Coalition manifesto to call for sector jobless programme

Social enterprises should help get more people off the dole and into work through an extension of the government's £1bn Future Jobs Fund, according to the Social Enterprise Coalition.

The proposal is likely to be included in the Social Enterprise Coalition (SEC) manifesto due to be released in a fortnight.

The manifesto will call for social enterprises, which currently contribute 1 per cent of the UK's GDP, to contribute 3 per cent by 2020.

Senior policy officer at SEC Ceri Jones said more 'flexible and innovative' welfare to work policies, as demonstrated by the Future Jobs Fund, is one of the policy

initiatives that could help social enterprises achieve this target.

Under the Future Jobs Fund, which started in August last year, enterprises in Great Britain can apply for funding to employ people in 150,000 socially useful jobs for 25 hours a week for six months. Social enterprises have used the funding to launch new projects or to help fund expansion - with the idea being that many of these placements will become sustainable jobs.

'It's very hard to say whether the Future Jobs Fund has been a success as yet because there hasn't been an evaluation of the programme,' said Jones after Social Enterprise was given a taster of what was to come in the manifesto.

'But I know some social enterprises are doing amazing things using the programme, and the flexible, locally-led way it has been delivered has been great for social enterprises to come up with more innovative solutions.

'When you have unemployment at 2.5 million and the economy still in a potentially very fragile position then social enterprises have a role to play in a range of locally tailored, more innovative solutions and at the moment, other than Future Jobs Fund, most of the welfare to work programmes don't take that into account.'

The manifesto will also call for:

• Existing tax incentives to be changed so that those who invest in social enterprises, as opposed to traditional enterprises, will receive more tax relief
• Support for the creation of social enterprises at both a national and local level where public services are failing or underachieving
• Community-owned buildings to be planned into new developments and more support for communities looking to acquire land and buildings
• Better reporting and statistics on the social enterprise sector to be gathered by government
• More simplified procurement processes and contracts that support the delivery of social and environmental benefits.

The Social Enterprise Coalition's annual conference Voice10 is taking place in Cardiff this afternoon and tomorrow. Social Enterprise will be reporting and tweeting (search for #voice10) live from the event.