SOCIAL ENTERPRISE IN EDINBURGH: PEOPLE, PROFIT AND PLACE

Transcription

1 SOCIAL ENTERPRISE IN EDINBURGH: PEOPLE, PROFIT AND PLACE

2 Introduction Edinburgh is a leading centre for social enterprise and home to some high profile organisations in the sector. With over 70 members, Edinburgh also has the largest local social enterprise network in Scotland. The sector in the city is incredibly diverse, delivering over 30 different products and services and a broad range of social and environmental outcomes. Every year, Edinburgh hosts visits from international delegations keen to learn from our social enterprises. Although the city is well known in this regard, there has, to date, been no reliable data on the size and impact of the sector. Previous surveys of social enterprises had relatively low response rates and consequently generated conflicting figures, making it difficult to paint an accurate portrait of the size and impact of the sector in Edinburgh.

3 This report, which was funded by the City of Edinburgh Council and undertaken by Edinburgh Social Enterprise Network aims to paint the most detailed picture yet of social enterprises in Edinburgh. The report places the size of the sector in Edinburgh conservatively at 120 social enterprises, of which 87 are in regular contact with ESEN and 72 are members. In total, 44 social enterprises responded to this survey and this data has been used to extrapolate figures for 120 organisations. Edinburgh Furniture Initiative Front cover: Out of the Blue

4 Key findings The size of the social enterprise sector in Edinburgh is conservatively estimated at 120 organisations. The sector generates 44 million a year, equating to almost 90 for every person living in Edinburgh. Over half of social enterprises work beyond Edinburgh and a small number of organisations have a reach beyond Scotland. Over 4,400 people are involved in the running of social enterprises in the city, of which 460 are full time equivalent staff, 865 are trainees and over 3,000 are volunteers. 74% of the sector s income is generated from trading. Almost two thirds of organisations generate at least half of their income through trading. Consumers are the largest target market for Edinburgh, followed by the third sector and the corporate sector. 40% of social enterprises operate as trading arms or projects of larger organisations.

5 Edinburgh Markets 44 million a year generated by the sector

6 EDINBURGH Social Enterprise Network Edinburgh Social Enterprise Network Edinburgh Social Enterprise Network (ESEN) is the membership network for social enterprises in Edinburgh and a partner in Edinburgh s Third Sector Interface. Established in 2005, the network now has 72 members and has engaged with a further 50 Edinburgh social enterprises. ESEN provides a range of services to social enterprises including: business support, networking, information and signposting, promotion and representation. ESEN is funded to deliver these services through the Edinburgh Third Sector Interface. ESEN uses the definition of social enterprise set out in the Social Enterprise Code, which can be found at: Edinburgh Furniture Initiative

7 Social Enterprises in Edinburgh Sanjog Cafe Edinburgh has a thriving social enterprise sector and is recognised as a leading centre for social enterprise in the UK. The sector in Edinburgh is hugely diverse with social enterprises selling at least 30 different products and services, ranging from web design and art through to cafes and repair classes. Social enterprises in Edinburgh address a broad range of social and environmental issues. The positive impacts they create include: alleviating homelessness; creating opportunities for people with disabilities, young people and older people; engagement in the arts; reuse and recycling; promotion of health and wellbeing; ethnic inclusion; the creation of employment opportunities; social innovation and the provision of housing.

8 Edinburgh Compact The Edinburgh Compact brings the TSI partners together with public sector partners in the city. It is part of the family of strategic partnerships that sit under the city s Community Planning partnership, which is known as the Edinburgh Partnership. Edinburgh s Third Sector Interface The Edinburgh Third Sector Interface (TSI) provides support to the wider third sector and volunteers in the city. It is funded by the Scottish Government and is a collaboration between ESEN, Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations Council (EVOC) and the Volunteer Centre Edinburgh. By working together in collaboration, the partners aim to build and enable resilient, sustainable and inclusive communities in Edinburgh. Each local authority area in Scotland has a TSI that is responsible for supporting voluntary organisations, volunteering and social enterprises. CHWB

9 Social Enterprise Strategy for Edinburgh In 2005, Edinburgh was one of the first cities in the UK to create a dedicated social enterprise strategy. This year, work began on the city s third Social Enterprise Strategy which will run from 2013 to The strategy is being developed by a Steering Group which works under the auspices of the Edinburgh Compact. It has identified eight key themes that will support the sector to thrive in Edinburgh. They are: business support, enterprise education, governance and leadership, engaging with the business sector and consumers, finance, procurement, mapping of the sector and use of public buildings. My Adventure

