The Social Enterprise Management Business Essay

These materials act as a guide for the delivery institutions. There are a number of permutations that can be used to support robust and coherent assessment structures. Institutions are advised to make use of a structure that is best suited to the learner profiles. This sample offers tutors a guide that they can use to develop their own assessment procedures.

1.1 Use of the materials

The materials:

Provide assignments to cover all outcomes and criteria in the ABP unit.

Provide a model assessment and answer guide

Include references showing the coverage of assessment criteria associated with each task

Show how the assignments can be managed

Provide example assessment recording materials

Social Enterprise Management

Learning Outcomes:

LO 1: Understand the strategic management of a social enterprise

LO 2: Be able to develop a strategic plan for a social enterprise

LO 3: Be able to operationally manage a social enterprise

LO 4: Be able to measure and manage social enterprise performance

LO 5: Be able to manage key stakeholder relationships

The assignments provide examples of the type and style of assessment tools required for the qualification. Assignments may be designed using the principles of this example but many institutions will want to develop them to meet local business contexts and to make them more relevant to current events.

Assignments can be split or combined in any way that makes a coherent set of assignments for a unit and a programme. So, for example, a single integrated assignment for a unit can be broken down in to two, three or four separate stages. It can therefore be kept as one single assignment that can be issued at one go or done in stages.

The conditions in which the assignment can be done are for institutions to decide. They can be done as in-course assignments or they can be run as examinations in which there is some pre-seen material but with work done under supervision and under time constraints. There is little indication in the assignments as to how they might be run within an institution and it is left to institutions to decide on the assessment approach to be used. However, assignments might need to be adapted if a particular approach is chosen. For example, an examination based on the supplied case study might need learners to do some preparatory work and research which they might then be allowed to take in to the examination. The questions themselves would be unseen. It is important to note that the assessment criteria for units are publicly available and would normally have been discussed with learners at the start of the teaching of a unit and again in the briefings for assessments.

All work submitted by learners in the form of course work and/or assignments must be accompanied by a signed form documenting that the work:

is the learner’s work alone

is original

has used a suitable referencing system (Harvard Referencing system is advised)

All assignments must be internally quality assured before they are issued to learners. The assessment management materials have a place to record the internal quality assurance of the assignment instrument. In addition, the assignment management documents include an assignment front sheet where the internal quality assurer (also known as the internal verifier or internal moderator) can show decisions if a specific piece of marked work is selected for sampling by the internal quality assurance process.

The management information documents can be customised by institutions running ABP programmes.

2 Assignment

This assignment covers the following Learning Outcomes within the unit:

Social Enterprise Management

LO 1: Understand the strategic management of a social enterprise

LO 2: Be able to develop a strategic plan for a social enterprise

LO 3: Be able to operationally manage a social enterprise

LO 4: Be able to measure and manage social enterprise performance

LO 5: Be able to manage key stakeholder relationships

Strategy is about the direction, intentions and approaches to resource management. Social Enterprise management sets out the framework an organised social enterprise will use to manage its resources, governance, social and business relationships as a business enterprise.

This unit is designed to offer students an understanding of the complex nature of creating a sustainable entity without compromising the core values of the social enterprise. The role of social enterprise management demands the driving of efficiency within the challenge of the social ownership and the social mission. Through the material covered by the unit, students will recognise the diverse activities that required to effectively deal with the challenge of constantly adapt to ever-changing environments – the balancing act requiring strategic reflection and analysis to achieve ongoing sustainability. They will recognise the role that management plays in supporting the effective achievement of strategic goals and meeting the mission and objectives of a socially oriented organisation. Also the development of an efficient and effective organisation can be expensive, in terms of generating data, staff time and investments in information technology. Therefore the unit should allow students to examine social enterprise strategy and management in the light of the resource issues.

This unit is part of the ABP Post-graduate Enterprise Diploma suite of units. Two core units Strategic Enterprise Management and Applied Financial Management for Enterprise can be found in all three of the ABP Post-graduate Enterprise Diploma qualifications: Strategic Entrepreneurship, Strategic Intrapreneurship and Strategic Management for Social Enterprise. This unit and its partner unit, Applied Marketing for Social Enterprise are paired with those core units to form the ABP Post-graduate Enterprise Diploma in Strategic Intrapreneurship. This unit is therefore intended to be studied in conjunction with the other three units and thus should be delivered accordingly. The teaching and assessment guidance at section 3 shows where these units may overlap

As a mandatory unit in the social enterprise pathway the content offers a number of routes that can be followed. The essential overall teaching and learning strategies must focus on students developing their knowledge and strategic thinking around human, physical and information resources within an organisation.

2.1 Methodology

The teaching and learning approach in this module needs to be built around developing the learner’s confidence and ability to engage with Social Enterprise Management using a wide range of teaching and learning approaches such as; lectures, tutorials and seminars, including discussion groups where personal and professional practice can be shared and discussed. Learners are encouraged to meet informally to do practical work and work on group cases studies, prepare reports for presentation, and carry out research into Social Enterprise Management.

Learners are assessed against the learning outcomes of the unit. They have an opportunity to display a combination of knowledge and understanding, coupled with skills development through the application of their Social Enterprise Management knowledge to practical application in a business/work environment. Formative assessments can be used to develop and consolidate knowledge and understanding in the subject.

A range of assessment instruments (assignments) can be used such as (but not confined to) practical work, presentations, displays; articles, diaries, reflective accounts, reports, proposals, plans, discussions, observations, debriefings on investigative activities, case studies, assignments, examinations, exercises and simulations. All assessment methods are acceptable provided the assessment enables the learner to produce the relevant evidence that can be judged against the assessment criteria and the assessment method is a cost-effective one to use.

