Good that The King’s Fund recognises benefits social enterprises can bring to NHS

Thursday 4 August

Commenting on the latest report from The King’s Fund Social enterprise in healthcare published today, The Social Investment Business Chair Sir Stephen Bubb said:

“It’s great to see an organisation with the authority of The King’s Fund recognise the benefits that social enterprises can deliver for the NHS and for patients via improved quality, efficiency and staff morale.

“But the report is right to highlight the need for more business and financial support for social enterprises as vital to enable the sector to grow.

“Social enterprises, especially new ones, face lots of challenges in the NHS tender process, not least a lack of experience of the process itself rather than the ability to deliver a service.

“To bid successfully for NHS contracts social enterprises need a reliable cash flow and help devising business plans and governance structures in order to ensure they are the kind of financially sustainable organisations that commissioners can feel confident doing business with. Experience tells us that once they win contracts the finance from those deals can help them fund their operations, reduce reliance on grants and, most critically, allow them to deliver value for money for the health service.”

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1.   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

2.   The Social Investment Business, with Local Partnerships, manages the Social Enterprise Investment Fund on behalf of the Department of Health. In the financial year 10/11 the SEIF invested around £40million in social enterprises providing health and social care services. And since we began managing the SEIF in June 2009 we have invested over £63million in more than 370 social enterprises working in health and social care including organisations providing training for care home workers, fitness classes for older people and substance misuse rehabilitation programmes.

3.   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

4.  The Social Investment Business manages the Futurebuilders 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.