Development Funding for LSEPs has been approved by Social Economy Scotland with Communities Scotland providing match funding. The total amount available was £100,000 and LSEP’s were invited to submit bids up to £15,000 per LSEP.
Futurebuilders Scotland sets the context for the Scottish Executive’s commitment and support for the social economy sector. An important element of that support was the recommendation that there should be Local Social Economy Partnerships (LSEPs) to cover all local authority areas in Scotland. The purpose of the LSEPs is to support the growth of the social economy by:
Improving co-ordination across partners;
Facilitating local networking;
Strengthening the range of locally available support, and
Unlocking market opportunities for new and existing social economy organisations.
In Round 1 of EQUAL a smaller fund provided development support and 15 LSEPs took up the first offer of grant to strengthen their partnership and develop their remit.
Priority this time was given to proposals which addressed key areas, such as strengthening the range of locally available business support; direct support to local social economy organisations and unlocking market opportunities for new and existing social economy organisations.
A total of 10 LSEPs were granted funding to support a wide range of activities including, creating a shared Human Resources Service; Payroll Giving; Trade Fair events and Improving Access to Quality Bookkeeping.
To ensure that outcomes of the Development Fund were shared with other LSEPs in Scotland and key stakeholders, all LSEPs that have were funded committed to participating in a national dissemination event organised by Social Economy Scotland
The first ever LSEP National Dissemination event took place in Glasgow in February 2007, with almost 100 delegates the day was a great success with LSEPs sharing good practice and having an opportunity to network. Presentations from the day are available from the download link above.
