• Text Size
  • Contrast

Principles met

  • Co-production

    We will develop systems that enable citizens to be equal partners in designing and commissioning public services and in determining the use of public resources.

  • Enterprise and social economy

    We will promote community-based approaches to economic development that focus on supporting the creation of jobs, social enterprises and other businesses and providing an environment for co-operative and mutual enterprises to thrive.

  • Innovation

    We will embrace innovation in how we work with local communities to drive positive change.

  • Learning

    We will capture and ‘expand’ the experience and learning from individual projects and approaches in order to encourage broader application of co-operative principles within individual member Councils and across the Network.

  • Maximising social value

    We will support the development of a framework and criteria for social value, giving substance to the concept and supporting Councils with the tools to ensure better local social and economic outcomes.

  • New models of meeting priority needs

    In exploring new ways of meeting the priority needs of our communities we will encourage models, such as co-operatives and mutuals, which give greater influence and voice to staff and users. in designing and commissioning public services and in determining the use of public resources.

Over a number of years Oxford City Council’s Economic Development Team have developed strong working relationships with a number of local partners and has worked collaboratively to address the opportunities, gaps and needs of the social economy support sector as a whole.

The council took a decision to invest £35,100 of its UKSPF allocation to extend and strengthen the work of these local partners, to help deliver a number of outputs and outcomes identified in its UKSPF investment plan, including:

  • Social and local businesses receiving non-financial support
  • potential entrepreneurs supported to be business ready
  • training sessions for community ambassadors
  • support socially excluded people accessing support

Why was a grant used?

Rather than follow a competitive procurement approach for contracting these services, the council took a decision to direct award the funding as a grant to a coalition of local partners and co-develop the scope of services through a transparent and open dialogue.

The question of value for money was addressed by fixing the amount of funding available, and working in dialogue with partners to estimate the outputs and outcomes that were achievable, then ensuring that the input costs represented fair compensation, based on local and national market rates.

As asset-locked social enterprises coming together to work for a shared purpose, there was no commercial, ‘profit- making’ incentive for partners to overstate costs or narrowly target performance at the expense of quality – any surplus generated would be put towards increasing the delivery of outcomes within the available financial envelope. This impact has been further extended by the fact that partners were able to contribute significant match funding/ resources to the partnership.

By removing the competitive process and direct awarding the funding, the council was able to co-develop the programme of activity, without undermining the intention of partners to work together to further their shared aims. It was felt that a competitive procurement approach which put partners in competition for a limited amount of funding would be less conducive to the strategic goal of building a thriving and interconnected connected local support system.

The service design approach was heavily influenced by Power to Change’s lessons on growing the Social Economy; as well as research by Refugee Resource in Oxford, which found that entrepreneurs from global majority backgrounds are less likely to access mainstream business development support offers, and the findings of the Owned by Oxford Report. These sources all emphasise the importance of support that is tailored, local, and delivered through trusted relationships, as well as the (social) value of collaboration across different elements of the system.

The joint initiative was guided by a set of comprehensive aims and objectives designed to bolster Oxford’s social economy and foster positive impacts on the local economy, society, and environment.

For further Information contact:

Back to Case Studies