THE SOCIAL ECONOMY
AN INTRODUCTION
Project part-financed by
the European Union
What is 'The Social Economy'?
The social economy is the sector of activity that functions for social purposes.
It seeks to achieve all or some of the following criteria:
sustainable and self financing activity
of benefit to those who are involved in it
to address the needs of those who are currently disadvantaged
to encourage the ethic of self help
to replace dependency with self reliance
to enhance the social fabric of a community
through activities such as:
job creation in new enterprises
business and job continuity or rescue through worker equity
participation
provision of services, especially to marginalised sectors
local economic regeneration through recycling money in local
communities
provision of training and employment for those disadvantaged or
disabled
creation of collective facilities for micro-businesses to enable them to
operate at a sustainable level.
Government policy has encouraged local authorities and other agencies to
contract out service provision. A percentage of this provision can already be
found in the voluntary and private sector. There is, however, a gap between
demand and supply, especially at a local level, with nearly all large contracts
in most fields going to franchised or large private companies. Often the
ground level employees are local people, while the higher level jobs and a
percentage of the profit is siphoned out of the local economy. The type of jobs
offered to the local labour force by outside, national concerns tend to be those
that require less upskilling than other trades, thereby putting a ceiling on the
individuals' potential achievement. Development of locally based and locally
controlled enterprises which as common ownership organisations with social
purposes combine the voluntary sector strengths of being proof against
profiteering, asset stripping or take over with the business strengths of market
sensitivity, and value for money.
Co-operatives provide a model of sustainability in business start-up. When the
Industrial Common Ownership act was passed twenty two years ago there
were a handful of worker co-operatives. The last study (Co-operatives
Research Unit, Open University 1994) identified some two thousand, most of
them young (under five years old) employing over ten thousand people.
Measures of survival rates revealed that new start co-operatives were twice
as likely as other business structures to survive the first three years trading
despite difficulties in sourcing capital - resulting in investment starvation even
worse than typical for small businesses.
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Investment sourcing for the co-operative sector is now more sophisticated and
the expansion of common ownership specific investment funds, ethical
investment institutions and self-help facilities such as Mutual Guarantee
Societies is now addressing this last constraint.
The average co-operative start up involves four or five people. This
immediately makes the new business one of the 10% of largest businesses in
the UK with all the benefits of specialisation, mutual support and ability to take
time off work for holidays and illness. Most business start-ups have none of
these advantages and the enormous failure rate and resulting damage to
careers, confidence, health, finances and family life are all too predictable.
A recent trend in worker co-op development has been business rescue,
through worker ownership, of plants earmarked for closure by companies
divesting non-core activities or exporting work (and jobs) to other, lower labour
cost areas of the world.
Co-operatives can also be used as a means of addressing the problem of
business succession. Where the expectation was once that businesses would
be passed down through generations within a family, smaller families and
greater diversity of career opportunity has now made this the exception rather
than the rule. A business owner now has a limited number of choices
available, limited to a fire sale of assets or selling of the business, usually to a
rival most interested in the order book and customer list. Both options give
small return and generally lead to the closure or "rationalisation" of the
business with concomitant loss of employment. The obvious constituency of
interest in the maintenance and development of the business is the work force
and gradual transfer of ownership, levering in external investment, can
provide a seamless service to customers whilst providing continuity of
employment and proper recompense for the owner.
Worker Co-operatives
Worker Co-operatives are businesses that are owned and controlled by the
people who work in them. The workers share the responsibilities and the
rewards, and a co-operative often provides a safer environment than self
employment. Setting up a co-operative can offer an alternative to redundancy
or closure of a business, as well as a way to start a new venture.
Secondary Co-operatives
Secondary, Service and Marketing Co-operatives sell product and services
and/or manage shared facilities, source raw material etc. on behalf of the
members. This is a way small businesses work together to take on projects
that they could not do alone. Examples include the provision of marketing and
retailing services for craft producers, artists and homeworkers.
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LETS
Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS) help their members to buy services
and goods from each other, using a local currency or token instead of money.
People can offer or request services, through a local LETS directory. It
enables people to buy from each other without getting into debt.
One of the phenomena of the 90's has been the growth of LETS from none at
the beginning of the decade to more than 300 and doubling annually at this
point. Tens of thousands of people have become involved in establishing local
currency and banking systems through which people can trade irrespective of
their access to 'hard' currency. LETS encourages people to ask themselves
what they can contribute to their local community and learn how to provide for
themselves through collective organisation.
LETS are rapidly becoming a giant think tank of local economic regeneration.
There are currently over three hundred and fifty LETS groups in the UK. None
are yet large, membership varies between thirty and four hundred with and
average of about 150 meaning that over 50,000 people are already involved.