It is possible to assess work orally with the learner explaining and describing things to the assessor in discussion or in group work or in a presentation. If oral assessments are used then the work must be directly attributable to the learner. The assessor must provide a signed statement that includes detail of the evidence presented that is aligned to the criteria. The evidence must support achievement of the criteria. If there is sufficient evidence from the oral work or from observations to make an assessment decision then the assessment decision should be shown.

The route through the content selected by teaching and learning practitioners should be sympathetic to the learners’ professional contexts, previous understanding and experience. As this is part of the core, learners must be assessed against all learning outcomes and assessment criteria in order to ensure that the material is understood and provides a solid foundation for building the qualification.

2.2 Case Study & Tasks

LO 1: Understand the strategic management of a social enterprise

Case Study: JAY Right

JAY Right is social enterprise that is being formed from three existing community projects. The three were set up by the old government and have come together due to changes in local boundaries. All three were set up to deliver facilities management services such as cleaning and building services and repairs to domestic homes across three deprived localities.

As an amalgamated organisation it now has 10 employees who manage the office and service delivery, around 50 volunteers in the office and helping with service delivery and a board of 9 members (3 from each of the original projects. A new Chief Executive has been appointed from a commercial business. He was chosen because of his all round business experience which Board members had been advised they needed by Jailo Consultants, a consultancy firm that specialises in advising social enterprises. You have recently completed your studies in Social Enterprise Management and you are working for Jailo Consultants.

The new Chief Executive has a good track record of working with all areas of commercial business. He has developed a number of SMEs with a speciality of taking on businesses with between 5 and 10 staff and growing them into profitable businesses with between 50 and 100 staff. However he has very little experience with growing social enterprises. He quickly needs to transfer his experience to this new environment.

Task 1

The Chief Executive has asked Jailo to brief him on the strategic concepts that make a social enterprise developing a clear view on what disciplines and actions separate social enterprises with a growth objective from commercial businesses. You have been asked to prepare a succinct 600 word briefing paper that prepares the Chief Executive for the first Board meeting. He will need to understand this within the size of this social enterprise and in the knowledge that one of the main reasons he has been appointed is because of his record on growing businesses. It is clear he will need to inform the Board about future ways of operating.

The agenda for this meeting comprises

Developing objectives

Developing a plan for the next 3 years

Business Development

Future income

Managing stakeholders

LO 2: Be able to develop a strategic plan for a social enterprise

Given the range of services JAY offers and the fact that the organisation is made up of 3 existing projects it is clear that they will need a new strategic plan to go forward. They are bringing together 3 original concepts of social enterprise and mentioned the Board are very interested in growing the organisation. There is recognition that there is no one size fits all way forward but all Board members know how important it is to start off in the right way in order to sustain the organisation. They are flexible in the way they are looking at the future but also realise that there are large number of possible stakeholders who may be looking to them for support.

Task 2

The Board has asked Jailo to advise them on the strategic planning process. You have been asked to prepare a draft executive summary of the strategic plan with a covering letter that guides them on your advice:

The covering letter will specifically need to brief them on:

The options on the legal status and organisational structure at commencement and how this affects long term decision making

The factors considered in setting goals from their current position

The range of internal and external stakeholders

The various options on how they can fulfil the needs of those stakeholders

The factors considered when setting the vision, mission and purpose of the new organisation

LO 3: Be able to be operationally manage a social enterprise

JAY Right has 10 members of staff who have all just come together. Up to now they have worked only on a series of short term projects. It is clear the Board wished the organisation to move on in a more sustainable way. The organisation will need to bring together the finances, customer relationship management, project management and ways of working. At the moment, because of the past nature of the work there has been no real statement of operating practices or formal way of carrying out the specific areas of operations. Also because they have been so busy none of the current staff have kept up to date with new technology or techniques for carrying out operational activities.

Task 3

The new Chief Executive is aware that his staff will need upskilling and they will need a lead on many aspects of operations, but as yet there is no one with sole responsibility for operational management of the social enterprise. With his new confidence in you he asks you to prepare guidance notes for each of the following areas of activity

Project management

Budgeting

Income generation

Customer Relationship

Data management

Each of these guides will need to illustrate the available and advisable methodologies and how these methodologies might be flexed depending on what the Board eventually decides as the strategic direction and whether they lean towards social or business priorities.

LO 4: Be able to measure and manage social enterprise performance

In conversation you find out that the new Chief Executive of JAY Right, has recently completed an advanced business programme for Chief Executives and is now eager to use the balanced scorecard concept to measure performance in this organizations. He has carried out a lot of research on the model and has always felt Kaplan and Norton’s (1996) model is a useful business analysis tool however he has not had the opportunity to use it in the situation he now finds himself in.

Task 4

You decide to pre-empt any questions and his probable move towards implementing this model by illustrating a Balanced Scorecard that sets the following within the social enterprise vision and strategy

Finances (4.1; 4.4)

Customers (4.5)

Internal business processes (4.2)

Growth (4.6

You know that in order for this to be applied to JAY right you will have to reform the basic balanced scorecard for the Chief Executive (4.3)

LO 5: Be able to manage key stakeholder relationships

The range of stakeholders for any social enterprise is often wider than for a commercial business. JAY Right has a number of stakeholder groups that may look to it for support. The social enterprise will need to analyse this spread of stakeholders and be set up and managed appropriately to fulfil them in the way it wishes.

