Social Enterprise (Speech: 15/11/07)

Kevin's speech to the National Children's Bureau

 

 want to thank VCS Engage for inviting me to speak at today's conference.  I’m grateful for all the work you do to make sure we harness the full strength of the voluntary and community sector in delivering the Every Child Matters agenda, because the new department DCSF is focused on delivering that agenda not just schools and education. By raising the profile of Voluntary and Community Sector organisations, helping to build infrastructure and speak out on what government needs to do, you help us to sharpen our focus and drive forward policy.  We genuinely welcome your dedication and passion on behalf of the voluntary and community sector. I’d also like to thank the many of you here today who have played a role in developing the former DfES Third Sector strategy and action plan – those who helped us write it in the first place, and those who commented on it.  All of these comments will prove extremely useful as we revise the plan to take into account the responsibilities of the new Department for Children, Schools and Families. And finally, I’d like to thank VCS Engage for developing the Rising to the Challenge publication that you’re launching today, which I have had a chance to look through already. It contains some excellent examples of social enterprises in action – showing the flexibility and diversity that it can bring. Sally said that Social Enterprise is looked at as being trendy. I actually began my career after university working in social enterprise, albeit 25 years ago in a very different landscape than we face today.  I started as a volunteer at Community Press Ltd. There are, of course, numerous events and activities going on to demonstrate the value that social enterprise can bring. And this event will showcase some of the excellent work that social enterprises are already doing within the voluntary and community sector and social enterprise sector. In my comments today, however, I want to take a step back and look at three main areas. Firstly, to talk about why the Government is so keen to promote social enterprise and what we feel it can offer us. Secondly, to explore and celebrate what young people are already doing in this area;  And thirdly to look at how we can connect with even more young people to get them involved in social enterprise. Across Government we are increasingly aware of the enormous value social enterprise solutions can bring to some of society’s most entrenched social and environmental challenges. We see social enterprise as having the potential to be genuine agents of change and improvement around public services. And we recognise the role they can play in delivering improved public services.  Often social enterprises have a better understanding of the needs of target community groups and bring with them dynamism and innovation that isn’t always there in normal mode.  I can point to numerous examples where they’ve helped us achieve more with scarce resources, engaged local communities and brought innovative solutions to the market. So I can state clearly that there is a real appetite in government to do more to harness the power of social enterprise.  It’s an appetite reflected in the 2006 Social Enterprise Action Plan, which set out our commitment to foster a stronger social enterprise culture across society, to provide better information and advice for running social enterprise, to improve funding and to make it easier for social enterprises to work with Government.    And my Department has a further interest in Social Enterprise. That is, the enormous value it can bring to young people. By giving them the experience and skills they need to develop a successful career, and in the process demonstrating the positive role they can play in society. It’s this latter point I want to dwell on for a moment. Because I feel that something has happened in our society fundamentally needs to recalibrate the image of youth, so that it more accurately reflects reality. For too long, there has been a persistent view of young people principally as troublemakers and social miscreants, some way or another. There’s been a one-sided focus on the anti-social behaviour of a minority, perpetuated by the media, which has tarred all young people with the same brush. -          71% of press stories about young people are negative; -          one in three articles about young people are about crime; and -          90% of youth workers feel that the tabloids give a negative or very negative impression of young people. Having worked with young people as a teacher, I’m aware of the bad behaviour that the minority is capable of and I certainly will not excuse for it ever.  But I also know from my teaching experience – and from the job that I am doing now – that the vast majority of young people seeing what they are doing. They want to make the best use of their talents; and they want to succeed in helping others as much as they can.  They are more optimistic, less prejudiced and more tolerant than previous generations. I’m sure the many of you in this room who work with young people feel exactly the same way. So it seems to me getting young people involved in social enterprise can not only help them explore their talents and learn new skills and attitudes – it also does an important job in demonstrating to the wider communities what the positive contribution young people can make, and they are making it.  