Dear ,

Happy New Year! We wish to extend our best wishes – from the Board and staff at SENScot - to everyone across the sector for the year ahead and hope that the challenges we have all faced as a result of the pandemic will begin to ease as the months go by. Regular readers will know that the last newsletter of the year reflects on the year gone by – and the first newsletter of the year, naturally, has a focus on what lies ahead. Clearly the overriding wish for everyone is that the difficulties encountered by so many over the last 20 months genuinely start to ease and that we may all begin to return to more settled times. As and when we do so, we are in little doubt that the social enterprise community in Scotland will continue to build on its achievements to date in making its contribution in supporting communities across the country. Many of the national initiatives during the year ahead will be directly related to the SE Action Plan – such as the 2021 SE Census; the ongoing Just Enterprise Programme; and the Social Enterprise Academy’s Schools Programme. Other initiatives that can help/benefit frontline organisations will include another Pockets and Prospects Programme; SIS and Zero Waste Scotland’s £5M Net Zero Transition Fund; the Community Learning Exchange Programme; and the second round of Scottish Govt’s Investing in Communities Fund. For SENScot itself, the year ahead is going to be of considerable significance as Scottish Govt begins to action its commitment to supporting a ‘Single National Intermediary’. A decision is expected by the end of January – with the new body coming into effect from July 2022. Irrespective of the outcome of this decision, SENScot sincerely hopes this ‘single entity’ will not only build on the significant achievements of the sector over the last two decades – but also that it will bring a fresh dynamic to the national infrastructure based on a genuinely collaborative and inclusive approach - and act in the best interests of the sector in its widest sense.

In December, we published the Pockets & Prospects (P&P) Summary Report 2021. The 2021 Project was run in partnership with CHEX and Scottish Communities for Health & Wellbeing – and saw 15 community organisations from across Scotland purchase services from over 50 social enterprises and reaching over 800 participants – all with a focus on addressing mental health and wellbeing. Planning for the 2022 Programme is well underway and SENScot is specifically inviting interest from Sport SEN members. Interested participants will have access to an allocation of £1000 to spend on a wide range of activities and services that aim to improve mental health and wellbeing. To note your interest in participating and/or for more information, please email mary@senscot.net by 5pm on Wednesday 12th January 2022. NB: All project activity must take place by the end of May 2022.

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Still on the thme of sport, SENScot and sportscotland have jointly produced this recent briefing paper – Social Enterprise and Sport in Scotland – which builds on the back of a decade of sportscotland’s support for the Sport SEN. This partnership has had a shared vision of raising awareness of social enterprise, of promoting a deeper understanding of the contribution that sport and physical activity can bring to wider priorities and of increasing the capacity and capability for collaborative working practices between sport and other sectors. The briefing paper seeks to highlight these activities in communities across the country.

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This newsletter has commented on a number of occasions that one of the most significant and enduring initiatives of the last decade has been the Social Academy’s Schools Programme. This week, Academy CEO. Neil McLean wrote this article in the Scotsman newspaper on the impact of the current Schools Programme and the Academy’s vision for its future. Also, over the festive period, the Academy website carried a blog from former Chair, Graham Bell, that reflected on his 12 years as a trustee and his hopes for the future of social enterprise boards in Scotland. One of Graham’s key point is his belief that people from the sector being representation on boards only serves to strengthen the sector: “They are the guardians of the cause and ensure it remains for the ‘common good’.”

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The sector has received much praise over the last year or so in the way in which it has responded to the impact of the pandemic – and how it has supported the local communities in which they work. Over the festive period, Dundee SEN CEO, Fergus Storrier took the opportunity to hail the work of Dundee SEN members in this Daily Record article. He highlights how members came to the fore during the first and second lockdowns to address issues around mental health and wellbeing. He refers to them as the ‘hidden heroes’ – not looking for publicity – just looking to serve their community. Whilst Fergus was referring, in the main, to the 80-strong Dundee SEN membership, the same could certainly be said for so many other locally-based social enterprises the length and breadth of the country.

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Although it won’t have the same significance as it would have pre-Brexit, readers may well be interested in the Social Economy Action Plan that was published by the European Commission last month. In fairness, the core actions/initiatives are not dissimilar to our own SE Strategy and supporting Action Plans.

Still in Dundee, the second round of the Dundee TSI Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund closes for applications on Monday 17th January – with applications being assessed the following Monday – 24th January. Over £400k in funding is available to local organisations to help boost initiatives that ‘develop a culture of mental health well-being across Tayside’.

Significant news for DTA Scotland member, The Cabrach Trust, with the announcement last month that it has been successful in attracting over £3m in investment to develop its plans for the Cabrach Distillery and Heritage Centre. The initiative will showcase the craft of making Scotland’s national drink while telling the story of the historic Cabrach region. In doing so, it will also bring skilled, permanent employment to the area and attract thousands of visitors every year to one of Scotland’s most remote communities.

In spite of the challenges of the last couple of years, 2021 was also a year of recognition for the great work being carried out by West Lothian SEN member, The Larder. Amongst the accolades were winner of Newcomer of the Year at the Living Wage Awards; a finalist – and Highly Commended – in the Scottish SE Awards; and Founder and CEO, Angela Moohan being nominated as a ‘Local Hero’ at the opening of the 6th session of the Scottish Parliament in October 2021. However, the accolades didn’t stop there. Just prior to Christmas, staff at Edinburgh Airport voted The Larder as its ‘Charity of the Year’ for 2022. Congratulations all round. They’re clearly doing something right over in West Lothian!

A new initiative that may open opportunities for SEN members is the Shaping Places for Wellbeing Programme. The programme – being delivered by the Improvement Service and Public Health Scotland – aims to improve Scotland’s wellbeing through enabling partnership-based action at a local level, to support our most vulnerable and deprived communities. Four communities have, initially, been identified - in Alloa, Ayr, Dunoon and Clydebank – with Project Lead jobs in Ayr and Alloa now being advertised.

Circular Communities Scotland recently announced new funding from the Scottish Govt and Zero Waste Scotland to set up a new Sharing Library and Repair Café Network. They are now looking to recruit a Network Co-ordinator – who will be responsible for setting up the new network from scratch and running it. Closing date is 12 noon on Monday 17th January 2022. See link for more details:

With various SEN meetings scheduled over the coming weeks, we’ll be listing core details – dates, times, guest speakers etc – to keep people up to date with what’s on and when

Wednesday, 12th January 2022 (2pm) - SEN Session on Ending the Need for Foodbanks. Scottish Govt is carrying out a consultation to seek views on their vision and approach to ending the need for food banks and is inviting further suggestions to shape a national plan. The draft national plan sets out what Scottish Govt is currently doing and what more they intend to do, with others, to end the need for food banks as a primary response to food insecurity. See link to sign up:

Wednesday, 22nd January 2022 (10am) – Aberdeenshire Voluntary Action will be hosting its Social Enterprise Forum  - where they will be launching the new Aberdeenshire SEN. Contributions, on the day, will also come from SENScot, Firstport, the Social Enterprise Academy and the BIG Lottery: