 Supply side interventions in BEST

Brief No	Intervention Title	Type of Intervention	Typical Outcome
1	Enterprise Directions	Advice and Brokerage (Face to Face and on-line tool)	Initial Diagnostic and signposting SEs to the appropriate options within the Programme.
2	Enterprising Ideas	Workshops, learning network	Understanding of the Public Sector Market and identification of new business ideas
3	Replication	Study and new organisations	Replicating established social enterprises
4	Incubator	Incubator	New Social Enterprises
5	Culture change	Workshop/consultancy	Redirection of culture from grant recipient to supplier capability.
6	Enterprising Management	Workshop, learning network	Improved internal capacity to deliver goods and services
7	Market Reports	Reports	Reports on Specific Social Enterprise Ideas
8	Sales Broker	Sales materials Purchaser survey Sales leads	Joint or shared sales and marketing activities
9	Contract Finder	Information sharing	Social Enterprises informed of relevant contracts coming up
10	Contracting know-how	Modular training programme	Better understanding of procurement processes for SE
11	Collaborative Frameworks	New Organisation(s)	Consortia or federation of SE suppliers to secure larger contracts
12	EQuality of Employment	Workshops, learning network	Improved social impact of SEs especially in relation to employment practice
13	Chair	Support to the SED Group	To ensure the effective functioning of the Partnership
14	Advisory Partners(x2)	Support to the SED Group	To assist the Partnership to remain relevant to social enterprise's needs

Following the process of applying for partner organisations the number of interventions have been reduced to 8. These are summarised in Table 2 along with the lead partner for each intervention.

Table 2 Supply-side intervention partners

1. Enterprising Directions Northants CDA
2. Enterprising Ideas DTA
3. Replication Leicester CAN
4. Incubation
5. Culture Change DTA
6. Enterprising Management
7. Market Reports
8. Sales Broker Northants CDA
9. Contract Finder ISDB
10. Contracting Know-How ISDB
11. Collaborative Frameworks
12. Equality of Employment LCCDA
13. Chair ISDB
14. Advisory Partners Hurt Trust

Each of the partners will be developing, testing and implementing an intervention in their area of the DP with a number of social enterprise beneficiaries who will be recruited through the networks of the partners. The intention is that the development requirements of each beneficiary will be measured at the start of their engagement with BEST, by Northants CDA, using their existing (and modified in collaboration with SDRC for the purposes of the BEST programme research) diagnostic tools. These evaluations will set a baseline against which the beneficiaries will be measured and also help to identify which of the interventions are best suited to the needs of the beneficiary