10 The Engine Shed Edinburgh: economic context 15, 740 registered enterprises were identified in Edinburgh in March 2010 and they employed 240,040 FTE and had a combined turn-over of 21,849 million (a). While 90% of all registered businesses in the city employ fewer than 50 people, much larger enterprises (250 plus), which represent only 6% of these enterprises, account for 63% of total employment in the city. The structure of the Edinburgh economy is heavily weighted towards a number of sectors. In particular: Financial services and business services together account for 43% of all enterprises in the city. Retail, wholesale, hotels, and catering activities together account for 26% In addition to these sectors, the city also shows a higher than average proportion of enterprises engaged in education, health and other personal and communications activities.

11 The size of Edinburgh s social enterprise sector This study places the size of the social enterprise sector in Edinburgh at 120 organisations, which is a conservative estimate. This is based on the number of organisations that have engaged with ESEN s services in some way. Edinburgh Markets It is highly likely that there are more, as yet unidentified, social enterprises operating in Edinburgh. A recent survey in Glasgow (b), which used a different methodology and a broader definition of social enterprise, identified over 500 social enterprises in the city. The survey, which was conducted by the Glasgow Social Enterprise Network and the Social Value Lab, used publicly available information from OSCR, Companies House and other online sources to identify potential social enterprises. This generated a figure of 700 potential social enterprises, which were then screened and refined to produce a list of 509 verified social enterprises.

12 Methodology The data on which this report is based was collected in February and March A survey was set up using the SurveyMonkey online tool and the link was ed to the 87 social enterprises that ESEN is in regular contact with. Those organisations that had not completed the survey by the beginning of March were contacted by phone and reminded about the survey. They were also given the option of completing the survey over the telephone. Organisations were asked to provide data that related only to their socially enterprising activity in Edinburgh. Data from one respondent, which represented activity in the whole of Scotland, was removed to avoid skewing the data. By the end of March 2013, 44 organisations had completed the survey. Where appropriate, the data has been extrapolated to project figures for the impact of 120 social enterprises. The extrapolation was based on the fairly conservative assumption that organisations not responding to the survey were 50% as large as those that did.

13 Organisational structure Organisations were asked if their social enterprise was a stand-alone business or part of another organisation. The scale of the social enterprise sector in Edinburgh Of the 44 respondents; 60% stated that their whole organisation was a social enterprise, see Figure 1. Of the remaining 40% of organisations, there was a 50:50 split between those that ran their social enterprise through a trading arm and those that ran their social enterprise as a project of larger organisation without a separate legal structure. Social enterprise is a project of a larger organisation Social enterprise is a trading arm Whole organisation is a social enterprise Figure 1: social enterprise structures Number of organisations Out of the Blue References: (a) Scottish Corporate Statistics 2010 (b) Social Enterprise in Glasgow: Scale as well as substance 2013

14 Legal structures Organisations were asked to describe their legal structure. In total, there were seven different structures used by respondents, with Company with Charitable Status; Registered Charity and Company Ltd by Guarantee being the most popular options, see Figure 2. Community Interest Companies and Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations (SCIOs) are relatively new legal structures, so their popularity may grow in future. Community Interest Company ( CIC ) 2 Company limited by guarantee 9 Size and reach of sector Company with charitable status Co-op Charity Scottish Charitable Incoporated Organisation Unincorporated association Number of organisations Figure 2: social enterprise legal structure Organisations were asked where they delivered their products and services. 42 organisations responded to this question, and as can be seen from Figure 3, fifteen, or a little over a third of respondents, work solely in Edinburgh. Over half of organisations work beyond Edinburgh, but within Scotland, and a small number of organisations have a reach beyond Scotland. The broad geographical reach of many Edinburgh social enterprises is good news for the city, as these organisations will be bringing jobs and money into the city. 5 Local within Edinburgh 6 Lothians 10 Scotland 2 Europe 10 All Edinburgh 6 Regional in Scotland 2 United Kingdom 1 World Figure 3: areas covered by social enterprises

15 The sector s people Respondents were asked to provide information on the number of people involved in running their social enterprise, namely full-time equivalent (FTE) staff, trainees and volunteers. 37 organisations provided figures, which are summarised in Table 1. In total, there are 460 FTE jobs in the Edinburgh sector and, in total; over 4,400 people are involved in the running of social enterprises in the city; over 80% of whom do so in a voluntary capacity. The sector s people 37 orgs 120 orgs FTE staff Volunteers excl. board Volunteers - board Trainees in a year Total Table 1: people involved in running Edinburgh social enterprises Financial turnover Organisations were asked to provide their social enterprise turnover for 2011/12 and their anticipated turnover for 2012/ organisations provided data for 2011/12 and 37 for 2012/13, see Table 2. My Adventure

