Together we can – creating the conditions to empower our communities to thrive // Gyda’n gilydd gallwn – creu’r amodau i rymuso ein cymunedau i ffynnu
This shared learning event will bring people together from across public services to share ideas, learning and knowledge.
We will also share examples of approaches being taken by organisations within Wales and the UK that are having real impact across communities.
In the last 15 years, local government in Wales has faced significant pressures, dealing with crisis after crisis, which has changed the way services are provided. Austerity tested local government’s ability to change and react.
Local authorities adapted well in responding to this challenge, devising and implementing a range of efficiency measures that reduced the cost of services, but also finding innovative ways of working.
However, public services now face their most significant challenges in a generation. Wales already has some of the greatest and deepest levels of poverty in Great Britain and communities are facing a cost of living crisis. Coupled with a challenging financial outlook and an aging population, it’s clear that public services will need to find different ways of maintaining services and continuing to support the wider community and in particular those most in need.
We recently published a series of reports. Our first report provided a baseline showing that poverty is the major challenge facing all tiers of government. With this context in mind, our second report looked at how local authorities are working to grow and expand social enterprises to help local government deliver more services and reduce demand. Finally, our third report focused on understanding how local authorities are creating the conditions needed to transform ways of working and empower communities to thrive as independently as possible.
Our recommendations are designed to support local authorities to use our report to self-evaluate current engagement, management, performance, and practice to identify where improvement is needed.
Bydd y digwyddiad dysgu ar y cyd hwn yn dod â phobl ynghyd o bob rhan o wasanaethau cyhoeddus i rannu syniadau, dysgu a gwybodaeth.
Byddwn hefyd yn rhannu enghreifftiau o ddulliau gweithredu gan sefydliadau yng Nghymru a’r DU sy’n cael effaith wirioneddol ar draws cymunedau.
Yn ystod y 15 mlynedd ddiwethaf, mae llywodraeth leol yng Nghymru wedi wynebu pwysau sylweddol, gan ddelio ag argyfwng ar ôl argyfwng, sydd wedi newid y ffordd mae gwasanaethau yn cael eu darparu. Gwnaeth gyni roi gallu llywodraeth leol i newid ac ymateb ar brawf.
Addasodd awdurdodau lleol yn dda wrth ymateb i’r her hon, gan ddyfeisio a gweithredu ystod o fesurau effeithlonrwydd a oedd yn lleihau cost gwasanaethau, ond hefyd dod o hyd i ffyrdd arloesol o weithio.
Ond erbyn hyn, mae gwasanaethau cyhoeddus yn wynebu eu heriau mwyaf sylweddol ers cenhedlaeth. Eisoes mae gan Gymru rhai o’r lefelau tlodi mwyaf a dyfnaf ym Mhrydain Fawr ac mae cymunedau’n wynebu argyfwng costau byw. Ynghyd â rhagolygon ariannol heriol a phoblogaeth sy’n heneiddio, mae’n amlwg y bydd angen i wasanaethau cyhoeddus ddod o hyd i wahanol ffyrdd o gynnal gwasanaethau a pharhau i ategu’r gymuned ehangach ac yn arbennig y rhai sydd fwyaf mewn angen.
Gwnaethom gyhoeddi cyfres o adroddiadau yn ddiweddar. Roedd ein hadroddiad cyntaf yn darparu llinell sylfaen sy’n dangos mai tlodi yw’r her fawr sy’n wynebu pob haen o lywodraeth. Gyda’r cyd-destun hwn mewn golwg, edrychodd ein hail adroddiad ar sut mae awdurdodau lleol yn gweithio i dyfu ac ehangu mentrau cymdeithasol i helpu llywodraeth leol i ddarparu mwy o wasanaethau a lleihau’r galw. Yn olaf, canolbwyntiodd ein trydydd adroddiad ar ddeall sut mae awdurdodau lleol yn creu’r amodau sydd eu hangen i drawsnewid ffyrdd o weithio a grymuso cymunedau i ffynnu mor annibynnol â phosibl.
Nod ein hargymhellion yw ategu awdurdodau lleol i ddefnyddio ein hadroddiad i hunan-werthuso cyfathrebu, rheoli, perfformiad ac ymarfer cyfredol er mwyn nodi lle mae angen gwella.
I’m Euros Lake, this is my colleague Philipa Dixon and I’m here this morning from the Performance Audit team, Audit Wales. We are senior auditors and every year we tend to co-ordinate a programme of local government studies, the Auditor General,
And as part of that programme last year, we published three reports on the theme of poverty. The first report we published last November looked at the challenges of poverty as a whole across Wales, and how different tiers of government are responding to those challenges.
The second and third reports, which we are going to summarise for you this morning, focus on some of the different directions, and the possible solutions that are available to councils to try, I suppose, to continue to maintain services and address the enormous challenges facing society such as poverty,
And to do so in a challenging context in what are quite difficult times in terms of capacity and resources. As a background, there are obviously many things that have contributed to this challenging context for councils. Years of financial hardship have, of course, led to resources and capacity constraints. We have
An ageing population here in Wales and that is one of the factors that leads to an increase in demand on services. There are challenging targets, obviously in terms of things like carbon emissions, which we have to reach by the end of the decade,
And the pandemic, of course, has changed the way we all live, and work. That period of recovery is therefore continuing for councils after the crisis. We’ll go from one crisis to another I suppose, well, we’re talking inflation now and the cost of living
And how that affects public bodies in different ways. And one of those, in terms of capital projects, is that there are higher costs for those as a result of inflation, as well as higher bills obviously in terms of things like gas and electricity, fuel,
What it really means is that we need to spend more just to stand still really never mind the requirement afterwards to meet that increased demand and address big challenges like, like poverty.
And what’s clear from all of this really in terms of that context is that we need quite an elementary shift, a change of mindset and doing things in a different way. If [unclear 0:02:30] is to continue that is, and that is the basis of the two reports
We are going to talk about this morning, the first one talks about social enterprise and what councils are doing under section 16 of the Wellbeing and Social Care Act, the section that places a duty on councils to foster and collaborate with social enterprises.
Philipa will talk a little bit more about that report in a minute. I’ll just briefly touch on the second report there. Trying to look at something a little more vague I suppose which are small, more elementary shifts in ways of working, in mindset, namely councils’ efforts to build community resilience, community resilience
And to try and provide services collaboratively in ways, in preventative ways that encourage communities and individuals to be less dependent on public services. In terms of resilience, community resilience, we are seeing that most councils are prioritising this now by including strategic wellbeing objectives that state that
They are going to work in a different way that empowers communities to do more for themselves. What we are seeing is that it works best where it is clearly defined, broadly defined, in a way that identifies the role of the council within that picture.
Ok, there might be a shift away from being a traditional provider in terms of, in terms of services, but what does that mean for councils in terms of facilitation, because they can’t step away completely so, so that’s, that’s the challenge in terms of defining
The challenge and what we have as a very current case study of course is the pandemic where we have seen councils working in very different ways, but more than that, we’ve seen communities stepping up and doing more to support each other when, when they need to.
In terms of the conclusions of the report, there are a lot of opportunities we see for councils to improve, and those are due to the way resilience is currently defined or not defined by councils. The narrative around community resilience, it is driven largely by the arrangements under the Civil Contingencies Act
And councils then focus really on the… what they need to do in a crisis and then miss opportunities to promote more widespread resilience. What is important is that councils, well… they don’t start with a blank page in this regard.
