National Evaluation of the Office of the Third Sector (OTS) Social Enterprise Business Support Improvement Programme: baseline report

The OTS report provides a picture of social enterprises and their perception of business support, in particular Business Link.

The report recognises the significant role that social enterprises have in contributing to economic prosperity and that effective business support helps to develop sustainable businesses and improve competitiveness. However, it notes that many social enterprises have not always viewed Business Link, the gateway for Government-funded business support, as a natural point of contact to access the support that they require.

In response to a lack of data recording access to Business Link by social enterprises or the satisfaction levels of those that do, and the perceived satisfaction with the business advisers being low, the OTS is providing £5.9m of funding through the nine Regional Development Agencies to improve the quality of support, make it easier for social enterprises to access this support and to raise business skills in the sector.

Early indications from the National Business Link Satisfaction Survey, however, contradict the perception that social enterprises are less than satisfied with the service they’ve received from Business Link which suggests that social enterprises comprise 6% of Business Link customers and 88% of them are satisfied with the service that they have received. 72% of social enterprises would use Business Link again and 75% would recommend it to someone else.

The report addresses the core responsibilities social enterprise support should show including support for pre starts within communities and support needs throughout the early stages of development including mentoring, networking and peer to peer support. They also question the delivery and methodology of business support as a whole.

The report highlights research into the business support infrastructure for social enterprises in England. It incorporates results from qualitative interviews from service users across the country and reports on best practice workshops.

Overall, the report shows that social enterprise business support is improving, although this varies across the regions. The funding for OTS will continue until March 2011 enabling each region to strengthen the infrastructure for providing business support.

Research conducted has highlighted that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to supporting social enterprises. Support agencies across the regions will have to be flexible to adapt to the changing delivery methods of business support.

To access the full report follow this link: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/327605/national%20evaluation%20of%20the%20ots%20social%20enterprise%20business%20support%20improvement%20programme%20baseline%20reportnov09.doc