Social Firms UK

Choosing a legal form is an important part of establishing a social enterprise. As the framework for your business, it is important to develop a form that makes it as easy as possible for your social enterprise to be successful.

Now in its second edition, Keeping it Legal is co-authored by Bates, Wells and Braithwaite and takes you through the main issues you need to consider when setting the rules and regulations that govern your business. Written for readers with little prior knowledge of legal forms, it will help you think about the major questions you need to ask when developing the organisation, and gives information on all the legal forms available to social enterprises. Case studies provide practical, easy to understand illustrations of a wide variety of examples.

A Manual To Externalising Social Firm Activity is now available on the Social Firms UK website Resource Centre. The manual was produced in 2007 as part of a Visage EQUAL project and follows research into the progress of the proposed externalisation of Newco Products from the London Borough of Newham. The guide aims to help organisations across the social enterprise sector to think about new and innovative ways of creating employment opportunities for disadvantaged people. It also explores some of the steps and actions involved in 'externalising' their existing services. Sections include: legal frameworks, the transfer process, personnel, finance and quality assurance.

This publication, provides key messages, addressing real everyday questions asked by line managers and provides best-practice answers making it easier to: 

• deliver best practice on disability for your organisation
• be more comfortable working with disabled colleagues
• learn how to get help for your team members
• understand the law.

The guide can be licensed for use on the company intranet. Costs range from £2.80 per copy for 5-10 copies to £22.50 for over 2,000 copies. To order got to: http://www.efd.org.uk/publications/line-manager-guide

Understanding the roles, responsibilities and legal status of board members.

This guide is intended to assist Charities that are considering setting up or 'floating off' a Social Firm. It focuses on the legal and technical aspects of the work and addresses such questions as: -

• can a Social Firm trading activity be carried on as part of the charity, or should it be floated off, for instance in a subsidiary or linked company?
• how is running a Social Firm different from running a charity?
• what support can the charity offer - in cash or in kind - to a subsidiary or linked Social Firm?
• can a charity transfer its own assets and staff to a Social Firm, and if so, how?

The guide costs £10 for members of Social Firms UK and £20 for non-members of Social Firms UK. Below are some sample pages to download. To order, contact info@socialfirmsuk.co.uk