We saw that there were pockets of good work going on mainly in terms of supporting volunteers to run community hubs and the work of community coordinators who very often help people to find preventative services and are vital links between councils and communities.
I think that the danger here is, without defining strategically what all this means for councils, all the good work will stay as pockets of, of activity that isn’t really going to make the difference it could make to communities if everyone pulled in the same, in the same direction.
And the, the recommendations that we have in the report call on councils to look to the long term. Consider what the future needs of communities will be and where the council fits in in that picture. If we can do that, I think, and bring all this activity together,
There’s a way to use assets in very different, more sustainable ways that keep the benefit local then within communities. With that, I’ll pass you on to Philipa quickly now to talk about our work on social enterprises. Philipa, over to you. Thank you Euros
So thinking about the case for social enterprises, I mean I think Euros has very convincingly made the case for improving community resilience. But for me, one of the most important things about social enterprises is their focus on keeping wealth within
Communities, so that he can directly help people who are in poverty by, for example, helping people people in disadvantaged communities by providing services that would otherwise not be available. They supply basic public benefits such as social educational benefits to local communities, they can themselves
Themselves create new employment opportunities as a result of the services they supply. They contribute to the economic development of- of these deprived communities and they can specifically target their work to help disadvantaged people for example venerable women people with disabilities and ethnic minority
Groups can I have the next slide please foreign where are we now what did we find in our report um which was published at the end of last year and it’s also available on our website so social Enterprises can provide these important services but but we found that most local authorities
At the current time lack the coherent strategy and are not working collaboratively with Social Enterprises with communities to help support their growth and development positively councils value social Enterprises but so far not many have mapped their activity so they don’t really have that
Understanding of social Enterprises in their local area what’s happening on the ground and we tend we found that councils tend to have a reactive approach to working with Social Enterprise um social Enterprises so they respond to social answer prices that approach them but they’re
Not proactively seeking to work with social Enterprises or to help stimulate new ones and ultimately this means that councils are missing out on the potential for social Enterprises to help deliver services that is as I said previously that can improve people’s quality of life can I have the next slide please
So thinking about what would ‘good’ look like? What would we like to see? And indeed, you know, as- as- as Euros said, we’re not starting with a clean slate here, many of these councils have some of these elements in place. But
We’d be looking for councils to have a clear vision and strategy so councils understand why they’re working with social enterprises and the benefits and outcomes that they want to achieve. Again, it’s really important that councils map social enterprises in the local area and have
That dialogue with the communication with- and the understanding which social enterprises are in the local area and what they do. It’s important that councils collaborate with social enterprises to provide these services that local people and communities would otherwise not benefit from. I
Mean, as a result of years of austerity, obviously, what councils can provide to communities is- has diminished, and its- social enterprises are really good potential to help to- to sort of fill that gap. We’d like to see effective commissioning and procurement which prioritises social value, and
It really importantly needs to be user friendly for social enterprises, and particularly small ones with fewer employees that simply can’t spend the time on administration and bureaucracy. We’d like to see councils have a system of monitoring and review which really helps them
Them understand what is working well, what isn’t working so well and what benefits they and the community are getting from the social enterprises sector. And we’d like to see them learning from this monitoring and that learning needs to then feed back into the council’s vision
And strategy for social enterprises. So as you can see, it is almost a- a circular process but then, obviously, there’s lots of interactions beyond that basic circle. Can I have the next slide, please? So, we found that barriers to change were very similar, perhaps not surprisingly, for
Both community resilience and social enterprises so I’m going to cover them together. And I’m sure that these barriers are familiar to everyone here, so I’m not going to go through them individually but just to highlight some of the key barriers. I think that underpinning all this is- is
A need for change, a need for doing things differently, looking at things differently, but we found so far there’s a bit of a lack of trust of and appetite for doing things differently. The- there’s a certain existing culture in place and there’s a resistance to changing
That culture. And again, just to repeat the point that within councils we found, at the moment, a lack of strategic vision and understanding, and this comes- comes back to councils truly understanding and appreciating the benefits, that improving community resilience
and driving growth in the social enterprise sector can bring. Can I have the next slide please, Euros? So looking to the future, and again, these points very much apply for both community resilience and social enterprises, we want to see councils create that clear vision.
So again, really understand what they want to achieve and how they want to achieve it. And they do- they will do that by holding a two-way dialogue to underpin the change, so really working with people and communities to drive the change that is wanted and needed.
We’d like to see council members as community champions and ideally, members have got those close links with the community so in that case, they’re really well placed to facilitate that two-way dialogue. And I mentioned previously that this- this- this is a change, so councils will need
to refocus their officers’ work but in line with the clear vision that councils will have. It’s really important to avoid a one size fits all approach, and the actions that are needed will vary both between and within councils. But again, it’s about having clear communication and collaboration
with people and communities to make sure that needs are being met on both sides. And ultimately, as- as the point that I made at the- at the beginning of my- what I was talking about, was en- is ensuring
That wealth stays local, which in turn drives those benefits that Euros and I have already highlighted. And just one thing I’d like to flag before I finish. In both our community resilience and social enterprises reports, there are evaluation tools to help councils understand what actions
They need to make improvements in these areas, and I think that’s a really valuable resource. So I think the final slide is asking if anyone has any questions. So Euros and I are very happy to take questions if there are any, or- or happy to sort of respond
later if that would be more helpful? Thank you. next up is Susan Jones from Anglesey Council who’s going to talk about the the Anglesey Place making program so over to you Susan. Thank you, diolch yn fawr. Dw’i am… I’m gonna speak in Welsh this morning if that’s, if
That’s okay? Don’t know where the translator’s gone. And I’ll just share my screen as well. Thank you, diolch yn fawr. I’m going to… I’m going to speak in Welsh this morning if that’s, if that’s okay? Don’t know where the translator’s gone. And I’ll just share my screen as well.
Ok so, is everything alright, the translation works, and the screen is showing, yes? Brilliant. Right. Thank you very much. Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to come to you this morning. I’m Susan Owen Jones and my role at Anglesey County Council is Executive Manager to the Leadership Team.
And the purpose of today’s presentation is to share with you some information about Place Shaping in Anglesey. Sharing the background with you in terms of where Place Shaping came from, what we are doing, why we are doing it, how we operate, who is involved in Place Shaping, the strategic context,
And where we are in terms of the next steps here in Anglesey. Place Shaping started a few years ago here in Anglesey, using the model, the Building Communities model. The original intention was to use it as a means of engaging with the community
And by doing so, increasing capacity to engage effectively with communities and the public. As a result of the engagement, the goals, the main goals are to create resilient communities, create solution-oriented mindsets and discussions, and create opportunities to be open and transparent about planning and service delivery.
Place Shaping is a key strategic approach within the council at the highest possible level with buy in from… political buy in and buy in from senior officers. Place Shaping is… is a way of working here in Anglesey which focuses on how we do things rather than what we do.
Recently, the plan, the council has adopted a new corporate plan for the next five years which includes a new vision with strategic objectives. As a result of the new plan, we have reviewed our Place Shaping vision, and that is what is in front of you now, so,
The development of place, connecting the public, private and community sectors to create an Anglesey that is healthy and prosperous, where people can thrive. As I have already mentioned, Place Shaping is about how we operate rather than what we do. So, in summary, we are working in partnership which ensures cooperation,
We are removing barriers that can prevent engagement. We are making the most of our community assets. We are adding value, delivering value for money. Informing, directing and influencing strategic plans. Driving a multi-agency approach. We collect local data and information, and we provide support to secure external funding to make things happen.
