Fraser Kelly: Scotland has a long history of community strength

SOME people may not know that Scotland is leading the way in the world of social enterprise.

Social Enterprise Scotland recently organised the world’s biggest social enterprise event, which took place at the SECC in Glasgow. It was a perfect opportunity to showcase the success stories from around Scotland and demonstrate what we are doing to transform communities.

But what exactly do we mean by social enterprise?

It simply means those businesses that have a specific social or environmental mission. They make profit and they like making profit, but the thing that they exist for is the social aim.

It’s the reason they get out of bed, it’s what they’re passionate about. This isn’t to be confused with charities or with those businesses, however important, that are simply “ethical” or do good things in their communities as part of their corporate social responsibility activities.

Large and small and operating in every part of Scotland, social enterprise delivers in social care, employability support, credit unions, housing associations, development trusts and co-operatives.

All very diverse, but all sharing the same aim – social or environmental change in society – is their core purpose for existing.

But why is Scotland different? We have a long history of communities coming together to change society, from the historical co-operative movement in the Highlands, to modern-day cities tackling entrenched poverty and regeneration and to islands taking control of their own destinies.

This is driven by a strong culture of mutual support from within social enterprise as well as from government. Crucially we now have support from all political parties. This makes a big difference, both on the ground in practical terms and as a motivating factor for social entrepreneurs.

The challenge now is to focus on key policy issues – welfare reform, personalisation, youth employment etc – areas where the infrastructure, skills, knowledge, experience and local accountability of social enterprise is a crucial part of the equation.

• Fraser Kelly is chief executive of Social Enterprise Scotland.