DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
News Release issued by The Government News Network on 6 May 2008
New social
enterprise innovation scheme will improve local services
Care Services Minister, Ivan Lewis announced the opening of the
second round of the Department of Health (DH) Social Enterprise
Investment Fund today. He also announced that this year, it would
include a new element, the 'Innovation for Life Challenge
Fund', developed in collaboration with the Social Enterprise
Coalition. The Innovation for Life Challenge Fund will encourage
Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) and their partners to find
collaborative solutions to health and social care needs through
social enterprise
Speaking at The Office of the Third Sector (OTS) Good Deals
conference, the Minister announced that SHAs would be invited to
bid for up to £100k revenue each (from the existing Social
Enterprise Fund) to support the commissioning of innovative
cross-sector social enterprise solutions. Funding from the new
'Innovation for life Challenge Fund' for 2008/9 could be
used to support local boroughs to develop social enterprise
solutions to health and well-being issues and to provide
cross-sector solutions to local problems, for instance the health
and housing sectors working together.
Care Services Minister Ivan Lewis said:
"The Innovation for Life Challenge Fund is testimony to our
confidence in social enterprise as part of the solution to
commissioning world class health and social care services.
"We hope that this will challenge commissioners to find
solutions through social enterprises to longstanding problems that
have the potential to lead to real social change and improvement
in health and well being.
"Increasingly, we are seeing social enterprises delivering
the innovative and personalised services that people rightly
expect. That is why we have set up this new scheme as part of the
£100 million Social Enterprise Investment Fund."
Local partners, under the stewardship of the SHAs would be
expected to provide further funding equivalent to 25 per cent of
their bid to the Innovation for Life Challenge Fund.
Round two of the SEIF is now open to bidders with £11m capital
and £6m revenue funding available to support successful
applicants. The Social Enterprise Investment Fund supports the
development of social enterprises in health and social care such
as women's refuges, migraine clinics and exercise programmes
for the elderly, which take account of and address the needs of a
wide range of patients and services users, particularly the most
vulnerable and excluded.
Social enterprises are businesses, which reinvest their profits
back into the organisation or into the local community, promoting
independence, well-being and social inclusion and helping to
improve people's quality of life.
Notes for Editors
1. The Social Enterprise Investment Fund is intended to stimulate
and encourage the development of a vibrant social enterprise
sector in the delivery of health and social care services. It
aims to provide start-up funding and longer-term investment to
emerging and existing social enterprises in the health and social
care sector with a view to their sustainability. The Fund offers
loans, grants and equity investments (or a mixture of these).
2. Social enterprises are dynamic businesses with social and
environmental aims. Well known examples include The Big Issue,
Cafe Direct and Jamie Oliver's Fifteen, but there are many
other social enterprises operating in a wide range of industries.
3. More information about the Department of Health's social
enterprise programme can be found at: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Managingyourorganisation/Commissioning/Socialenterprise/index.htm
4. The Social Enterprise Coalition is the UK's national body
for social enterprise. Acting as the voice for the sector, it
supports and represents the work of its members, influences
national policy and promotes best practice. http://www.socialenterprise.org.uk