SES helps establish 10 new
businesses in a month

Social Enterprises combine a strong social purpose with the energy and dynamism of enterprise. They experiment and innovate, marrying a strong public service ethos with business acumen.

Social Enterprises provide a mechanism for bringing excluded groups into the labour market. This is achieved by:
Raising skill levels and increasing peoples' chances to secure employment.
Identifying opportunities for enterprise thereby creating job opportunities.
Contribute to the wealth and growth of the communities they serve.
A social enterprise is a business with social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for the benefit of the business and their employees, or in the community they are located. By being locally owned and controlled, they are not driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders or external interests.
Social enterprises tackle a wide range of social and environmental issues and operate in all parts of the economy. By using business solutions to achieve public good, the Government believes that social enterprises have a distinct and valuable role to play in helping create a strong, sustainable and socially inclusive economy.

From the Department of Trade and Industry's 'Social Enterprise: A strategy for Business':

"Social enterprises are delivering high quality, lower cost products and services. At the same time, they create real opportunities for the people working in them and the communities that they serve.

The combination of strong social purpose, and energetic, entrepreneurial drive can deliver genuine results. But if the UK is to benefit fully, then I believe it is important that the Government seeks to do all it can to help the future development of social enterprise." Tony Blair, Prime Minister.