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As part of its Big Society agenda the Government wants to restructure public services and increase the involvement of charities, social enterprises, mutuals and voluntary organisations. The NHS White Paper Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS published in July 2010 state that the Government aims to create the largest social enterprise sector in the world.

 

Since then, the Government has also published the Modernising Commissioning Green Paper and Making Quality Your Business: A Guide to the Right to Provide.

Our corporate commercial team are currently working with clients on the development of a range of social enterprises including:

• community health services for local people
• health and care services for people with mental health needs and learning disabilities
• personal care services for people needing help and support
• primary care services delivered by GPs
• health and well-being services for the community
• multi-agency one-stop shop for homeless people

Social enterprise is a core part of our business.  We have an established social enterprise and not-for-profit practice and reputation, and we are committed to continuing to develop our services to meet the changing needs of the sector.  We have a dedicated national team across the firm’s four offices in London, Manchester, Harrogate and Newcastle. Many of our lawyers have dual qualifications making them uniquely placed to understand the complexities of working in health and social care. 

Please contact Christian Dingwall, Ian Hempseed or Jamie Foster to discuss how we can help you to set up and develop a social enterprise for health and social care.

Our commitment to the social enterprise sector

Supporting the CIC Regulator

We have recently presented a series of workshops with the CIC Regulator on legal options for social enterprise.

NHS Right to Request and Right to Provide

Hempsons has supported and continues to support a range of existing social enterprises and public sector staff groups considering establishing themselves as social enterprises. We have been involved in advising 14 of the potential social enterprises in the Right to Request programme. To date, seven of these have successfully completed and are operational, with a further 4 due to complete imminently.

Healthy Business: A Guide to Social Enterprise in Health and Social Care

We co-authored, with the Social Enterprise Coalition, Healthy Business - a guide to social enterprise in health and social care.  The report launched by the Secretary of State for Health in March 2007 and now in its second edition, looks at the scope for scope for social enterprises to be health and social care providers.

Mutuals Information Hotline

We have been appointed to the Cabinet Office’s Mutuals Information Service’s hotline to give legal advice on setting up public service mutuals.

NCVO Toolkit

We developed with the NCVO – Trading: Choosing the right legal form - a toolkit to assist trading organisations to decide on the legal structure appropriate for them.

SCA Institute of Social Enterprise

We supported the development and programme of the SCA Institute of Social Enterprise as a founding sponsor and partner.

Department of Health Social Enterprise Unit

We have had a number of secondees to the unit enabling us to be fully up to speed with the latest developments.

Networking and Developmental Thinking

We keep up to speed with change and influences within the sector, often acting as thought leaders on innovative developments. We operate at research and policy level with sector bodies and clients and are members of ACEVO, the Social Enterprise Coalition, Social Enterprise London, Social Enterprise Yorkshire and Humber, the Charity Finance Directors Group and the Executive Committee of Charity Law Association.

Seminar programmes

We look after our clients with a comprehensive and can-do service line approach across a full range of legal services. To support this, we offer a free seminar programme for the sector plus regular newsletters and updates on changes in the law.

How we can help

• Social Enterprise Case Studies

For more information on how we can help you, please speak to one of our key contacts for this specialist area.