Task 5

With growing confidence in you the Board ask Jailo to task you with carrying out a stakeholder analysis for them. You decide to structure a 1000 word briefing paper that offers the following:

A suggestion as to an appropriate structure and as they are currently unincorporated explore whether this is still appropriate to them, based on their current size, future aims, scope of activities and risk.

A suggestion as to an appropriate legal structure in place for its activities, and relevant legal documentation justifying your recommendation.

An appropriate organisational chart that illustrates and describes the possible stakeholder relationships for JAY Right.

A communication plan, suggesting appropriate media that would articulate its value and activities to key stakeholders.

A plan that evaluates possible

Outputs that are the direct and tangible.

Outcomes that are the benefit that results from the organisation’s outputs.

Impact that is the overall difference made by the organisation by achieving the outcomes.

3 Features of Good Assignments

Assignments are written in using the institution’s house style.

The assignment includes:

the tasks for the learners to do based on the requirements of the learning outcomes and the assessment criteria

guidance for the learners on carrying out and completing the assignment such as how to present their work, when to hand it is and a reminder to submit it after using a plagiarism checker

assignment management information which identifies hand out and hand in dates, the assessment decisions and the feedback to learners

Tasks are based on the requirements of the assessment criteria. By using the wording of the assessment criteria learners are guided in to producing work that can be judged by the assessor applying the assessment criteria.

Related assessment criteria are merged in to a single task so there is coherence to the questions and the number of tasks that learners have to do is manageable.

Wherever feasible a holistic approach should be adopted when assignment writing. This requires a team to co-ordinate is assignment writing and to keep track of outcome and criteria coverage. It ought therefore be possible to adopt a holistic approach to assessment by identifying topics that are common to several units in a single assignment.

The tasks must be mapped to the assessment criteria. This focuses the assessor on writing questions that are relevant. Any question that cannot be mapped to a criterion is not relevant for assessing work against the published assessment criteria for the unit.

Provide a case study or stimulus material that is up to date and relevant. Local organisations can provide case study material if assessors build links with local employers and businesses. The context can be changed from year to year so groups of learners do not get the same assignments as their predecessors. Learners are enabled to apply the theory and practice of what they have learned to new and different contexts. There is little likelihood that there will be answers to questions that assessors set that are available on the internet. Centres need to develop their capacity to develop their own assessment materials. Useful sources include:

The Times 100 (http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/)

Bized (http://www.bized.co.uk/)

http://tutor2u.net/

with video resources at:

http://tutor2u.net/blog/index.php/business-studies/comments/video-case-studies-resource-listing/

Materials from these and similar sources are not always immediately relevant for Level 7, but the case studies can easily be adapted

The assignment must incorporate the requirements of the generic level descriptors identified for level 7 in respect of the intellectual skills and attributes, processes and accountability associated with that level.

Learners should be given a role that reflects what they might be expected to do if they were in work.

Learners are required to write using business formats. Many formats are used in business and learners should become familiar with a variety of formats but failure to use a format should not result on a learner being failed as acceptable work may be produced in a different format from the one requested.

Learners are required to write in business styles and in ways that meet the needs of their audiences.

Marking guidance that learners can read should be provided. This might indicate, for example, what is expected in terms of work quality if a task requires “critical evaluation” of a topic.

Adopting this approach demonstrates that assignment design is well managed and reflects positively on the centre’s management of its programmes. The quality of assessment practice is sound and this will be reflected in the reports produced by both the IQAs and the EQAs.

Learners’ work will be improved because:

assignment information is presented in a consistent way

they are only asked relevant questions.

4 Sample Quality Assurance Forms

4.1 Assignment Front Sheet With Internal Quality Assurance Sign Off (SAMPLE)

ABP Extended Diploma in International Marketing

Learner Name: __________________________

Unit title: Social Enterprise Management Unit number: _________________________

Assignment title: ___________________________ Assignment reference: (Assignment 9 of 99)

Date issued to learner: DD/MM/YYYY Date due for submission: DD/MM/YYYY

Actual Date submitted DD/MM/YYYY

Name of Assessor(s): ______________________________________________

Outcome

Feedback

(Evidence presented against the published criteria)

Assessor’s decision

Internal Verification

1.1

1.2

1.3

2.1

2.2

2.3

Assessor’s additional feedback and comments

Overall Assessment Verdict

*Pass/Further work to be done (please specify)

*delete as appropriate

Assessor Declaration

I confirm that the work submitted for this assignment was checked against the Turnitin software and the receipt for this check is attached.

Assessor’s signature

Date

Learner Declaration

To protect the integrity and reputation of its qualifications, ABP requires that the work produced by each learner undertaking an ABP qualification, is the learner’s own work. A vital way of giving this assurance is for you to sign the authenticity statement below to confirm ownership of the work that may be presented to ABPs external quality assurer (EQA) prior to certification. In so doing you are confirming that there has been no cheating or copying in producing the work and that where other sources of information have been used, they have been properly referenced.

You have the right to appeal against assessment decisions made regarding your submitted assignment.

Learner Statement

To ensure certification of your achievement, before submitting your assignment for marking and scrutiny by the internal quality assurer (IQA) and the external quality assurer (EQA), please read and tick either box A or B then sign the box below.

A) My submitted assignment is my own work without any help except acceptable support from my Assessor(s)

B) My submitted assignment is my own work but I have had some help as explained on the reverse of this sheet

By signing this document I confirm I have read and understood the above learner declaration and verify my above learner statement regarding my submitted assignment to be true.