From an Anglesey County Council perspective, Place Shaping is incredibly important. It increases the council’s ability to engage effectively with communities and the public. It develops the resilience of communities, creating a results-based way of thinking and it provides the opportunity to have those open discussions. How… there are five key elements to Place Shaping.
They are all on the screen, in front of you. Engagement, listening, supporting, empowering and sharing. So, that is the main focus, how we are doing things, rather than what, what we are doing in a way. Place Shaping is a way of working across the council.
It is not just one service. It is across the council, and there’s a better chance of us succeeding and achieving our objectives, by collaborating with partners and communities and internally. This also includes our objective… our well-being objectives. You will see on the screen in front of you our six strategic objectives,
Within the council’s plan. And our values have also been highlighted. As is clearly set out as one of the values, collaboration is extremely important here in Anglesey. And, if we want to succeed, it’s essential for us to work together.
As you see in one of our values and we work as a team with our communities and partners to achieve the best results for the people of Anglesey. In terms of who is key to Place Shaping. There are many partnerships and what’s, what’s… in front of you doesn’t include everyone either.
It’s about working in partnership. We work very closely with the local CVC – Medrwn Môn with their, through their contacts, and their support to communities on the island. It’s also important to note that Place Shaping is open to all and we encourage anyone with an interest
To get involved. It’s not a closed shop at all. The first step with Place Shaping in any community here in Anglesey is to engage and listen at ward level. Over the years there has been considerable work in this area. Medrwn Môn, whom I have already referred to,
Have taken the lead on this work. By working in partnership, we have used different methods to gather knowledge and the opinions of people and communities. We’ve mapped the communities in terms of assets, and some of the methods we’ve used to do that are on the slide in front of you.
We have another example that’s about to start, a project in one of the wards, with, in conjunction with Glyndŵr University, Wrexham, the Local Services Board and Medrwn Môn and that will be a Community Narrative project where we will use a new methods of engagement that will focus on art.
All the evidence we’ve gathered over time has been used as key evidence in developing the council’s new corporate plan and other strategic plans which are being developed. The evidence is gathered at ward level and where there is interest, community members come together to identify
The priorities and set up an alliance to address the priorities. An alliance gives a voice, a way of operating and a focus for collaboration in that particular community. Alliances are open to anyone in the community and there is agreement, that there is support for the initial meetings through Medrwn Môn as the CVC.
We now have seven alliances in operation on the island. As previously stated, one size does not fit all, and it is dependent on the community. Where the community is, what else is happening in the community and the appetite within the community as well.
In the last two years, about 300 individuals have taken part in alliance meetings, and they have recently acted on things such as warm spaces, green spaces and so on. To help alliances start their journey,
We were able to secure grant money in order to offer 4,000 of start-up funds to each alliance. This funding has enabled the alliances to create task and finish projects that refer to the identified priorities. And it can be spent on the projects themselves or as match funding for larger projects.
There are a number of good examples of projects across the alliances on the island and I have only identified two on the slide in front of you. There’s a lot more happening. But just to give you a quick taste. A transport and road safety project where one community noted that there were
Concerns about transport. So, the… alliance had established a sub-group, and the sub-group worked in partnership with the Police and recruited volunteers and engaged with the youth club and carried out work in the community itself to resolve the priority that had been identified. The second one I’ve identified is young people.
Encouraging participation in local democracy. Working with schools and giving young people the confidence to give their views to make a difference. There’s a lot of work on this going on in schools, engaging with young people to get their views as well and get them involved in the work.
The next steps, we are continuing to establish new alliances, when those communities are ready. We are continuing to increase confidence and collaboration. Raising awareness internally and externally and we’re also looking to expand the partnership so that the alliances develop and priorities in the community develop. That we expand the partnership
And bring in wider agencies as part of the… the Place Shaping, and the sixth on the slide there is influencing. And that’s to influence policy and strategies, not just locally, but regionally and nationally. And… thank you very much. I’m happy to receive any comments/questions. Thank you.
Hi everyone and thank you Sam. I’m the policy manager at an organization called Surf, Scotland’s regeneration Forum. So I’m going to talk to you about what’s happening up here in Scotland around play place based regeneration and policy practice with a particular focus on
Community wealth building. And in doing so, I’m going to focus in on- on one place, the coastal town of Dunoon in Argyll, which are- are a particularly distinctive set of economic challenges and opportunities. So I expect some of the policy and practice developments will- will resonate with them
Your respective experience across different parts of Wales, and we’re keen to get into some of that in the discussion later if we have time. But very briefly, about my organisation, SURF, we are a charity and a- a membership body. We’ve got more than 300 cross sector member bodies
Who are all concerned with the regeneration of disadvantaged places across- across Scotland. So we do some of the- the- the activities we- I set out on the- on the slide here. A lot of its standard membership body stuff, conferences and- and publications, but we do three things that- that
Are, I think, of- of particular interest and- and- and relevance. One is the SURF Awards for Best Practice and Community Regeneration, which is how we identify and- and promote and understand what- what works, what has impact in- in different types of community regeneration. We have five different
categories; creative regeneration, community led regeneration, housing, employability and Scotland’s most improved place. That’s- built up a bank of good practice and- and key studies which we- which we draw on. We also have a place programme called The Alliance for Action, which
you’ll see a bit more about later. And we also have a- frontline practitioners network, 300 people who work in- in- in directly in- in- in community supporting their regeneration and it helps us to understand how policies are- are playing out in- in- in practice. So my role as policy
manager is to draw out some of the- the learning and inform policy- policy and practice, understand what- what works and share that with- with- with different policymakers and- and local and national- national government.
So this is a- a very busy list. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go through all of this. This is a list of some relevant place based regeneration policies in- in- in Scotland. Two takeaways are; it’s
A very, very busy, very complex landscape we have up here- up here at the moment. The good side of that is that- that regeneration, community led place based regeneration has a- a- a very high and growing prominence nationally in government and in local government and across multiple departments
From health and enterprise to climate change and- and rural affairs. So positives and- and negatives. And I could have actually, believe it or not, added quite a lot more to this- to this list here. So I’ll just pick out – sorry, jumped forward there – I’ll just pick out three
For the time being which resonate with some of the- the content we’ve heard earlier. So the first is community wealth building, which I know is on the- the agenda in- in Wales as well. The Scottish Government has placed a very strong emphasis on its implementation.
