A couple of initiatives have caught our eye over the last week – both of which have a focus very much on the development, support and promotion of the role of women in enterprise in Scotland. The first – a collaboration between DTA Scotland and Women’s Enterprise Scotland – will focus on developing enterprise skills and encourage business start-up ideas amongst women in rural areas – already it’s over-subscribed! The second – a joint initiative between Young Enterprise Scotland (YES) and Royal Bank of Scotland – the #FemaleBoss Programme – is designed to encourage and inspire more women to set up their own businesses. Female-led businesses already contribute almost £9bn to the Scottish economy

You will see from this month’s newsletter that there are lots of learning and knowledge exchange opportunities coming up next month across a wide range of health and wellbeing related issues. Some of the requests received from SEN members so far for future sessions include community food & employability, re-opening community cafes, collaborating for mental health, understanding mental health recovery and how to link in with community led aspects of community planning.

Most readers will be aware that SENScot, in its current format, is the result of a recent merger of ‘old’ Senscot and Social Firms Scotland – which took place in July 2020. SENScot’s Director, Pauline Gordon, is one of the speakers at a SCVO Webinar on 5th March – Covid – the Age of Charity Mergers: In light of the strains being put upon the sector as a result of the current pandemic, mergers may well be a route that many organisations may consider or feel compelled to consider to ensure the survival of their services.

We held a fantastically well attended session yesterday on NOLB, with speakers from Government alongside members’ input and experiences.  We are producing a report for Government to explore how social enterprises can play their full part in the delivery of NOLB, to support people furthest from the labour market.  Please let us know if you have any thoughts, and ideas you’d like to contribute including

Scottish court decision last week could have significant implications for social enterprises in applying for charitable status. The New Lanark Trust’s application for charitable status for its two trading subsidiaries was refused, in 2018, by OSCR – on the grounds that the subsidiaries’ activities were “not in furtherance of charitable purposes and…… did not meet the public benefit element of the charity test”. 

Welcome to the February newsletter.  I hope that you are all well and managing to find some positive moments during these strange months.  I’ve been out exploring our local woods and came across this old pool house with a beautiful floor hidden below a deep carpet of dead leaves.

Last week, we featured the publication of the Social Renewal Advisory Board (SRAB) Report on its findings following a consultation process that ran from last September until this January. The Report – If Not Now, When? –  identified three priority areas: Money and Work; People, Rights and Advancing Equality; and Communities and Collective Endeavour – setting out 20 Calls to Action

Welcome to 2021 (I know we are a month in, but I think we should discount January and start again).  It feels like we’ve all been struggling to think of ways to optimistically welcome the New Year, and I think the most appropriate email greeting I received upon returning to work after the holidays was ‘Happy New Lockdown’.