Credit Unions
Credit Unions are savings and loan schemes that are operated by the people
who use them, and offer affordable credit to their members. They are an
alternative to expensive loans, and encourage people to save regularly, even
if it is only a small amount.
The number of Credit Unions registered in the UK has risen from 150 to 600 in
the last four years, and the rate of registration continues to rise. There are
200,000 members of credit unions in the UK and their assets have reached
Ł110,000,000.
A report published by the Consumers Association in 1996 highlighted Credit
Unions as the best strategy of long term defence against loan sharks.
Evidence from areas that have had meaningful levels of development work
introduced (Glasgow and Birmingham among others) has led to the support of
CUs by local authority Anti-poverty Units, Trading Standards offices and
Community Development Units across the country.
Care Co-operatives
Care Co-operatives are set up to provide care services to a community that
has a need for it. Co-operatives have had a particularly high record of success
in providing domiciliary care services, utilising local labour for management
and service provision has enabled the creation of services which are
organised flexibly to suit both workers and service users. Fifty domiciliary care
co-ops have been established in the 1990s with staff levels of between three
and eighty.
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Another area of growth currently is child care co-operatives, set up and run
either by the parents & guardians of the children who use it or by the people
who work in it. The new disregard allowances for working parents in receipt of
Family Credit or Disability Working Allowance plus the expected extension of
the voucher scheme for working parents into tax breaks means the demand
for child care provision is going to jump in the near future.
There are no statistics available yet as to how large the demand will be or how
the provision could be met locally, but it is certainly an opportunity worth
investigation.
Community Businesses
Community businesses are businesses that are owned and controlled by
people in the community. They are normally set up to provide a facility or a
service of benefit to the community. They aim to sustain themselves by
generating income from the activities in which they are involved. This may be
to improve the local environment, offer training or employment opportunities,
or maybe to provide a service that is lacking in the area that the local people
would like to have available. Any profits are used to strengthen the business
or provide further services to the community.
An emerging trend in the last decade has been the concentration of facilities
provided by profit-led organisations, with the ultimate expression being the out
of town shopping centre. The corollary has been the closure of local facilities -
the local shop to the village post office. Marginal communities, suffer
degradation of local facilities. The housing estate with a row of boarded up
shops where once there was a healthy arcade is commonplace, and affects
those least able to run against the tide - the elderly and lone parents. During
the same period there has been a growth in community led enterprises
bringing these resources back into use and involving members of the
community directly in their management and development.
There are now examples of community businesses managing their own
grocery shops, bakeries, post offices, sports halls, leisure centres, venues,
child care facilities and public houses.
Housing Co-operatives
Housing Co-operatives provide housing for their members, and are controlled
by the people who live in them. They often provide housing for people who are
low priority for local authority housing such as the single homeless or to
provide an option for those who are not eligible for, or do not want a
mortgage.
This becomes a valuable part of the housing offer in the area, and members
are committed to managing the properties well because they benefit directly
from doing so in terms of lower rents and better quality housing. There are
over six hundred housing co-operatives in the UK providing over 20,000 units
of accomodation.
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Another avenue worth exploring is self-build schemes. Prospective tenants,
who have various skills and are interested in learning on-the-job, work in
partnership with training organisations and interested parties such as
development trusts and Local Authorities build their own homes, usually as
co-operatives. There are many projects that can be used as a model for this
type of scheme which has the dual advantage of training and housing
provision.
Social Firms
Social Firms are enterprises which include high proportions of people who for
reasons of physical disability, learning difficulty or long term illness require a
supportive environment and may not be able to work at high levels of
productivity. This is a group of people who find it very difficult to obtain work or
training opportunity and may be users of day care services.
Social firms can supply the supportive environment and training opportunity
which enables them to become productive, providing a feeling of self-worth.
Co-operatively organised social firms additionally provide access to influence
and therefore a sense of ownership and responsibility for the enterprise
enabling personal development away from the "permanent client" culture.
Through their independent status Social Firms are able to concentrate on
trade. This brings benefits in terms of reduction of net cost of providing care
but also provides a more "real world" environment includinging opportunity for
social interaction and a half way house environment through which workers
can become ready for open employment opportunity.
Increasingly social firms are seen as a useful strand of provision by social
services throughout the country.
What can a Co-operative Development Service provide to
assist in the development of a Social Economy Sector?
Promotion
The first job of a development service is to make it possible for people to join
the sector and utilise its structures and resources through introducing the
concepts and principles of co-operation, self help and self organisation. This
requires a mix of publications, distribution, out-reach work to community
groups and media liaison. It also requires promotion of these ideas and the
services of a development agency to workers in economic development,
community development, education and training, business advice agencies
and professional advisers such as accountants and solicitors. All the above
must be carried out to a high standard of professionalism and requires
expertise in project planning, communication, public presentation, training.