Learner’s signature

Date

Optional

I give my permission for my work to be used by the centre for training or exemplar purposes

Learner’s signature

Date

Learner statement: Explanation of help/assistance received in the preparation/completion of my submitted assignment.

Learner’s signature

Date

Internal Quality Assurer (IQA) feedback and comments for Assessor

IQA’s Name

IQA’s signature

Date

4.2 Assessment Management Document: Assignment Development

Assessor Name

Unit

Social Enterprise Management

Assignment

Assessor’s signature

Date

Task

1

Case Study: Jay Right

Which Assessment tool/msdfethod is being used to evidence this assessment

Briefing document

Which Learning Outcomes are covered

LO 1

Which Assessment Criteria are covered

AC 1.1, 1.2,1.3,1.4,1.5,1.6

Comments and feedback from the IQA to the Assessor regarding the appropriateness of the Assessment tool and tasks set

Suitable and all AC’s are covered with adequate detail

Any Action or amendment to the assessment

Confirmation of Assessment

By Assessor

Date

By Internal QA/Moderator

Date

Task

2

Case Study: Jay Right

Which Assessment tool/method is being used to evidence this assessment

Draft Strategic Plan

Which Learning Outcomes are covered

LO 2

Which Assessment Criteria are covered

AC 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4

Comments and feedback from the IQA to the Assessor regarding the appropriateness of the Assessment tool and tasks set

Suitable and all AC’s are covered with adequate detail

Any Action or amendment to the assessment

Confirmation of Assessment

By Assessor

Date

By Internal QA/Moderator

Date

Task

3

Case study: Jay Right

Which Assessment tool/method is being used to evidence this assessment

Guidance Notes

Which Learning Outcomes are covered

LO 3

Which Assessment Criteria are covered

AC 3.1, 3.2, 3.3

Comments and feedback from the IQA to the Assessor regarding the appropriateness of the Assessment tool and tasks set

Suitable and all AC’s are covered with adequate detail

Any Action or amendment to the assessment

Confirmation of Assessment

By Assessor

Date

By Internal QA/Moderator

Date

Task

4

Case study: Jay Right

Which Assessment tool/method is being used to evidence this assessment

Written assignment

Which Learning Outcomes are covered

LO 4

Which Assessment Criteria are covered

AC 4.1, 4.2, 4.3

Comments and feedback from the IQA to the Assessor regarding the appropriateness of the Assessment tool and tasks set

Suitable and all AC’s are covered with adequate detail

Any Action or amendment to the assessment

Confirmation of Assessment

By Assessor

Date

By Internal QA/Moderator

Date

Confirmation that the assignment can be released

By Assessor

Date

By Internal QA/Moderator

Date

5 Glossary of useful terms

Analyse:

to examine something in detail in order to understand its structure and function

Critically analyse:

this extended criterion for Level 7 qualifications requires learners to justify their analysis and show how they have reached their judgement; for further guidance

Systematically analyse:

this extended criterion for Level 7 qualifications requires learners to plan how they will analyse a situation and to structure their findings in a systematic way; they are not required to explain their system, but it should be seen clearly within the learner’s evidence justify their analysis and show how they have reached their judgement; for further guidance,

Appraise:

to make a judgement about something based upon an assessment of relevant factors and information

Critically appraise:

this extended criterion for Level 7 qualifications requires learners to justify their appraisal and show how they have reached their judgement; for further guidance,

Systematically appraise:

this extended criterion for Level 7 qualifications requires learners to plan how they will reach a judgement about a situation or set of circumstances and to structure their findings in a systematic way; they are not required to explain their system, but it should be seen clearly within the learner’s evidence

Assess:

to estimate and judge qualities and/or quantities;

Critically assess:

this extended criterion for Level 7 qualifications requires learners to justify their assessment and show how they have reached their judgement; for further guidance,

Assessment:

the process of identifying whether learners have meet the requirements of the learning outcomes and assessment criteria in a unit / qualification

Assessment criterion:

a statement against which learners’ performance can be measured and judged

Assignment:

the piece of work given to learners to complete which allows learners to show what they understand, know and can do and the resultant work is used to make a judgement about their performance

Case study:

a problem for learners to consider and to which they can apply their subject specific knowledge and skills in order to understand the problem

Evaluate:

to make a judgement about something usually by considering a range of factors

Examine:

consider in detail and subject to an analysis in order to discover essential features or meaning

Systematically examine:

this extended criterion for Level 7 qualifications requires learners to plan how they will examine a situation and to structure their findings in a systematic way; they are not required to explain their system, but it should be seen clearly within the learner’s evidence

Investigate:

to research a subject

Learning outcome:

a statement of what learners will have achieved on completion of a part of their course once the learners have passed the associated assessment

Presentation:

an activity in which information is provided to others. It can take various forms including written, visual and spoken forms as well as carrying out practical activities

Prospectus:

a document to describe a proposed business enterprise

Review:

a survey of a subject that adopts a critical perspective

Task:

The question that the learners have to answer.

6 Model Answer

The model answers that follow are indicative of the work required of learners. They are intended to illustrate the nature of evidence that a Level 7 learner should produce. In some cases, answers would need further work and extension by learners in order to fully address each assessment criteria.

LO 1: Understand the strategic management of a social enterprise

Task 1

Objectives are detailed and specific statements that describe what aspect of quality a Social Enterprise is going to measure to show that their aims have been met.

The answers should include recommendations on the following actions

A review the social enterprise’s purpose, vision and values.

Research into whether stakeholders think the current social objectives are still a priority.

