The Social Economy Scotland Final conference was held on the 21st February 2008 at the Glasgow Trades Hall.

Chaired by Declan Jones, Head of widening Access and Community engagement, Glasgow Caledonian University, the morning plenary gave delegates an insight into the impact of the Social Economy Scotland (SES) partnership on policy makers, strategic partners, pilot project partners and beneficiaries. The panel also had representation from our Finnish transnational partner, the HOT partnership.

The morning also saw the launch of the Social Economy Exchange Network (SEEN)booklets by Diego Dutto, Reti.Qu.AL, our Italian transnational partner. 

The afternoon offered delegates a choice of workshops and round table sessions. Presentations from the workshops are available from the document library - click on related downloads above.

Workshop 1 -  The Future of Social Enterprise Investment

This workshop included three presentations from EQUAL Social Economy Scotland pilot projects: “Social Equity Scotland”, which aimed to research and test the market for risk capital products for the social economy, and the Social Return on investment (SROI) pilot, which tested the SROI method with a range of social economy organisations across Scotland. Delegates also had the opportunity to discuss the implications of lessons learned from these pilots in relation to the revised Social Enterprise Strategy Action Plan.  

Workshop 2 – Homereach: public social partnership in practice

Public Social Partnership (PSP) is a procurement method that allows Local Authorities and other statutory bodies to take added benefits such as the creation of employment and training into account when making procurement decisions. It also gives a voice to service users and creates more opportunities for social economy organisations to pilot, and hopefully win, contracts.

This workshop looked at the PSP that has been developed in North Lanarkshire for people moving in or out of homelessness. The workshop looked at why North Lanarkshire Council decided to develop a PSP, the service design process, building capacity within the social economy organisations and the development of a consortium to pilot the services. It will also touch on the use of community benefit clauses.

Round table sessions -

Table 1: Reaching Older Adults in Renfrewshire (ROAR)

Table 2: Volunteering matters - how to measure the impact of volunteering in your organisation

Table 3: Business support for social enterprises

Table 4: Raising the Profile of social enterprises - Scottish and UK lessons