There’s a- a- a minister- dedicated minister for- for community wealth, support for [inaudible – 0:27:35] in which some local authorities have community wealth building officers embedded in [inaudible – 0:27:40] localities. And there’s also our forthcoming community wealth building bill
As well. So this is all aimed at putting the- the five pillars of the- the international concept, include plural ownership of the- the- the economy, deeper community control of- of land and buildings and locally oriented procurement and supply chains, putting that into practice as
part of our- our changing approach, as we heard earlier, to- to- to economic development, which is much more about growing from within and less about attracting inward- inward investment. Secondly, we have land reform, which is closely linked to expanding community ownership of assets. The
Scottish Government has an expressed desire to- to normalise community ownership of assets, so it’s not just- it doesn’t happen just in response to a crisis like an unexpected closure of a- a community centre or a- a vacant historic building that really urgently needs- needs saved by the- by
the community, but- but to become something that’s a bit more commonplace in- in Scottish communities. There’s been two major land reform acts and the community empowerment act as well, and there’s a there’s a steady diet of- of reviews, le- consultations legislation, there’s a forthcoming
bill on land reform and a net zero nation, all of which are designed to support further progress, particularly in urban areas where community ownership has been slow to take- take root. And a third one I’ll highlight is the- the place principle, which COSLA, which is the- the
umbrella body for Scotland’s 32 local authorities agreed with the- the Scottish Government back in 2009- 2019 even, just before the- the pandemic. At its heart, it’s an agreement which states that all those responsible for providing services or looking after assets in a place
Need to work and plan together, and with local communities, to improve the lives of people, support inclusive and sustainable economic growth and ultimately to create better, more successful places. The place principal occupies quite an- quite an important part in the- the current programme for government and is informing strategies including a place based
investment programme, which is investing 325 million pounds in the five years to 2025 and- and a number of other things as- as well. The place principal generally calls for more cross sector collaboration and place based regeneration, based on community consultations and looking
to a long term vision for- for the place. And that’s a kind of important evolution from the current approach in which single actors tend- tend to operate short term interventions with- with only modest or tokenistic input from- from local partners and local community, community actors.
So in- in brief, what- what- what do our network think of all these- all these changes in this busy- busy landscaping. In- in brief, the current policy appetite and direction’s actually welcomed by- by the SURF network. Our members generally respond positively to- to consultations that- that- that seek to give
more powers to community groups and a more holistic and strategic approach- approach to- to the regeneration of disadvantaged areas. There- there’s obviously a good deal of logic in trying to make best use of limited resources in the current context by bringing a wider set of- of
Players and themes and government departments and agency into strategy on- on regeneration of- of- of our poor places, and the recognition that what of- what we call partnerships often are really partnerships, they’re- they’re- they’re also welcome. Too- too often, we have single agencies that’s
Talk about partnership approach when the reality is one- one entity is doing all the- all the driving, and true collaborations in both a kind of democratic sense and also in the provision of- of resources and capacity, you- they’re kind of harder- harder to find, certainly.
So the main criticism of our- [clears throat] of the current landscape is that while these ideas are welcome, they’re not really being backed up by the serious resources and commitment that- that’ll make them happen. I was struck by
The comment in- in Euros’ presentation about the- the pace and scale of change being insufficient, and that- that definitely resonated with- with what- what we hear from our network as well. So local government regeneration office tend to- tends to say that the… the-
The changes bring reporting obligations to them aren’t- aren’t necessarily backed up, or are- are rarely backed up by- by resources, so they have to spend more time and energy on producing reports. Often, those reports say what the local authority’s already doing, or what it can’t do because of a lack of
resources. So overall, it’s not too- not too- not too helpful in the- in the- in the context and we kind of end up with busy activity, lots of public documents, lots of consultations but not
as much by the way of tangible- tangible outcomes. In addition, some- some of the policy ambitions we’re hearing are in conflict. One- one example is on housing. National strategy’s clear, we should be building housing on- on- on brownfield land in urban areas to align with 20-minute neighbourhoods and- and
town centre living strategies but simultaneously, there’s pressures to increase the housing supply, there’s a lack of resources. So often we end up building housing on the- on the edge of our- of our towns and cities where the land is obviously cheaper. And on community ownership and urban areas,
Those are kind of two big barriers around land values and contested community ownership claims, which aren’t really being- being- being addressed through policy and that’s why often in rural Scotland, you’ll find a number of examples of successful community ownership. But the more urban,
The higher density you go, it’s much harder to- harder to find. And finally, there’s a kind of flavour of the month aspect to- to all of this. This month, we’re talking about community wealth building, last month it was 20-minute neighbourhoods, next month it might be local place plans or the wellbeing economy.
And there’s a kind of sense- practitioners network feel a sense of a kind of transitionary nature of- of- of priorities and the kind of lack- lack of impact and follow through. Lots of energy and time going
Into consultations and- and once our report comes out, very little world in real world implementation, it’s on to- on to the next one. So that’s a- a challenge that I think kind of was kind of touched on in this
Show- presentation as well. So that’s a very, very brief overview of the policy landscape here in Scotland. And I’m sure some of the- the positives and- and negatives will be shared with the- with the context in- in Wales. But here at SURF, really interesting tracking happens when policies hit a particular
place and so with that- that in mind, I’m going to talk about our- our- our place programme which we’ll create. We have locally based workers in- in several towns and- and neighbourhoods in- in different parts of- of Scotland who… They’re there to help the community progress their- their regeneration aspirations.
The programme’s called The SURF Alliance for Action, the emphasis on delivering tangible actions and improved places now rather than reports and consultations that are based on what might- what should happen and- and reports on what should happen in the- in the future. So one- one of the towns is- is- is
Dunoon. It’s a good case study for- for looking at attempts to- to capitalise on the- the- the growing interest policy appetite for a holistic [inaudible – 0:34:23] led longer term approach to regeneration.
We’ve been working in Dunoon since 2015. It’s- it’s the main town on the Cowal peninsula on the west coast of Scotland, which is a short ferry journey from the central belt. It’s an Area of Natural Beauty and the population is just below 10,000. The town was initially developed
By Glasgow’s merchant- merchant class. It became popular for the city’s working people for many decades as a holiday destination until the 1960s when we started going to Costa del Sol and other package holidays. But- but unlike other towns in many parts of Scotland, Dunoon was given an
alternative lease of life in 1961 for the United States and received permission to- to- to build a major nuclear submarine naval base on the Holy Loch, which is a sea inlet on Dunoon’s doorstep. And the town suddenly had a- a new economic purpose to replace tourism and hosted tens of thousands
Of- of US Navy personnel and their families for more than 30 years until 1982 when the base was closed at the end of the- the end of the Cold- the Cold War when it was deemed surplus to- to requirements. And the decision
To- to close the base was, as you expect, massive. 20 million dollars was- was- was lost to the local economy every year, 4,000 Navy personnel left the town and many jobs were lost overnight. And
as you can imagine, the 30 years since have been- been really challenging. There’s a… Dunoon has a precarious low economy, a constant outmigration of- of young people, low supply of full time jobs, lots of derelict land and buildings, poverty challenges, difficulty attracting- attracting visitors and a kind of
Pressing need for public realm and- and infrastructure investment. So that’s the- that’s the context in- in- in the town of Dunoon. But in 2017, we brought local people and regeneration practitioners together using the- the Community Charrette model and as people think about how- how we can practically respond
to the- the challenges and the opportunities in the- in the current- current context we’re- we’re operating in. So the charette, in case you’re wondering, 500 individuals and it resulted in a- in a kind of set of property regeneration projects
which our looking facilitator’s been helping to- progress ever since. So all- all designed to benefit the local economy and- and community and- and- and physical environment. So I’ll briefly run through some of the- the projects that were supported in- in- in Dunoon, starting with
This building here, Dunoon Burgh Halls, which is a- a kind of iconic B-Listed building in the- in the town centre. It dates back to 1873. It was rescued from demolition in- in 2008, taken into community ownership and- and refurbished in- in 2017. It’s- it’s been enhanced then, it’s- it’s
Now a popular performing art space, a gallery, a cafe, workshops, a garden conference venue. It does- does weddings, it generates a profit that’s reinvested back into local- local activity. So a really successful social enterprise right in the heart of- of- of the town centre.