Identification of possible areas where the social enterprise could develop new social objectives.

Involvement of stakeholders in deciding on new social objectives.

The answers will include advice on gaining the following knowledge.

The social enterprise’s original purpose and social objectives.

How the social objectives relate to the social enterprise’s purpose, vision and values.

What external factors may affect the purpose and social objectives? These might be political, economic, social, technological, legal or environmental.

What internal factors may affect the purpose and social objectives? These might be operational, financial, marketing, personnel and so on.

How the social objectives may affect external factors such as social policy, the environment, employment opportunities and so on.

How commercial needs and objectives can affect social objectives.

What opportunities and threats might affect social objectives?

How to help stakeholders identify new social objectives. Stakeholders could be board members, sponsors, funders, customers, members, staff members or volunteers.

How to get information and feedback from stakeholders about social objectives.

How to deal with any conflict of interest between stakeholders about the social enterprise’s social objectives.

The normal model for identifying or reviewing social enterprise objectives generally includes:

What practical things are you going to do to make the above happen?

When will these be done?

What services, activities or products are you going to offer?

Who will you offer them to?

How are you going to create change?

How will you know that this has been achieved?

Can you use targets to quantify or measure progress towards your aim(s)?

How will you promote your achievements?

Objectives will be based around:

Social Change;

Community development;

The environment;

Sustainability;

Local development;

Skills development;

Tackling inequality;

Developing enterprises;

Developing networks;

Employment creation.

The Plan for the next 3 years should set down the activities arising from

SMART Objectives

Specific – it should be possible to determine when an objective has been achieved by making it as definite as possible

Measureable – it should be possible to measure whether an objective has been reached

Attainable – it must be possible to achieve the objective

Relevant – the objectives should form part of the overall aim of the enterprise

Timely – the objective should be achieved within a specific period of time

Business Development will be guided by the following:

How the organisation plans its activities and resources to achieve operational efficiency;

Monitoring project and contract delivery to ensure resources are correctly allocated and spent and deliverables are achieved;

Collecting and collating appropriate data managing it according to appropriate requirements and the Data Protection Act;

Collecting data and analysing and sharing it with the management team and the Board, for strategic decision-making, reporting and marketing;

Undertaking an analysis of risks and developing strategies to deal with those which could have a significant negative effect on the organisation;

Having quality assurance procedures in place that help the organisation to improve its operational effectiveness.

Managing stakeholders involves

Identifying the differences between different types of stakeholders, including stakeholders who may have more than one role within your social enterprise.

Identifying what your social enterprise can offer to each type of stakeholder.

Identifying people and organisations that may be interested in becoming stakeholders.

Informing potential stakeholders about your social enterprise.

Encouraging stakeholders to be involved with your social enterprise.

Agreeing with stakeholders what their involvement will be.

Informing stakeholders what their rights and responsibilities are.

You need to know and understand the following.

The types of stakeholder your social enterprise needs. These could be board members, sponsors, funders, customers, members, staff members or volunteers.

What roles can be successfully carried out by the same stakeholder, and what roles should be carried out by different stakeholders.

Why it is important to involve staff as stakeholders.

What rights and responsibilities potential stakeholders may want, or expect to have, in a social enterprise.

The types of formal relationships that you can offer to different types of stakeholder, including those based on contracts, trade and membership.

The membership rules that social enterprises can use, and the links between membership, ownership and control.

How the rights and responsibilities of ownership and control can be decided and changed.

The legal rights of employees, customers and suppliers when negotiating contracts.

Which local, regional and national government organisations have strategic or operational duties that are relevant to your social enterprise’s aims and objectives.

Which local, community, voluntary or charity organisations are involved in the same, or similar, products or services as your social enterprise.

Advice on future income will need to explore the diversity of revenue sources the organisation has and is pursuing to ensure a sustainable income base for future sustainability. Possible stakeholders will be:

Employees

Customers/service users and their families

The local community

Local voluntary organisations

The local authority

Grant makers/donors

The following questions may be appropriate.

Does the organisation have diverse sources of income and there is no single customer which constitutes more than 20% of its turnover?

Does the organisation have business development plans in place to minimise dependency on grants and move towards self-sustainability?

Does the organisation is aware of how to identify funding and tender opportunities using a wide variety of sources (including networks, internet portals and publications), and how to prioritise them/

Does the organisation have in-house capacity to prepare or outsource funding bids and tenders?

Does the organisation focus on achievable opportunities and have a high success rate for contracts or business won?

In preparing bids, does the organisation secure as a minimum full cost recovery in all product and contract pricing?

The financial options to be explored are:

Trading income;

Grant income;

Loan finance;

Local government support;

Business (or community) Angels;

Equity finance.

LO 2: Be able to develop a strategic plan for a social enterprise

Task 2

The decision making process for legal status and structure will include

Social Enterprises come in a variety of forms, which includes:

Employee Owned Businesses creating jobs and rescuing jobs as part of economic development strategies.

Credit Unions providing access to finance.

Co-operatives associations of persons united to meet common economic and social needs through jointly owned enterprises.

Development Trusts key actors in community-based regeneration.

Social Firms providing employment and training to people with disabilities and other disadvantaged groups.

Intermediate Labour Market Companies providing training and work experience for the long-term unemployed.

Community Businesses Social Enterprises, which have a strong geographical definition and focus on local markets and local services.

Charities’ Trading Arms enabling charities to meet their objectives in innovative ways, such as Fair Trade companies.

This is essentially a voluntary organisation which has been funded by donations and grants decide to turn to trading. This is driven by a desire to ensure its long-term viability, or from a belief that its beneficiaries are better served by the transformation, or perhaps both.

