Our Interests: Social Economy (Third Sector)

Both John Scott and Andrew Fyfe have a long history of working in the Third Sector – both were directors of community-based housing associations.  And both promoted the creation of local community businesses and development trusts.

Supporting the Social Economy

We have contributed to policy on the social economy.  We undertook research on the perceptions of the social economy among the public and voluntary sectors in Scotland.  This was done in 2005 to provide a baseline and then again in 2008 to monitor change.  We also ran a series of focus groups in different parts of Scotland to gather views on the social enterprise strategy.

We have supported social economy organisations to measure their wider impact – for example working with 14 organisations in Dumfries and Galloway we developed a toolkit to allow them to demonstrate the social, economic and environmental impact of their work.  We worked with a social economy organisation in Lanarkshire to establish its Social Return on Investment.

We have reviewed the support available to social economy organisations in Argyll and Bute, Dumfries and Galloway and Dunbartonshire.  And we carried out a mapping exercise of social economy organisations in Perth and Kinross.

We have also given intensive support to a large number of social economy organisations – for example to five organisations in Pollokshields and Govanhill which were focused on the needs of the multi-racial community in these areas.