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Access
The awareness raising should lead to an easily identified point of contact at
which the nature of the interest and needs of a potential client or professional
collaborator can be readily received and understood so that an appropriate
response can be made.
Information
When the interest of potential clients or potential collaborators has been
incited the agency must be able to respond with relevant, up to date
information varying from general introductory information through to specific
responses on matters relating to individual forms of organisation, related
initiatives, relevant contacts.
Initial counselling and feasibility assessment
Those bringing forward ideas require a rapid response from professional
counselling staff who understand the nature of the project and can draw on
related experience, either in house or from other agencies around the UK.
Introduction to successful models can bridge the gap between idea and start-
up project. Early identification of problems can save considerable time and
energy.
Start-up development support
The start up of a successful co-operative or community enterprise is a
complex exercise involving not only the development of a workable business
plan but also team building and the development of systems of accountability
and democratic management. This process is best facilitated by a
development worker with the appropriate mix of skills and experience.
Registration services
Most forms of social economy organisation need to be properly and
appropriately legally established. Neglect of this requirement or inappropriate
formation can result in onerous personal liability for participants and
completely unnecessary barriers to progress or function. This can often be a
technically difficult and expensive exercise where there is no recourse to a
specialist registration service.
Business development support
Co-operatives and community businesses have good records of survival and
growth but this is generally associated with ongoing support work provided in
the early years by a development agency. Development raises issues beyond
the obvious business issues of market building and resource identification and
allocation in social economy organisations with a complex of objectives
amongst which profit maximisation is but one. While the greater part of the
advice delivered in may be "commercial" in nature it has to be related to the
objectives of the group concerned. An agency can work with other business
support organisations and training organisations to ensure that the best mix of
support is available to clients.
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Networking
One of the major parts of the work of a development agency is "cultural
transmission" ensuring that individual organisations do not suffer from
isolation but are constantly receiving input on best practice developed
elsewhere, availing themselves of opportunity to receive information and
training and of opportunity to participate in regional, national and even
transnational projects in their sector.
Training
A well developed agency, again working with other support organisations can
provide training services to start-up and established social economy
enterprises and their members. Examples include the Certificate in Co-
operative Business Administration. (C- CBA). The C-CBA was designed by
workers in co-operative and community development to provide the core skills
to people writing a business plan and putting it into action. The course
achieved accreditation from the Business and Technology Council (BTEC)
seven years ago and has since evolved into a thorough introduction to
running a business. It acts as a means of testing ideas and building the
confidence of potential co-operative and community business entrepreneurs.
The C-CBA is also a valuable spawning ground for co-ops and community
enterprises, and as such consistently attracts European Social Funding.
Recently a training programme (Training for Growth) has been piloted with
financial support from the Department of Trade and Industry which addresses
all aspects of the needs of social economy organisations which have become
established and are ready to undergo an expansion phase in their
development.
Resourcing
It is a major role of a co-operative development agency to lever in resources
to the local community. Co-operative development agencies have been very
successful in obtaining resources from sources such as:
Single Regeneration bids: project integration into SRB projects through
providing the necessary balance of outputs in training and job creation,
particularly addressing the reintegration of long term unemployed and other
identified marginalised groups..
European finance: ESF objective 3 provides for measures which assist the
unemployed to access employment opportunities or to establish new
enterprises. A variety of special funds can support projects to enhance
employment potential for disadvantaged groups. The co-op sector in particular
has a long and successful record of developing programmes that deliver high
quality and innovative projects on behalf of such groups. Within objective 3
the new priority funding will provide a means of subsidising the development
of mutual support and expertise exchange organisations for the social
economy
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Charitable funds: Local development agencies have shown initiative in
obtaining support for projects from the various national and local charities
including the National Lottery Charities Board, and have secured funds for
both in house projects and on behalf of community based organisations.
Other sources of funding that have been acessed include the Department of
Trade and Industry, Ministry of Food and Fisheries, Department of Health and
Social Security, National Health Trusts, Co-operative Societies and Trade and
Enterprise Councils.
Synergy with government strategies
With it s unique combination of social responsibility and enterprise, the social
economy increasingly finds favour within local, regional and national
government. In particular the support of the Social Economy has been a
strand focussed on by Regional Development Agencies in their infancy. The
communities that will benefit most from such recognition will obviously be
those where there is an infrastructure developed locally for these
organisations to work with and through.
For further information on social economy development, contact:
Avon CDA
The Coach House
2 Upper York Street
Bristol
BS2 8QN
Tel: 0117 989 2536
Fax: 0117 989 2537
E-mail: info@avoncda.coop
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