16 Financial turnover Turnover Organisations 2,500, ,000,000-2,500, ,000-1,000, , , , , , , ,000-50, ,000 4 Figure 4: Turnover bands of Edinburgh social enteprise The data has been extrapolated to get a figure for 120 social enterprises on the basis that the organisations that did not respond to the survey are, on average, half the size of those that did. This gives an extrapolated turnover for the sector of around 44 million for both years, see Table 2, equating to almost 90 for every person living in Edinburgh. 2011/ /13 Number of orgs responding Turnover ( ) 19,424,000 21,092,000 Extrapolated turnover 43,989,000 44,749,000 Average turnover 367, ,000 Table 2: Turnover of Edinburgh social enterprises Using the extrapolated figures, the average turnover for an Edinburgh social enterprise is 367,000 in 2011/12 and 373,000 in 2012/13. The responses to the 2011/12 question about turnover have been analysed to assess the range of organisations in terms of 1,000s of turnover. Re-Union Figure 4 shows that there is a broad range of social enterprise size in terms of financial turnover. The median turnover in 2011/12 was 96,000 and in 2012/13 it was 110,000.

17 Income from trading Organisations were asked to provide information on the proportion of their income that comes from trading as opposed to grants. 30 organisations responded to this question. Income from trading There was a broad range of responses in terms of the amount of income generated through trading, although Figure 5 shows that there were more organisations at the top end of the trading scale. In total, 64%, or almost two thirds of organisations were generating at least half of their income from trading. When all of the responses were aggregated and combined with the turnover of responding organisations, the total percentage of income from trading within the sector was 74% or around 33 million. social nterprise 0-20% income from trading % income from trading % income from trading % income from trading % income from trading 12 Figure 5: Social enterprises by trading income bands

18 Markets ESEN s online directory, which can be found on its web site, shows that the sector delivers a very broad range of products. ESEN members alone deliver 30 different types of product and service. In order to find out more about the shape of the market for Edinburgh social enterprises, respondents were asked to provide information on where they sell their products to. They were asked to define both their primary (target) market and all of the markets they sold into. In total, 39 organisations responded to this question. 16 organisations, or 41% of respondents, stated that their primary market was consumers. The next largest primarily markets are the third sector and the corporate sector with 15% of the share each. 13% of respondents identified Councils as their primary market. Interestingly, as can be seen in Figure 6, other third sector is the largest non-primary market. 19 organisations sell to social enterprises and 23 to other third sector organisations, indicating that the wider third sector is opting to buy from social enterprises. Organisations were asked if they had a relationship with the City of Edinburgh Council or other local authorities, either as a supplier or some other type of arrangement. As can be seen from Figure 7, by far the most common arrangement is the ad hoc buying of goods and services from social enterprises. Rather than delivering public services through contracts and Service Level Agreements (SLAs), it seems likely that social enterprises are selling the same type of products to the public sector that they would sell to businesses or consumers.

19 Markets Other third sector Social enterprises Other public sector 2 18 NHS 1 11 Councils 5 19 Our primary market One of our markets Figure 6: Edinburgh social enterprise markets Corporate sector Members of the public

20 Unsubsidised use of Council buildings 1 2 Subsidised use of Council buildings 1 1 Council buys on an ad hoc basis 5 8 Receive a Council grant 1 3 Deliver a Council Service Level Agreement 3 3 Deliver a Council contract Other councils City of Edinburgh Council 2 3 Figure 7: Relationships with Councils Relationships with Councils

21 Conclusion This report provides the most detailed picture to date of the size and impact of the social enterprise sector in Edinburgh. It paints a picture of a sector that is based in, but that often works beyond the city; that has a sizeable turnover, the majority of which is earned through trading; that markets its products and services primarily to consumers and that involves over 4,000 people in its running. The 2013 report provides a baseline that will be used to measure the development of the sector in terms of size and impact. Conclusion Crescent Kitchen The Broomhouse Centre

22 June 2013 The Social Enterprise Academy Published by: Edinburgh Social Enterprise Network ESEN, 54 Manor Place, Edinburgh, EH3 7EH t: e: w: Design by With People CIC Edinburgh Social Enterprise Network exists to promote, support and develop a strong, vibrant social enterprise network