Ownership options will need to consider

The service model – where control rests with a small management committee or board without beneficiary-members.

The single stakeholder model – where there is a large group of members drawn from the beneficiaries, who usually constitute the ‘community’.

The multi-stakeholder model – where there is joint-ownership by two or more stakeholder groups.

Legal forms available include:

A partnership is ‘The relationship which subsists between persons carrying on a business in common with a view to profit”;

Unincorporated associations tend to be larger groups of people that come together for a particular purpose.

Also there are four corporate vehicles commonly used by social enterprises:

Company limited by guarantee (CLG);

Company limited by shares (CLS);

Industrial and Provident Society – Society for the Benefit of the Community (also known as Community Benefit Society);

Co-Operative (Co-operative).

The decision should incorporate the following

Needs

Areas for Consideration

Written Constitution/ Legal Identity

What company form should you take?

Do you have operational documentation?

Management Committee/ Trustees

Do you have a board of directors/trustees/stakeholders who will help your business to develop?

Accounting

Do you have a system in place? Do you need an accountant?

Have you considered measuring your social impact?

Management Training

Do you have a business plan? Is it up to date/useful? Do you feel able to run a business right now?

Human Resources

Are you up on employment legislation? Do you need to provide staff training?

Are your staff aware of their company’s social mission?

Funding

Do you need extra funding? Are you eligible? Is your existing funding adequate?

Short term or Long Term Funding? Grants versu. loans?

Finance

Do you have the right type of bank account? Is it the best kind for a social enterprise?

Do you have any contingency financial reserves?

Marketing

Have you researched your markets?

Are you aware of all the tools and techniques?

Selling

How are you following up on your marketing to actually make sales? What are the benefits of your product to your customers and stakeholders

Premises

Is your workspace appropriate for your business? Are you leasing or would it be better to own property instead?

From Social Enterprise London

In setting the goals the process should ask the following questions

What practical things can you do to make the aim happen?

When will these happen?

What are you going to offer – services/products etc?

Who will buy your offering?

How are you going to make change happen?

How will you know when you have achieved it?

Can you measure your progress?

How will you tell people about your achievements?

The range of stakeholders may be briefed as follows with explicit comment in relation to JAY Right

Also the Multiple Impact and Stakeholder model by Lyon (2002) maybe employed to assess potential contributions that social enterprises can make to social inclusion and economic development.

Options for fulfilling the needs of the stakeholders can be guided by the following

Encouraging stakeholders to be actively involved.

Negotiating contracts and agreements with stakeholders.

Developing processes that encourage stakeholders to be involved in the social enterprise.

Managing the differences in the rights and responsibilities of directors and other stakeholders in the enterprise.

Dealing with any possible conflicts of interest with and between stakeholders.

Representing the interests of the social enterprise in:

the local community;

networks;

partnerships; and

joint projects.

The student would need to demonstrate undeertsanding of the following.

The types of activity that encourage stakeholders to become more involved in the social enterprise.

How to focus marketing and sales to encourage customers to become stakeholders.

How to use employee supervision and development to encourage and support employees and volunteers as stakeholders.

How to design democratic processes so that they improve the way stakeholders take part in your social enterprise.

How to design democratic processes so that they settle conflicts of interest between stakeholders.

The buying methods and policies of your stakeholder customers.

The existing networks and partnerships that are relevant to your social enterprise.

(From the SFEDI national occupational standards for social enterprise development 2010)

The Social Enterprise Coalition states that “a social enterprise is a business that trades for a social and/or environmental purpose. It will have a clear sense of its ‘social mission’:  which means it will know what difference it is trying to make, who it aims to help, and how it plans to do it.  It will bring in most or all of its income through selling goods or services.  And it will also have clear rules about what it does with its profits, reinvesting these to further the ‘social mission’

Vision should be:

be inspirational;

be memorable;

be defined from the start;

be clear;

be used as a framework for monitoring and evaluation.

Mission should:

be a practical statement;

inform how and what a Social Enterprise must do to deliver its mission.

Social enterprises are businesses driven by social or environmental purposes. As with all businesses they compete to deliver goods and services, but the difference is that their social purpose is at the heart of everything that they do and all profits that they make are reinvested towards achieving that social purpose. Therefore this social purpose must be found and the business should be set up to support this.

LO 3: Be able to be operationally manage a social enterprise

The guides should be close to the following tables

Project Management

The organisation plans its activities and resources to achieve operational efficiency.

Project and contract delivery are monitored to ensure resources are correctly allocated and spent and deliverables are achieved.

Useful data is collected by the organisation and managed according to appropriate requirements and the Data Protection Act.

Data collected is analysed and shared with the Management Team and the Board, for strategic decision-making, reporting and marketing.

The organisation has undertaken an analysis of risks and has put in place strategies to deal with those which could have a significant negative effect on the organisation.

The organisation has quality assurance procedures in place that help the organisation to improve its operational effectiveness.

Budgeting

The organisation has diverse sources of income and there is no single customer which constitutes more than 20% of its turnover.

The organisation has business development plans in place to minimise dependency on grants and move towards self-sustainability.

The organisation is aware of how to identify funding and tender opportunities using a wide variety of sources (including networks, internet portals and publications), and how to prioritise them.

The organisation has in-house capacity to prepare or outsource funding bids and tenders.

The organisation focuses on winable opportunities and has a high success rate for contracts or business won.

In preparing bids, the organisation secures as a minimum full cost recovery in all product and contract pricing.

