The launch of 'Inspire2Enterprise', a new social enterprise
support service, has been accompanied by a promise from its
founders to tackle regional economic pressures by helping start-up
and existing enterprises that want to benefit society.
Inspire2Enterprise is a partnership between The University of
Northampton and Exemplas. It offers social enterprises a
free-to-access information, organisational review and advice
service. Additional (chargeable) services include legal and
financial advice, and research services (including market
intelligence and support with tenders).
The service - which is now live and can be contacted Monday to
Friday (8:30am to 5:30pm) on 0844 9800 760 /
info@inspire2enterprise.org - is currently covering Hertfordshire,
Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and
Northamptonshire. Inspire2Enterprise will eventually roll out to
provide cover nationally by June 2012.
Inspire2Enterprise will provide the support needs for a variety
of clients, including start-up and established social enterprises,
and will also work with the public sector and its employees to
achieve spin-out enterprises, and larger organisations with
Corporate Social Responsibility objectives.
Social enterprises trade in the market with a social purpose and
use business practice to achieve social aims. Government data*
estimates there are around 62,000 social enterprises in the UK
contributing £24 billion to the economy. Social enterprises
employ 800,000 people and, despite the recession, are twice as
confident of future growth as typical small to medium enterprises
(SMEs).
Professor Nick Petford, Vice Chancellor of The University of
Northampton, commented: "We want to improve the economic, social
and cultural life of our region and as such have set ourselves the
target of becoming the leading higher education institution in
social enterprise by 2015. There has never been a greater need for
this kind of support service given increasing pressures on public
services in the current economic climate."
John Collier, Chief Executive of Exemplas, adds: "We are
delighted to be working with The University of Northampton on this
new initiative. We have great experience of supporting small and
medium sized enterprises as well as delivering specialist support
to the social enterprise sector. By collaborating with the
University we can bring considerable knowledge and expertise to
this rapidly growing sector.