Reports | Social Enterprise UK

Buy Social Corporate Challenge Year 9 Report

Diamond Naraviene — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 14:32:47 +0000

The year 9 report for the Buy Social Corporate Challenge revealed a landmark surge in procurement spending with social enterprises, as 33 big businesses together spent £179 million on goods and services, a 46% year-on-year increase, the highest since the initiative launched in 2016. In total, corporate partners have spent £656 million with 2,100 social enterprise suppliers, creating nearly 6,000 jobs. The premise of the Challenge is simple: working with corporates to use their core business spend to create positive social and environmental impact. Read on to find out more about the transformative impact of social procurement.

Diversity at work: Leadership demographics and outcomes in social enterprise

Shehan Perera — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 10:40:31 +0000

This deep dive report looks into diversity within social enterprises, with a focus on women-led and ethnic-minority-led businesses. It shows that social enterprises lead the way when it comes to representation on staff and leadership teams. More social enterprises are led by women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds than is the case for the wider business community. The report also looks at how these groups find access to finance.

Adebowale Commission Three Years On – A report card

Shehan Perera — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 00:02:00 +0000

Three years ago the Commission on Social Investment founded by our Chair, Lord Victor Adebowale, published its findings. It found some key structural issues within the social investment market including the deprioritisation of social enterprises over the past decade and regional disparities in access to finance. We’ve just published a review into whether the Commission’s recommendations for reform have been delivered. ‘This report card’ recognises some signs of progress but also highlights concerns in areas such as government strategy, key market institutions and access to funding products.

Social Enterprise Barometer – Economic outlook and government support

Shehan Perera — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 21:53:07 +0000

This Insights Paper outlines the key themes from the latest Social Enterprise Advisory Panel, a quarterly survey by Social Enterprise UK to collect a snapshot of sector conditions and expectations. The paper looks at the challenges social enterprises have faced over the last year, the sector’s priorities for the new Labour government, the role of local government, views on the Procurement Act and the government’s New Deal for Working People.

Social Enterprise Barometer – Employment and policy priorities

Shehan Perera — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 23:02:00 +0000

Based on a quarterly survey of our members, the latest Insight Paper on our Social Enterprise Knowledge Centre explores the sector’s policy priorities for the new government. It also looks in more depth into social enterprises as employers and how they feel about the key policy proposals contained within the Labour government’s ‘New Deal for Working People’. Other areas covered in this report include social enterprises’ views on tax for public services and on business rates.

Good Work: Working conditions in social enterprise

Shehan Perera — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 23:01:00 +0000

This paper, published in partnership with the Living Wage Foundation, delves into the quality of employment created by social enterprises compared to the wider business community. From recruitment to paying the Real Living Wage (RLW) – the report takes a comprehensive look at just why social enterprises represent business at its best when it comes to work, finding that social enterprise employers are more likely to pay better, offer training, involve employees in organisational decision-making, and retain staff.

Buy Social Corporate Challenge Year 8 Report

Shehan Perera — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 23:01:00 +0000

Our Buy Social Corporate Challenge is now entering its ninth year of supporting big businesses to bring social enterprises into their supply chains. Since launching at Downing Street in 2016, £477 million has been spent with social enterprises by 30 major corporate partners across all business sectors. The premise of the Challenge is simple: working with corporates to use their core business spend to create positive social and environmental impact. Our latest annual report shows the Challenge had the most successful year ever, as partners spent £123 million with social enterprise suppliers. Read on to find out more about the transformative impact of social procurement.

Socio-economic diversity in social investment

Shehan Perera — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 16:40:49 +0000

Our new report, published with the London School of Economics and supported by the Connect Fund, uses elite education as a proxy to investigate aspects of diversity not yet well analysed in the social investment sector: socio-economic inclusion, and the role of power and privilege among those who work for social investors.