We also established an American Years heritage book and secured funding to- to identify a facility to host our- our… preserve the- the heritage of the- the naval base and- and host our facility that- that’ll showcase its impact in the community and promote tourism. A successful international
podcast series was one of the- the group’s outputs during the- during the- the- the lockdown, and- and a local community owned visitor attraction will have significant social economic impacts in the longer- longer term. The charette highlighted Dunoon’s underplayed tourism potential in walking and cycling.
One of the ways we tried to respond to that was by working with Argyll and Bute Council and Cycling UK on our Dunoon Bothy Project. This was based in- in Dunoon Pier, provides guided health walks, cycle rides, support local trails, [inaudible – 0:38:09] activities for children and offers electric
bike hire as well. And speaking of the- the- the pier that the- the charette [inaudible – 0:38:18], which is pro-urban connectivity between the waterfront and the ferry port and the town centre. So we’ve supported and- and- and got funding for- for some significant public realm improvements here that
make the gateway to the town for visitors much more attractive and an improved streetscape for- for visitors- for residency even. And you can see in the left image here, that’s a Victorian Dunoon pier which is being refurbished and used a- a community venue. There’s also historic Dunoon
Castle Rooms and a Castle Museum right at the waterfront, which is a really- made a big difference visually and productively for the- for the- for the town. This is a smartphone app called Dunoon Forward. It highlights 50 local heritage sites, provides information on walking and cycling
Trails and even some- some games for children. The app’s designed to improve the visitor experience and it compliments a number of existing initiatives towards re-energising the local economy across business, voluntary and public- public sectors. And another social enterprise our- our local facilitator
supported the creation of is called Tacit Tacit, which recently took over vacant retail premises in the- in the town centre. Tacit Tacit [inaudible – 0:39:28]. We’ve done a community map- mapping exercise and they’re busy working on manufacturing
and distribution for a line of new soft drinks based on the town’s heritage and its former soft drinks- soft drinks factory. And even before the pandemic, many people in- in Dunoon worked from- worked from home and reported issues around isolation and- and poor wellbeing. So a facilitator created
A Dunoon and Cowal Co-works business group where regular meetups. These people can- can come together and collaborate, and we’re progressing plans to provide hot desk areas in some local cafes and civic spaces with benefits for the local economy and for the- the home workers’ mental health.
And we’ve worked with two local- local players; Dunoon Presents, which is a business improvement district; and Dunoon Area Alliance, which is a- a community development trust together- or- or… yeah, the- the- the manager at Scotlands Loves Local campaigns include [inaudible – 0:40:27] high street trades, we’ve got
A shared business and community services directory and it provides all sorts of information on- on- on shops and amenities and- and services. And Dunoon Area Alliance is- its now a- a development trust with- with three staff, and they’ve got all sorts of ideas for community led activities in the- in the
longer- longer term. And very finally, on bigger scale, this is the- the Dunoon Project which is a private initiative that’s received money from both the UK Government and the Scottish Government through its Highland Sales enterprise agency. The- the idea is to attract day trippers
And holidaymakers by connecting the town with the- the surrounding landscape. The idea, as you can see in the image, is for a ski lift to take people up to the hill overlooking the town. There’ll be a visitor
Centre and cafe, you can connect with walking and cycling groups, and there’s plans for a mountain biking park, toboggan rides and zip lines. There’s a bit of controversy around how- how well UK Government and Scottish Government regeneration investments are- are aligning, but places like Dunoon that- that are deprived,
In need of support can- can access funding from both, which is a- a positive in the current- current environment. So Dunoon’s one of several places in our Alliance for Action programme. We also work with a number of other charities in Scotland who have their own place programmes, including the CORRA Foundation
And Inspiring Scotland. Between us, we’ve got more- more than 50 places So a really good understanding of how policies are playing out in the ground and feedback learning to- to policymakers. Yeah, so that’s my hope. I hope that’s offered some useful insights into the- the regeneration policy
Landscape in- in- in Scotland and the opportunities for building community wealth in a town like… kind of like Dunoon with a fragile economy. If anybody would like to learn more about SURF and its work, you can visit our website at www.surf.scot. My email address is on the screen there. I’m very
Happy to participate in- in discussion and answer any questions. Thank you very much. So next up, we’ve got Andrea Wayman from Elite. Over to you, Andrea. Thank you. Share my screen. okay hopefully everybody can actually see that yeah yeah okay so
Okay. Hopefully, everybody can actually see that. Yeah, okay. So… Okay. So I suppose I’m slightly different to the presenters this morning in the sense that I’m actually a practitioner in social enterprise. And I’m- I’m
The founder and chief executive of the group of enterprises. And so who are we and what do we do? So our first social enterprise was set up in 1994, Elite Supported Employment. It’s an employment agency for disabled and disadvantaged people and we operate across 16 counties in Wales.
And the supported employment side of it is all about regeneration and creating employment and working with either private- private or public sector and social enterprise to create jobs and training opportunities for people. So moving on, in 2015 we set up Elite Paper Solutions. That’s a social enterprise
that deals with document management and we also provide services throughout that that encompass the shredding of confidential waste, archiving of documents and also scanning of documents. And more recently, since COVID, because we- we saw quite a number of offices closing down, we thought that
Our business was going to diminish, we actually moved into the reuse of waste cardboard and we’ve recreated that to make an animal bedding. However, offices have not closed down to the extent that we thought they would and there is still a need for confidential waste being
Shredded and collected. And the part that I’ve forgotten to mention as well is that we are very environmental as an organisation, and 100% of the waste products that we bring into our social enterprise creates half of the income that comes in. So we recycle 100%
Of the paper that comes in, we reuse 100% or recycle 100% of the cardboard. But any other waste that comes into the business – so we’ll have things such as lever arch files, you know, the
– if they’re ruined we take them apart and we sell the waste from that, our- we regenerate them and we give them to our local communities to use. So that could be universities for their education and also charitable organisations. Elite Training Solutions was then set up in 2016
To respond to the need to professionalise our own industry, but also to work with employers as well, support them through Disability Confident – we’re a Disability Confident leader themselves – but also to support employers in terms of things such as reasonable adjustments within their
workplaces, also working with local authorities and- and public sector bodies so that we could support those in either the retention of staff who are disabled or to recruit disabled staff. And then in 2019, we set up Elite Clothing Solutions and basically, that’s what it says
On the tin. We make garments for both public and private sector, and we also brand garments there. All of these environments were extremely important in creating wealth within our local communities. And when I say wealth, I’m really talking about income and engaging people who
were so disengaged from the employment market that we were job creating and, therefore, keeping that local community buoyant. We work in some of the most deprived wards within Wales. So Elite Paper Solutions is set up in Merthyr Tydfil and Elite Clothing Solutions is in Blaenau Gwent.
