business support

Innovation Champ at Aldingbourne Trust

Peter Stanley, General Manager of the Aldingbourne Trust (which Social Firm wood@aldingbourne is part of) picked up the ‘Innovation Champion’ award at the business collaboration achievement awards at Brighton University last month.

The event marked the last 12 months of the Profitnet programme (a peer to peer business support programme) and acknowledged the achievements amongst the Profitnet groups in Sussex. The award criteria was based on practical application of the knowledge transfer and peer collaboration that had taken place amongst the network over the last year.

Textiles by St Anne's celebrate

Pat Bend, Sales Manager at the Birmingham based Social Firm, Textiles by St Anne's, is celebrating an order from an International curtain company which she puts down to the Future Jobs Fund. Six of the employees are financed by the government initiative and the increased workforce gave Pat the opportunity to bid for larger contracts. Pat believes the hires also bring a positive work ethic and new skills base which their service users with mental health problems can aspire to.

Tools & products

Social Firms UK is constantly working to research and produce tools and resources that will either assist with the start-up and development of Social Firms, or with the promotion and publicity element of Social Firms. Below are some of the initiatives that are proving useful:

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business support

Other training providers

Those that want to set up Social Firms can gain significant information that is generic to all businesses by accessing these courses. There are a considerable number of training providers around the UK operating courses on social enterprise start-up, in addition to the many mainstream business support agencies doing their courses on small business start-up.

SETAS The Social Enterprise Training Consortium holds several databases on their website which may prove useful to those seeking Social Enterprise training courses and materials. Their website also includes the national Consultants Register and Guidance for Using Consultants which Social Firms UK led on within the Social Enterprise Partnership (GB) EQUAL project. Link to www.setas.co.uk to access the database of training providers, funding sources for training, business support providers and consultants - all for the Social Enterprise sector.

Social screening diagnostic tool

Author: 
Social Firms UK
2006
Free
Social Firms UK

This tool helps assess the viability of a business to become a social enterprise. It enables the quality of employment, workplace support issues and employee development opportunities to be assessed in businesses that might be replicated as Social Firms or social enterprises. It comes in Word format in order to allow your own text to be added. This document was is an adaptation of a tool produced by Social Firms Australia as part of a business buy-out programme. It has been produced with the support of the Small Business Service.

Employment plan templates

Author: 
Social Firms UK
2007
Free
Social Firms UK

Workforce planning is an everyday part of all good businesses; the multinational, the corner shop and the Social Firm. For Social Firms there is also the employment of disadvantaged people and the maintenance of a workforce where at least 25% of the staff are otherwise disadvantaged in the labour market. Having an ?Employment Plan? demonstrates your commitment to this objective and is a tool to help you in achieving it. Whether you are a Social Firm or are working towards becoming a Social Firm the Employment Plan templates can be easily adapted for your business.