Income generation

The organisation has a designated person responsible for strategic and operational financial matters. This person is supported by the Chief Executive and the Board (or committee of the Board) to effectively manage the finances of the organisation.

The organisation has written financial policies and procedures, approved by the Board, which relevant staff is aware of and action as necessary. The organisation has policies including a reserves policy, an accounting policy and a risk register, in order to ensure the effective financial management of the organisation.

Financial information is produced regularly and includes: income and expenditure accounts with actual compared to budget; balance sheet; cash-flow forecasts; and reports on significant financial risks.

Financial management information is presented in a consistent format, is accessible and easy to understand; it is also based on robust data management systems and data quality is assured.

Break even points for the organisation’s products and services are understood.

The organisation is managed pro-actively to ensure its financial sustainability (profitability, liquidity and solvency).

The organisation understands and meets all its legal and statutory financial requirements, including those of Companies House, Charity Commission, Inland Revenue, funders and regulatory authorities.

The organisation knows who its key customers are and has undertaken research to understand what customers want and how much they are willing to pay for products or services.

There is sufficient demand for the goods and services to make an economic case to stay in the market.

The organisation understands the needs of its service users / beneficiaries and has developed its activities to meet those needs.

Feedback from customers and service users is collected on a systematic basis, and taken into consideration to improve the services and products supplied.

Customer and user satisfaction levels are good and the organisation has a high success rate of repeat customer use.

The organisation has Information Communication Technology (ICT) systems in place that meet their needs, are reliable and fit for purpose.

There is suitable and easily accessible ICT support in place (in-house or externally) to manage the system.

All users of ICT in the organisation are trained and able to use the equipment and software in line with their role and responsibilities.

An IT back-up procedure is undertaken on a regular basis and contingency plans are in place, should the system fail.

The organisation has administrative procedures and filing systems (paper or on-line) in place, and proportionate staff time is designated to undertake this work.

All staff understand what is required of them in terms of systems, processes and data management.

From the Social Enterprise Diagnostic.

LO 4: Be able to measure and manage social enterprise performance

Task 4

Social enterprise managers are challenged to constantly adapt to ever-changing environments – a balancing act requiring strategic reflection and analysis to achieve ongoing sustainability. Performance measurement through business analysis tools may offer organisations help in managing this process.

Mike Bull of Manchester Metropolitan University (Social Enterprise Journal Volume 3, Issue 1 2007) states that one of the inherent difficulties in the transferability of performance tools is how to include the measurement of social value, what it is, and indeed how to score or articulate social objectives in measurable and accountable ways. For many Small and Medium Social Enterprises, performance measurement and quantification are either economic indicators or unexpressed social values that are quite often intangible and difficult to quantify (Dees & Anderson 2003). He also mentions the lack of resources and skills within the social enterprise as an issue in performance measurement.

You should point out that Pestoff (1998) suggests, ‘performance is a multifaceted, fluid, problematic, ambiguous and contested concept,’ all further complicated by different sector and stakeholder perspectives and that Paton (2003) claims that the relevance of ‘mainstream’ management ideas and their adaptation to social enterprises demonstrates that performance measures are not the universal solution promised.

Social Enterprise London’s developed a version of the balanced scorecard expressly to help social enterprises to clarify and articulate their strategic objectives, and decide how they will deliver their multiple bottom lines. It was also designed to give organisations a mechanism to track performance holistically through both quantitative and qualitative information. This is primarily an internal management tool, drawing upon business concepts. Some of the measures the organisation adopts may also be used for external reporting as appropriate.

The organisation essentially creates a visual representation of the critical elements of its strategy for the social side (encompassing social, environmental, and economic objectives) as well as the financial side – or business sustainability. The process then helps the organisation to identify the key drivers or ways of achieving success from these social and financial perspectives by identifying what key stakeholders want from the organisation, and what processes the organisation needs to put in place internally for it to deliver these things.

The first step involves creating a strategy map. This is done by identifying the organisation’s goals, and choosing between two and four key goals to focus on as follows. Sample strategy map

Key: White circles reflect objectives

Dotted arrows reflect cause and effect linkages

Note: this is meant as an example; organisations customise their strategy maps to reflect their goals.

The next step involves creating a performance measurement schedule for each perspective, and a line for each objective. After stating each objective from the strategy map, this should describe how success is to be measured, by setting performance targets on a relevant time frame (e.g., quarterly, twice a year), and assigning someone to be responsible for delivering on, and measuring that objective.

This measurement should be undertaken regularly using quantitative and qualitative data, in order to track performance, communicate success to internal or external stakeholders, and check that the strategy is working and that the assumptions that have been made are accurate.

Mike Bull suggests a model that rearranges the original Balanced scorecard to iterate the performance measures as follows.

Bull develops the indicative process steps such as beginning with a qualitative investigation of the business practices of social enterprises (Bull and Crompton 2006), time should be used to build knowledge of the sector, meeting with managers of social businesses, social enterprise stakeholders and sector support agencies at local, regional and national levels.

This leads to a reflective process that leads to the gap between actual business practice and management theory being bridged by this three-step approach:

1. Critical reflection: business analysis self-assessment by the managers, based on their own perceptions of where the organisation is.

2. Organisations are provided with an instant ‘snapshot’ of their particular strengths and weaknesses across the BSC performance concepts (finance, customer, learning, internal activities and visioning), generated by the software of the tool.

3. An action plan offering stage-specific knowledge and suggestions for business development, growth and sustainability is provided.

LO 5: Be able to manage key stakeholder relationships

The response to this Task should be focused on JAY Right.