What then, can we do to get more young people interested in social enterprise? At Government level, we have incorporated social enterprise within the GCSE business studies syllabus from September 2008.  Which I think is excellent and I used to teach it at secondary school. In addition all young people will learn about it as part of the “economic wellbeing and financial capability” aspect of the new secondary curriculum. So social enterprise has been placed firmly on the agenda in school lessons. But many schools around the country aren’t waiting until 2008. They are already doing fantastic things to promote social enterprise. A couple of examples are: St Michael’s C of E High School, Sandwell, and Sandwell is also mentioned in the booklet, which integrates ethical issues into everyday school life – they even have a fair-trade shop on site within the school. I recently met pupils from Hagley High School in Worcester about environmental schools and they are holding a fair trade fashion show at their school, they have linked up to fair trade shops/clothes etc. And they also have a fair trade shop.  These are wonderful examples of combining social enterprise and entrepreneurship. But what I find particularly interesting and exciting – and I hope your experience tells the same story – is that so often the motivation and passion for social enterprise is coming not from government, or teachers, or parents, but from the young people themselves.  And while social enterprise is not new, I think the renewed drive of young people from below is an extremely welcome development. They are inspired by the many great examples in the UK: the Eden project, Glastonbury, Divine Chocolate, the Big Issue, Jamie Oliver’s 15 and Café Direct to name but a few. And I think they are picking up on a wider consciousness that you can build a successful business that makes a major contribution to social or environmental change. So our role in this is not to cajole and nag young people into this – but to release motivation and ideas that are clearly already there amongst this generation.  Our role is to facilitate them, to harness and nurture the creativity, innovation and talent of the next generation. It means we must invest young people with the opportunities to make a difference in their communities. Give them a stronger voice within society. Hand them the responsibility and power to try and effect real change. That’s what we are already doing through the Youth Opportunity and Youth Capital Funds, for example – which have already given many young people the opportunity to turn their ideas for new youth activities into reality. And the Big Boost programme provided £10m worth of cash from the Big Lottery’s Young People’s Fund to give young people grants of up to £5,000 to develop projects that would make a lasting difference to their communities. There are plans to launch a second Young People’s Fund, of £76m, made available to third sector organisations to develop youth-led projects that fulfil at least two of the five Every Child Matters outcomes. And I hope many of you in this room will think about getting involved in that project. Equally, as part of our Ten Year Youth Strategy, we are committed to investing in new ways of working with the voluntary and community sector so that we can expand the good work you are already doing with young people and support them in turning their ideas into sustainable, social, youth-led enterprises. So there’s considerable effort and funding going into this. But we’re also looking at ways in which we can better harness young people’s interest and ideas around social enterprise. Earlier this year we launched the Social Enterprise Ambassadors programme. These ambassadors are helping young people everywhere to get involved in social enterprise, not just by passing on valuable skills and expertise, but also by trying to infect others with their enthusiasm and their determination. And – as I speak now – colleagues are launching the Youth Commission for Social Entrepreneurship, a group formed of 21 of the country's top young social entrepreneurs.  These young people will represent the voice of young social entrepreneurs in the UK, and on the international stage. They will investigate how schools can spot and nurture talent, and they will pilot social entrepreneurial training for young people. I referred to the future returns of social enterprise, but actually it has an immediate effect too, because the leadership, guidance and mentoring from role models who are young people themselves is one of the main reasons for that. In effect, the appeal of social enterprise can be contagious among young people – it’s a virtuous virus, if you like. Our job as a Government – and I hope you will agree within the voluntary and community sector – is to provide the best possible environment for it to spread further. So these are extremely exciting times for social enterprise in this country. I feel there is a generational shift in young people’s attitudes towards social enterprise – which can only bode well for the future – and a newfound commitment by Government to work closely with VCS to bring the full benefits of social enterprise to bear on society. So I’d like to thank you for all you are already doing, and hope that today’s events around the country not just today will be a trigger for further growth in social enterprise led by, involving and benefiting young people. Thank you.