An interview with... Simon Tucker, The Young Foundation

‘An interview with... Simon Tucker’:  the Chief Executive of The Young Foundation discusses the need for social enterprises trying to bring their product to market to focus on generating revenue streams and picks practice over policy

22 September 2011

Simon Tucker, Chief Executive of The Young Foundation, says the biggest barrier faced by social entrepreneurs trying to bring their products to market is too great a focus on generating initial capital. In the latest edition of “An Interview With…” the monthly podcast series by The Social Investment Business, Tucker discusses the disadvantages faced by social enterprises whose only or main customer is the public sector – and all the idiosyncrasies contained within it- calling on them to spend time developing other sources of revenue.

Tucker explains that people’s fears about new providers looking to maximize profits at the expense of service users can be allayed as social enterprises operating in the health service often have governance arrangements, are committed to community involvement and have other safeguards in place. Tucker highlights Bernadette Porter, a multiple sclerosis nurse consultant at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neuroscience, as a favourite example of an NHS worker to act as a social entrepreneur. Tucker describes how, despite some initial barriers, the project is exciting and has huge potential both in terms of health outcomes and revenue streams.

Tucker also shares his belief that there is very strong support for Big Society within the Government but that there is an impatience to see results at the same time as cuts are being made, which might not be feasible. Finally, he opts for practice over policy in the quick fire quiz!

‘An Interview With...’ is a monthly podcast series from The Social Investment Business featuring short interviews with leading figures in social enterprise and civil society.

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1.    You can listen to ‘An interview with…Simon Tucker’ and read the full transcript here: http://www.thesocialinvestmentbusiness.org/aninterviewwith/

2.    The “An interview with…” podcast series is now available to download on iTunes at http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/thesocialinvest/id449826455

3.    Find out more about The Young Foundation at http://www.youngfoundation.org/

4.    For further information or interviews, please contact The Social Investment Business press office:

Liz Banks - 0207 842 7726/ 07809 504072  liz.banks@socialinvestmentbusiness.org

Nicola Jones - 0207 842 7755 nicola.jones@socialinvestmentbusiness.org

5.    The Social Investment Business, the largest social investor in the UK, exists to help social enterprises, charities and community organisations do more of what they do best – supporting people and communities most in need. We help organisations prosper by providing innovative financial solutions, business support and long term strategic thinking.

www.thesocialinvestmentbusiness.org @TheSocialInvest

6.       The Social Investment Business manages the Futurebuilders Fund and the Social Action Fund on behalf of The Office for Civil Society, the Social Enterprise Investment Fund for the Department of Health the Communitybuilders Fund which was endowed to parent charity the Adventure Capital Fund by the Department for Communities and Local Government.  We have over 1,100 active investments which range in size and scope from, for example,  £3,600 to help a small organisation bid successfully for a public sector contract, to £6.7million to help a large national charity establish and develop innovative new services for children and young people.