Equal-Works

Background

The UK Government in general, and Bristol City Council in this instance, have recognised that third sector organisations (e.g. community owned businesses, co-operatives, local self-help groups) have a vital role in local economic development. The sector makes a valuable contribution to the local Bristol economy through the provision of jobs and new routes into quality employment, capacity building, improving local democracy and the supply of goods and services to local communities. In Bristol, this activity is particularly strong in the environmental, health and care, education and cultural sectors. From audits of these sectors carried out in 1999-2000 and 2004-5, it is estimated that these sectors have grown faster than the mainstream economy and now contribute £275m to the local economy while employing more than 7,000 staff and 22,000 volunteers.

These organisations make a significant impact on equality by creating opportunities for disadvantaged groups within the community. The third sector economy comprises a wide spectrum of value driven organisations that range from social enterprises to community/voluntary organisations. The partnership recognises that third sector economy organisations face constraints in strategically planning and developing their enterprises, their resource base and their services and markets, as they are subject to short-term pressures.

Aims

The primary aim is to develop working models that support social economy business advice and development organisations by integrating key elements of performance improvement and quality management approaches into their work. This will enable the sector to become more credible and competitive, leading to a fuller and more confident engagement in wider market opportunities. The end result is to develop a stronger identity for the sector associated with quality products, employment, etc., to flesh out a system that allows social enterprises to develop quality assurance models that best suit their needs and to provide an improved range and quality of business support and advice to the sector. The aim is to move away from fund raising and short term project-based funding for voluntary and community organisations towards developing an approach which shows that the organisation can adapt to change and become more focused on their core business of delivering services to users.

Objectives

Target Groups

Organisations within the third sector economy of Bristol and its environs

This Development Partnership was not involved in Round One.

C3Perform Resources

The C3 Partnership has developed C3Perform, a toolkit which enables third sector organisations to improve their performance through a process of self-assessment, action planning and implementation. The C3Perform approach has already benefited a number of organisations in the Bristol area by helping them to become more competitive, confident and credible. The C3Perform tools, along with a range of other resources to support the C3 approach, are available for others to use at (www.c3partnership.org). Within this resource is a learning zone, under further development post-Equal by the members of the Performance Improvement Network referred to below.

Transnational work

C3 has contributed to a transnational good practice website (www.exchange2improve.eu), where learning from across Europe is shared in the form of case studies about the development of excellent social enterprises.

Mainstreaming of C3Perform Tools

The C3 approach is being tried out and further developed across the third sector and among a range of stakeholders. As well as being used as a key part of third sector business support at a local level, C3Perform tools will be forming part of a new regional Information, Diagnostic and Brokerage service for social enterprises in the South West and will conrtibute to Capacitybuilders work within the local and regional voluntary sector. It is being reviewed as part of the processes of Bristol City Council and other public sector and independent commissioners and funders.

The C3 Performance Improvement approach has also been recognised nationally and tested by organisations around the country and in the EU. It won an award from the national Performance Improvement Hub, and received substantial recognition from the Minister for the Third Sector. The Social Enterprise Coalition have piloted the use of C3Perform within their own organisation, with C3 advisers facilitating successful workshops at SEC, who are currently working on action planning around the areas for improvement identified by the process.

Facilitators and organisational champions have been trained and are being trained in the near future to better embed the C3 approach locally and further afield.

Branding and Networking

Building on work initially carried out in partnership with C3, partners at RISE have developed the Social Enterprise Mark (www.socialenterprisemark.co.uk) which is a fair-trade-style identity for social enterprises trading in the South West, enabling organisations to indicate to customers that trading with them is achieving a social outcome, as well as developing strategic alliances between them. Work has also begun on establishing a Performance Improvement Network, which will enable interested parties such as organisations, investors, buyers and advisors to share learning from their improvement activities and to develop some of the ideas around the C3 approach, taking it further as practitioners.