But I’ll quickly take you on to my next slide. So just to mention Elite Clothing Solutions and Elite Paper Solutions and Elite Paper Solutions were both adopted by the Welsh Government and TUC as two of three of the existing Better Jobs Close to Home strategies. And the purpose behind that, although I speak
about social enterprise today and the job creation, it’s also about training people, enabling them to volunteer, dip their toe in the water vocationally because we also support individuals to move on to jobs within our communities as well with very commercial companies such as the likes of Tesco,
you know, and so on, and- and also very localised industry as well, such as family businesses. So our role within the strategy was basically about upskilling the- the local community and creating workforces to support other employers there. To give you one example, in terms of Elite Clothing
Solutions, when we did the research about setting up that particular industry, there was, you know- manufacturing, it was very low in Wales at that point in time, we didn’t have an apprenticeship in terms of garment manufacturing and the workforce was 50-plus. So it was really
important for us that we regenerated in terms of a skill set there. And since last year, we’ve been working with UK Fashion and Textiles and Gower College to reinvigorate the industry, and we have several young people, and older people, who were now undertaken apprenticeships in that particular area.
So, these are some photographs at Elite Clothing Solutions. You know, we’ve got the branding. Predominantly, we make garments for the NHS but we have a whole range of customers. It isn’t easy, we have to keep, you know plugging away at getting that income in and also
Getting the capacity building just right. So at this moment in time, we’ve outgrown the original building that we started in and we’re looking to move into a vacant building next to us. But again, the capacity building then, we’ll be re-sourcing that building and bringing in
New staff and training them up. Important factor for me. As- as a social enterprise, I want to work with my public sector, I don’t want to displace jobs in my local community. And so we- we still have a lot of garments imported into the UK and into Wales and we want
to demonstrate that through critical mass through larger contracts, we can become as competitive as some of the- the items that are imported from abroad, and that then also regenerates and recruits. So for every new contract that we gain, we create new jobs, we create new training opportunities
And we create volunteering opportunities for those who are furthest from the labour market. This is some photographs of Elite Paper Solutions you can see. So we have very commercial vehicles that go out, we do have contracts with local authorities and with the NHS in relation to these
Particular contracts as well. You know, I- I can’t even hazard a guess any longer the tonnage of paper that we recycle as a result of this, and the social impact then that our gains for the public sector customers that we have
Is fed back to them on a very regular basis. As much as they want from the level of paper that we recycle on their behalf but also to the level of jobs that they create through the contracts
that they provide us with. And that’s a really small amount, you know. So if we were referring to the TOM’s measures within that, we cover a substantial. I was recently working on a contract that had a- a social value of two and a half million against a- a contract that was
probably close to about 100,000 pounds a year. So that’s- that’s really good, you know, payback into social value on that. And because our work extends into the communities, because we’re- we’re employment first and foremost, it’s almost as if – and I say this tongue in cheek – it’s
almost as if the products and the services that we provide are the secondary part of it and our job- job creation and our training is the primary purpose of why we exist, okay? However, I’m saying that very tongue in cheek. I constantly have to balance that ethical value and
what we’re doing for our local communities, and I should add as well, Elite Paper Solutions covers 10 counties in Wales, Elite Clothing Solution covers all counties in Wales where we could supply. And I think the importance – and I’m going to move on to this shortly – is to talk about
The collaboration as well, so that we’re also creating additional wealth in Wales through the two types of business that we have. But I have to remain commercial in all that I do because we have to have accreditations for these businesses. It is important for our customers
To know that we have the skills and ability and the capacity to deliver what they’re purchasing. So I’m probably preach- preaching to the converted here with everybody on this call this morning, but just to quickly run through the benefits of social purchasing. So for a lot of our customers, they
Have bespoke goods and services. If I gave you an example, we work with Cwm Taf NHS in terms of document destruction for their con- you know, their confidential waste. What they weren’t having from a very commercial company previously was that that commercial company didn’t go out to
all of- of their clinics and- and their smaller units and so on. And their porters had to pick their work up. We provided a very bespoke service to them where we went to all of their sites, it was
very, very localised for us. We’re also reducing our carbon footprint because we weren’t coming in from other areas, you know, over the border. And in their sense, we also saved them not just money but also their portering staff having to go out to other sections. On a three-year contract, we saved them
60,000 pounds. So I’m saying that because I want to dispel the myth that is often surrounding social enterprise that it’s more expensive than working with larger, commercial organisations. So that’s our cost effectiveness. The social value speaks for itself, the jobs that we create.
Elite Paper Solutions, since 2015, we’ve worked with more than 500 people to either employ them directly in our social enterprise at some point or to move them on to jobs in our communities as well. So, you know, that was quite considerable. Those people who had previously been economic-
Economically inactive or long term unemployed. But it’s also the impact that we have on their households as well. So a number of people came to us from worklessness households and we not only got those into employment, but we then supported those to set a good example and be the role model
In their family that enabled their children to go out to work when they came of working age. The quality of our work is, you know, it goes without saying, we always feel that we’ve got to prove ourselves slightly more than the commercial companies but in line with that, we have all the
Accreditations that any other business would have. We have to be audited in terms of our garment manufacture and you know, we have ISO 9001 in terms of the- the document management company, for instance. Our capacity- out capacity continuously grows, not just in terms of the job creation
that we have but what our needs are and to respond to our local markets as well, you know. So I mentioned about the additional building that we need for the- the garment manufacturing, you know, but also the machinery and equipment and so on. IT is changing so quickly and we have
To remain as commercially competitive as those commercial companies out there. You know and fundamentally, the whole of our work is surrounding The Wellbeing of Future Generations Actand the circular economy, foundational economy and also the Social Services
And Wellbeing Act as well. You know, that’s core to what we do and why we do it, but that’s what social enterprise provides, every local authority in Wales, you know, if you wish to engage with us. So procurement-wise, I didn’t want to displace work that was going on in our local communities,
such as school uniforms, for instance, that were being embroidered with local embroidery companies. So it’s really important for me that we did start to procure with public sector in relation to that and some of the larger- larger companies. And we were very fortunate that we were part of four
NPS registrations in terms of Regulation 20 that creates reserved contracting. That’s not to say that we don’t compete. We compete on a level playing field with the social enterprises. And that’s not just in Wales but that’s across the UK as well in that respect. We did that because
for the likes of you as an audience, we wanted to stop and avoid the repercussions of tendering and procurement through same-old, same-old methods, okay? And I- I don’t wish to be derogatory there but we really
want to work with you in collaboration, so we’ll say to you, try another way. You know, we’ve just had the new procurement coming in to us under the social partnership and procurement- public procurement act. That’s a great way that we can all start working together, you know. But
Also the use of this Regulation 20, which has existed for a significant number of years within Welsh Government procurement. So collaborative working is key to what we do. So there’s social enterprise into trading as much as possible, we as an organisation across the four enterprises will
Always try and purchase from social enterprises. Only then will we go out to other factors and look for resources elsewhere. We work collaboratively with an international company called Lyreco, and I should add that I’ve- I’ve highlighted here the Cymru Copier Scheme.