JAY Right is essentially a Community Businesses Social Enterprise, which has a strong geographical definition and focus on local markets and local services.

If you are hoping to grow your social enterprise into a competitive business and plan to use all available resources it is a good idea to incorporate. The following requirements will mean that the social enterprise should consider incorporating.

Taking on a lease

Buying a property

Employing staff

Taking out a loan/applying for a grant

Entering into large contracts

Legal Structure

Once it has been decided to incorporate the Board need to decide on which legal form or structure to adopt. There are a few different ways of doing this in the UK, each with their own benefits and drawbacks, so it is important to be familiar with them all. There are two major routes you can travel, both of which will mean that your social enterprise becomes a legal entity. On top of that, there is also an add-on feature, called the Community Interest Company, which helps to signify more clearly that you are a social enterprise.

Social enterprise London offer the following appraisal.

1. Limited Company

Most people have heard businesses referred to as so-and-so Ltd. The Ltd part of the name stands for limited liability and shows that the company holds liability and not the owner. If you choose to be a limited company you need to register at Companies House and fulfil a number of requirements under the heading ‘public disclosure’. This means having a properly drafted constitution and submitting an annual return to Companies House, telling them what you have been doing in the year.

There are two kinds of limited company – Companies Limited by Shares (CLS) and

Companies Limited by Guarantee (CLG). The difference is the way in which liability

is held. With a CLS it is the shareholders that are held liable because they profit from the businesses activity. In a CLG, liability is held by a board of appointed directors but the fact that these directors are unpaid means that they are usually only held liable for the sum of £1 should anything go wrong.

A CLG is good for organisations that want to use a mixture of grant funding and trade income to keep them financially sustainable. Most public money giving bodies and grant funders recognise a CLG as a structure they can give money to because the division between those that govern the organisation (ie unpaid board directors) and those that manage the work (i.e. the paid staff) signifies that the company is not entirely motivated by profit. A CLG can also be aligned to a charity in order that the organisation can have charitable status and benefit from areas such as corporation tax exemption and being able to apply for certain charitable funds. A CLG can be quick and easy to register with Companies House and it’s relatively inexpensive to do so. The organisation will need a minimum of two board directors, however.

A CLS issues shares that can be owned privately or offered to the general public. In this case it is the shareholders that are liable should anything bad happen. You, the entrepreneur, may decide to own shares in your company in which case you would be responsible for a proportion of the liability. But then this liability is made up for by the fact that you own part of the company (and therefore profits). Many people think that this goes against the idea of social enterprise because of what happens to the profits. However, several bigger social enterprises have issued shares as a way of raising money for investment and the dividends they distribute are purposefully limited to protect the profits

2. Industrial and Provident Society

The Industrial Provident Society (IPS) model is suited to organisations who believe that the stakeholders (which can include staff) should be formally involved in the decision making process. As such, it’s often seen as a more democratic structure and is taken on by co-operatives or collectives. The benefit of being an IPS is that it allows a mix of staff and other stakeholders to be on the board of directors, which is useful if the founding members (the social entrepreneurs) want to work for the organisation and be paid, whilst at the same time having a say in the way the organisation is run.

Industrial and Provident Societies are registered with the Financial Services Authority, rather than Companies House. As with a CLG, there’s a minimum requirement of two board directors, and the accounts must be filed at the end of each year. Unlike a CLG though, the IPS cannot be registered as a charity or have charitable status. It may be able to benefit from certain tax exemptions but that’s up to the organisation to negotiate with the Inland Revenue.

There are two forms of the IPS model: IPS for the benefit of the community and IPS for the benefit of workers. The first is used by social enterprises that are keen to involve their community in the running of the business by having them sit on the board (for example local mothers on the board of a crèche). The second relates to a worker’s co-operative where each employee has an equal say in the way the business is run as well as an equal share of the profits. Co-operatives count as social enterprises because the profits are used solely to benefit the employees. Also, in general, if a co-operative wraps up, all assets are gifted to another co-operative with a similar mission.

3. Community Interest Company (CIC)

The Community Interest Company was created in July 2005 in the UK as a way to help social enterprises clearly state their intentions as being different to those of a private business. This means that the CIC can benefit from ways of doing business that not- for-profit businesses, charities and voluntary organisations typically do not. This includes accessing forms of finance usually reserved for private business and the ability to pay its board of directors, making it easier to attract and keep valuable board members that will help you develop your social enterprise.

In addition, as with co-operatives, there is a clause which ensures that assets will have to be passed on to another CIC should the CIC have to be wrapped up. This goes further towards proving that the intentions of the social enterprise go beyond simply making money.

The downside of the CIC is that it involves more administration (it involves a set-up cost, an annual fee and another set of annual returns describing your ethical mission) and also that it brings extra considerations in terms of how much to pay the board of directors.

The Communications Plan should

Develop a clear understanding of the objectives of the social marketing programme and how communications are expected to complement other activities in contributing to these objectives

Ensure effective engagement with the target groups, partners and other key stakeholders about delivery of communications throughout all phases of the programme

Evaluate the findings from research into motivators, inhibitors and interventions relevant to the target groups, current trends and developments and the potential impact of other contemporaneous programmes, interventions and other relevant activities

Establish and agree the following communications elements with key stakeholders:

the core values that underpin the programme

how these core values are to be expressed through coherent branding

the key messages to be understood by different target groups

the language to be used with different target groups

the mix of methods of communication to be used with different target groups

the design elements to be used

expected communication flows

the media or channels of communication to be used

how the