Big cash boost for social enterprise

 

A new Department of Health (DH) social enterprise investment fund is to pour £73m over the next four years into organisations providing health and social care services in local communities. The fund is part of the government's push to expand social enterprise in health and social care provision, outlined in the 2006 white paper Our Health, Our Care, Our Say. The cash will be used to start, set up and build social enterprises that meet specific health and social care needs.

The care services minister, Ivan Lewis, says the launch of the fund follows the success of a £1.4m pilot project this year that tested the capacity of social enterprises to make a tangible difference in neighbourhoods across the UK.

Community Docs for All, one of the enterprises taking part in the pilot, is setting up a locally managed primary care service in Weston-super-Mare. The project director, Jenny Hendy, says it shows what can be achieved: "Although awareness of the work of social enterprise in the health and social care sector is still pretty low, we have a huge potential to deliver incredibly sensitive and creative services to local communities."

Hendy says social enterprises reinvest surpluses in the communities they serve, potentially contributing to the regeneration of deprived neighbourhoods. "We can bring a business-orientated approach to health services and work on bringing them back into the control of the local community," she says.

DH is inviting applications by social enterprises up to October 31.

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