That operates across the whole of Wales and what we’ve created for Lyreco is a further collaboration. So if I gave our- our social enterprise dealing with document management, we work with Antur Waunfawr in north Wales, which is another social enterprise, and we work with an SME called
[inaudible – 0:57:38] in west Wales. That enables us to provide contracts that are Wales-wide for organisations and is a great collaboration, so great in terms of Lyreco that they’ve got their corporate social responsibility within the work that they do but likewise, for ourselves, that we’ve got
That collaboration to provide services right across the whole of Wales, and we all win and gain from that. So we subcontract to Alexandra, in terms of the- the garments that we make for the NHS, we’ve arranged
for public- private sector collaborations in terms of linking in with them so that they can provide and have corporate social responsibility there. We are in the process of- of setting up a cafe for Tilbury Douglas on one of their worksite supplying meals to 250 of their staff,
and- and also the collaboration with other social enterprises that I’ve highlighted in terms of the Cymru Copier Scheme. And then once those contracts or those relationships and collaborations are established, we can then extend our work further with customers as well.
So contributing to a wider Wales, I’ve mentioned the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act, you know, all of this comes into that. Those collaborations across Wales within social enterprises means that we’re then bringing them work into their communities, not just in the south Wales valleys where we
predominantly work. So just to give you a rundown of the social value and social impact. The value to the pound, for instance, you know, and the TOMs or whatever means and measures that you like to place your value. We- we- in our NHS contract for instance, for every pound that’s invested in
buying uniforms from ourselves, there’s a 570 social impact and social value return for every pound that’s spent. Measurements and values can vary considerably, you know. So, for instance, working with construction companies, it may be that we are going to
Schools and we’ll do some work in schools, or we’ll offer work experience for instance. So it can be as low level as you want. In between, we then have something that will be between that and perhaps the full TOMs measurements, and then leading on to the full TOMs measurements. And I’m
Really enlightened to see that in the past number of years since we’ve had COVID that we’ve seen scoring in procurement exercises. However, I’d like to go a little further, a number of people have spoken today about that, and that’s the monitoring. So once people have said what they’ll do in terms
Of social value and social impact, I would now love to see much more monitoring and evaluation so that those companies who have said that they will do that are measured against that. And I think that’s
The only way that we build social enterprise. And I think the thing that I should say, we’ve all spoken about growth in the industry and growth using the sector this morning, the important part of that
in- in terms of the man- monitoring and evaluation is critical mass. So, for instance, people would come to us thinking a small contract was better for us as a social enterprise. It was quite the reverse. When
we have to quote for small contracts, we can appear more expensive. When we have the larger contracts and we’re working in bulk, that’s when we can be cost effective for you as public sector bodies. So at that point, I’d like to thank you all for listening this morning. Here’s my contact details
And I’ll open up to questions if I’ve got any time left. Sorry, Sam. Final speaker for today now, so I’m going to hand over to Doctor Sarah Evans from Cwmpas. Over to you, Sarah. Thank you very much, diolch yn fawr, Sam. Really good to see so many people on the
Call this morning. So I will just share my- share my screen in presentation mode. Right, is that working, Sam? Is that all. Yeah. Yep. I can just to get into my presentation. Right. Okay, so I guess my- my role is maybe to- to bring together some of the things that we’ve heard this
morning but particularly, I think, focusing, I think, on what Andrea’s just said and, you know, focusing on the report about social enterprise and missed opportunity. And I guess my question to those of
You from the public sector that are there, but also maybe a call to action for those of you from the social enterprise sector and community sector is, so what next? So firstly, a few words about Cwmpas. We heard Derek talk about what’s- what’s up in Scotland, but at Cwmpas, we deliver Social
Business Wales, we also do a lot of consultancy work particularly with the public sector around sort of looking at local supply chains, around looking at social value and evaluating a number of different projects that you- that you’ve been doing. We do a lot of work around Section 16
and the role of those social value models of delivery. We also deliver Digital Communities Wales around our- our project around inclusion, and we also deliver Communities Creating Homes, so a project around community led housing. So we’re out there all across Wales, you know, working in quite a
Lot of different communities and trying to really bring different strands to- together. So in terms of presenting today, I want to just really emphasises as we finish some key findings from the Social Enterprise Missed Opportunity report, look at some of the latest sector data,
Talk about our vision and action plan for social enterprise – which- which hasn’t been mentioned today – look at how support looks post-EU funding – and that will be starting from the beginning of next month – look at our Buy Local Buy Social project and talk about Section 16, and then maybe that-
That call to action at the end. So I think for me, what really stood out in- in the summary findings at the beginning was, you know, this local authorities not working effectively with social enterprise to maximise their impact, and really have that improving services for- for their local people and local communities.
I thought it was really interesting around this passive approach to leadership that we see and, you know, just how there’s- there’s not this proactive engagement at the moment with- with social enterprise which- which the report says then has led to a leadership vacuum and social enterprise has been at the fringes of
The local authority business. And I think that’s particularly interesting when we look at it in terms of the Social Services and Wellbeing Act where, you know, the Act- the Act has been in a number of years now and Section 16 really focuses on that social value models of delivery.
So through the Social Business Wales project, we do a mapping survey every- every two years. And this- this one will be the last one un- under the current guise of Social Business Wales. And this was… Most of the survey work was undertaken in 2022 and the report was published in April-23. I think
We have to acknowledge that the 2020 figures when- when we did that work, that was, you know, COVID was- was at its full height really and we did see, you know, a lot of the sector had- had shut down. But I
Think what’s really encouraging is seeing those high levels of new enterprises that have set up since that. We’re now looking at a sector that’s approximately 3,000 businesses throughout Wales. You know, a lot of those, a quarter of those are startups and I think that’s really encouraging for
Thinking how the public sector can work with them in the future. We’re about 2.6 of the- of the business stock, probably lower than Scotland and England, but I think we’re- we’re increasing. We’ve seen the increase in the turnover of the sector up to nearly 5 billion, an increase of 26%
Since that 2020 survey. And you know, employment levels of- of over 65,000 people in the sector and, again, significantly up of 16% on those 2020 figures. And I think for me, really thinking about the sections that we’ve got about business practice and trading in the- in the Social Business
Wales mapping report, you know, the responses are really encouraging. We’re seeing new services, we’re seeing new products, we’re seeing new customers. I think one of the- the Audit Wales report bought out about geographical areas. What- what we don’t see in Wales are social enterprises
Working across more than sort of one or two local authority areas. You know, Elite are very different in- in that regard but generally, we’re not seeing that- that growing and I think that now we are… You know,
the- the report did seem to say that people wanted to plan and grow and trade further afield. But I use that word ‘trading’ because as- as Andrea said, it’s around this enterprising, bringing in that- that
income. But – you know, there’s always a but, isn’t there – and I think that, you know, the- the support sector looks very different now, in terms of maybe access to funding and growth as- as we enter the kind
of, you know, the post-Brexit society. So there is a need, and I think we need to think about this as in terms of Wales, you know, how- how can those new social enterprises access capital support to
be able to grow? And also, you know, as- as we’ve just heard very much, I think, throughout this- these presentations this morning, that accessibility of commissioning and procurement opportunities. So I’m hope that most of you on the call know about this but a couple of years ago, we published our
Ten Year Vision and Action Plan for the sector. I was lucky enough to join Cwmpas to be the one that brought this- brought this together. And, you know, it was coproduced by the sector and, you know, it’s put out there as Transforming Wales through Social Enterprise. And, you know, this wasn’t
Written by government, this was written by some of the findings for the sector, and I know Eve is on the call today that did a lot of the work in terms of going out and collecting a- a lot of that
