Cooperation between partnerships across Europe is an important element of the EQUAL programme. Within our Transnational Cooperation Agreement called Social Economy Exchange Network (SEEN), Social Economy Scotland is working with other Equal-funded Development Partnerships in Italy, Finland and Poland.
Partners at Final Conference in Krakow May 2007
Over the lifetime of the project, the SEEN partners are working together to undertake a range of activities including the sharing of information and experience, parallel development of innovative approaches, and the exchange of staff. The partners will work on four priority themes which compliment their national pilot activities:
Partnership and Procurement
Social Added Value
New Financial Instruments
Good Practice through Exchange
Our Partners
Finland – HOT DP www.stakes.fi The Finish DP is working on the development of social firms as a new model of service delivery. The work will be piloted in 4 cities: Helsinki, Espoo, Turku and Oulu and will test a new approach to the provision of care services for older people. The aim is to give older people the independence to remain living in their own homes for as long as possible. In Finland, welfare services have traditionally been provided by the Municpalities but the development is more and more towards a mixed provision of service providers from public, private and the social economy sector. This pilot will create new social firms thus easing the working pressure of the Municpalities staff working with older people and will create jobs for long term unemployed a disabled people.
The Italian DP is strong in terms of public sector membership. Their local authorities, mainly the Provincia Torino (second level public authority) are particularly supportive of the social economy in the City and Province of Turin with a wide range of expertise in this field. The third sector forum unites a wide range of bodies (voluntary organisations, associations, social co-operatives, mutual societies and foundations) promoting them and making their role more visible, at the same time creating a social network aimed at new policies and interventions for promoting social inclusion. Our Italian partners bring experience of local government contracting with social cooperatives and the formation of enterprises by community and not for profit organisations in order to provide local services.
Poland – Krakow Initiative for Social Economy - COGITO, www.stowarzyszenie-rozwoju.pl The main aim of the Polish DP is to test the social enterprise model as an effective means of social and professional integration especially in relation to providing employment for those with mental health problems or those who have suffered mental health illnesses as a result of long term unemployment. Among its notable successes is the hotel, U Pana Cogito, a social firm which is one of the first of that type in Poland, being at the same time a model project for further developments within the Polish social economy. U Pana Cogito was modelled on Forth Sector’s 6 Mary Place in Edinburgh!
Transnational Products
Each of our four working groups produced a booklet and CD capturing the shared work of the transnational partners as follows:
SEEN: approaches to Social Added Value
The SEEN partnership prioritised “social added value” as essential in helping social economy organisations to prove their competitive advantage and enhance their sustainability. Our transnational learning in this important area has been collated into the booklet SEEN: approaches to social added value (Sarah – I suppose this is where they click onto the document) which highlights good practice approaches to social added value being piloted, or promoted, in each country.
Although social added value is a relatively new term, various tools exist to measure impact or social added value. Some have been in existence longer than others, and are more advanced, while others are at the very early stages of development, application and evaluation. In this booklet, we will be looking at the following approaches to measuring social added value:-
Finland - HOT DP: SYTA-malliÒ –methodology
Finland - HOT DP: Ethical principles
Italy - Reti.Qu.A.L - Reti Qualità Ambiente Lavoro: Social Balance
Poland - Krakow Initiative for the Social Economy – COGITO:Social Effectiveness of The Partnership Group for Sustainable Development
Scotland - Social Economy Scotland: Social Return on Investment
Scotland - Social Economy Scotland: Volunteering Impact Assessment Toolkit
SEEN: adding value to public procurement focuses on how the social economy can add value to public procurement and enhance public service delivery.Its aim is to spread knowledge between the social economy and the public sector about partnership models and new approaches to procurement practice; to increase understanding of the use of social clauses and to encourage the European Commission and public authorities, at all levels, to consider their use when developing their procurement strategies, frameworks and policies.
SEEN: good practice in social entrepreneurship highlights examples of good practice in the areas of social economy development in the four partner countries. The good practice is presented in the form of case studies of organisations visited by representatives of the four development partnerships during the exchange programme visits.
SEEN: new financial instruments sets the context for social economy development in relation to new finance initiatives in each partner country and provides a series of case studies focussing on examples of new finance initiatives in each of the partner countries as follows:
Poland – Financial Instruments though the Private Sector: quota of personal income tax
Italy – Financial Instruments in the Public Arena: regional legislation supporting the
Scotland – Financial Instruments from the Private Sector: Social Equity Scotland
Finland – The Relations between Social Firms and the Bank System
