Public sector support for growth and sustainability in social enterprise activity

A report on how the public sector can support growth and sustainability in social enterprise activity based on a Fellowship study tour in the US, Canda and the UK by a Churchill Fellow.

This Fellowship study tour explored how government can support the growth and sustainabiliy of social enterprise activity, and the associated practice of social impact assessment. Study visits with over 40 organisations contributed ot the learnings presented in this report. Around two-thirds of these were based in the UK, as the practice of public sector support for social enterprise development is most developed there, and six US and seven Canadian organisations visited also provided relevant and interesting insights into the North-American context.

The learnings from this tour which are contained in this report range across tactical, strategic and conceptual issues in the field. They have led to the development of a number of initial conclusions. Specific recommendations for key public sector involvement in Australia are presented, and are focused on four key themes:

• supporting social enterprise and social entrepreneur development;
• increasing access to assets and capital;
• implementing outcomes-based commissioning approaches; and
• supporting and stimulating a focus on outcomes and impacts.