Data in terms of setting that ambition. You know, the- the- the strategy- the strategy really clear- sort- sets out the sort of aims and objectives of the sector, you know, about the good quality business support specifically for the sector, people engaging, people choosing social enterprises,
A new model, you know, important new policymakers engaging and looking at those social enterprise solutions that- and what they can offer. You know, we talk then about, you know, that the- the environmental credentials that- that the sector can bring but also, you know, around that- being able to exploit technology,
You know, for the- for the role of social good. So I- I think what, you know, for the purposes of today, when we look at Outcome One of that, it is more people will choose to engage with social enterprises; customers, employees, volunteers, or leaders. And one of those actions is around encouraging local
Authorities and public bodies to include social enterprise within their supply chains, but also around the lobbying around those procurement processes that are appropriate for social enterprise. So I- I think it’s really remembering that as- as public sector bodies when you’re thinking about
What- what your strategy’s going to be. Maybe that really clear linked to this Ten Year Vision and Action Plan that we have for the sector in Wales. So what is business support going to look like
moving forward? All of the projects are going to be closing at the- at the end of June, and this is what the- the post-1st July landscape is going to look like. So the consortium is set together of the Social Enterprise Sector Support Group, so the SESG. Cwmpas- Cwmpas will be delivering Social
Business Wales. It will be pared down from what it was, but we still will have 11 business advisors working all across Wales. They’ll be able to deal with queries both- through both the medium of English and Welsh. We have DTA Wales who will be supplying mentoring via the Social Business Wales
Project. We also have the WCVA that will continue with Social Investment Cymru, Social Firms Wales and Unlimited will also be providing various types of support as well. Unlimited probably to- to the wider sort of social entrepreneurs and linking to their- their work in- in England,
Scotland and Northern Ireland, and Social Firms Wales in that supported business environment. So, Andrea actually mentioned Buy Local Buy Social project that- that we’ve done through some work that Welsh Government funded to start to work with the public sector to, I guess, raise awareness
not only of the- of the- the Vision and Action Plan for social enterprise, but also to talk, you know, start to say about how could they be working with social enterprise. And- and the project that Andrea referred to around the- the Welsh Government procuring the musical instruments contract, that
was one of the first projects that we actually looked at, of how could they go about doing that differently and engaging with- with Elite and Merthyr Tydfil Institute of the Blind to be
the main delivers of- working on that project? So I think through the Buy Local Buy Social project, we’ve engaged with a number of local authorities, a number of health boards and a number of other public sector bodies
In Wales to really look at some of their corporate plans, to talk about the foundational economy. A lot are really looking at how they can look at their local spend and again, you know, we’ve- we’ve done
quite a lot of different work, I guess, with- with local authorities around that. We’re looking at those local supply chains, how can those local supply chains be developed and include social enterprise within them? How can those procurement levers be used differently? And- and how can procurement
teams, I guess, feel confident to use those levers effectively? You know, social value, we know in Wales through- through the work we did for Welsh Government and the report that we published about this time
last year for them, that there’s still a lot of debate around what- what is that going to look like in Wales, and what’s the most effective way to look at it maybe as Wales holistically? You know,
It would be great if- if all 22 authorities and the other public bodies in Wales were- were adopting similar approaches, so that the third sector in our social enterprise sector know- know a bit more
What- what’s expected of them. And I think for us at Cwmpas, it’s very much- it’s not just looking at those fiscal values, but really looking at the impact and gathering that qualitative narrative, I think, that sits around what social value really means to communities. And as Andrea really pointed
Out, you know, unless that’s monitored and monitored effectively throughout the contract, it’s usually only the fiscal data that- that’s captured. You know, we find that local authorities are wanting to get to know more about their local social businesses but there really is, I feel, still an- an implementation
gap amongst what’s maybe said in some of the high level policies and corporate plans, to what’s actually happening on the ground. But you know, there- there are a lot of good practice examples
And I- and I think the musical instrument contract is- is one of the best ones that- that I know about. So in terms of Section 16, you know, where- where the Social Services and Wellbeing Act talks about those social value models of delivery, again, Cwmpas is an agenda that-
That we’ve been working in. We’re now going to be coordinating what were formerly known as the social value forums, those are now going to be called the Section 16 forums. We also have a subgroup of the National Commissioning Board where a number of local authorities join us to
Look at procuring differently. But also the role, I guess, in- in stimulating the- the market out there and shaping that market to be able, you know, to- to answer the- the requirements of Section 16 and- and what the act says around the prevention and early intervention agenda. We have quite a lot of
Different guidance on our website around including, you know, what social value looks like in social care commissioning. And I think, you know, when- when we look at the market stability reports that came out from the various areas, I think, you know, we can really see that no one is coherently talking about,
They’re saying about Section 16 and social value models of delivery. We also just thought it the- everybody, all of the- the different RPB areas really- really dealt with that quite differently and it looks very fragmented when you- we look at the reports and you see what
they’re saying about Section 16 and social value models of delivery. We also just thought it was worth pointing out around that about the RIF funding, you know, in terms of that there’s the 20%
allocation to the social value sector, and maybe for those of you that are on the call, I can- I can see by names there’s- there’s a couple of you that are- that are working in this area. You know, is- is this
Something to sort of refocus on as we start to get those Sections 16 forums back- back up and running. So, what next? You know, the- the report sort of really lays it out there, doesn’t it? You know, it- it provides a checklist as well, I think, for local authorities to start
Working effectively and engaging with social enterprises. But I think a lot of that could be, you know, expanded to the- to the wider public sector, some- some of whom, again, we’ve- we’ve got on the call today. So where- where would you start? Well for me, it’s maybe starting to know who’s out there
with- within your area. What is their capacity? What is their appetite for growth, development and diversification? And maybe when you’ve got some of that data, it’s starting to shape up then, so what are some of the opportunities that are out there to start really working with- with social
Enterprises and maybe doing things differently, particularly in terms of procurement? You know, then I think it’s around setting the vision and strategy. Most of you have already got social enterprise mentioned within some of your corporate and strategic plans, within your well-
Wellbeing objective. But what are those documents saying already? And maybe how can that then sort of filter down or maybe change what- what you want to be doing? There’s something, I think, of raise- of raising awareness about what the sector can- can deliver. And I think Andrea has done that perfectly
today in saying, you know, social enterprise, it can deliver-it can deliver commercial contracts at value for money as well as delivering the social- the social value impact. But it can also pivot, it’s willing… You know, a lot of people willing to explore different areas and diversify their
Operations to be able, you know, to work with their local authority. So I also think, you know, for those of you from local authorities on the call, it’s a question around the shared prosperity fund. W26 is around, you know, growing the social economy. Now, what are the opportunities of the funding
And the prospectuses that you’ve- that you’ve put out there in terms of doing that? But also, you know, some of the grant funding that we’ve seen available is around 50% match funding. Well, I’m not really sure what
Social enters- enterprises will be able to access to be able to secure some of that match funding. So I think that’s something to- to realise, especially as we’re seeing sort of SPF being squished really into almost, you know, what looks maybe like 14 or 16 months of delivery rather than the
Two years that were initially planned. So here’s some links. I think Sam and the team are going to be putting these slides on their website. So there’s some links here to- to round of mapping report, the Social Enterprise Action Plan, the work we’ve done in social value, the report
That are linked to Social Business Wales, a link to the Social Value Report we wrote for Welsh Government and a link to some of the consultancy services that we offer at Cwmpas. So I think I’m just about on time, Sam. So I will leave that there, if that’s okay.