Social Firms UK

This guide is a sequel to the similar guide for local authorities. It explains: - why the NHS should consider buying goods and services from a social enterprise - what the NHS can do to encourage social enterprises to successfully compete for contracts.

This guide is aimed at local authorities and explains: - why you should consider buying goods and services from a social enterprise - what you can do to encourage social enterprises to successfully compete for contracts.

This report investigates what can be done to improve the lives and experiences of adults with mental health problems and sets out the Government's programme of action. The project was undertaken in close partnership with the National Institute for Mental Health in England. (144 pages)

The paper is a dissertation that Mark did to explore two points: 1) Can an existing NHS sheltered work project be successfully transformed into a Social Firm operated by service users? 2) To what extent can such a transformed service be self-sufficient and profitable? The sheltered work project in question is Carpet Cleaning Care which, currently, is still part of the NHS Trust in which it was created. The paper considers some interesting issues that arose during the journey of considering Social Firm development and Mark is happy to share the learnings with others in the arena of vocational rehabilitation for people with mental health problems and conversion of sheltered work projects. If you have any queries arising from the research then please send them to us at info@socialfirmsuk.co.uk and we will gladly forward them onto Mark.