E3M Imagine event: discussing social economy models and the future of our public services

On 7 May, we had the pleasure of once again collaborating with our core strategic partner E3M in our annual ‘Imagine’ event, this year with the theme of ‘Social Economy Models for the Future of Public Services’.

The event was held at the People’s History Museum in Manchester, and was preceded on the evening of 6 May by a reception featuring an inspiring talk from the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, who shared his plan to, over the next ten years, create “a less extractive circular economy, where the growth that we’re creating stays within and is felt within our communities”. He spoke of the Greater Manchester Live Well network and invited the audience to consider it as food for thought, to be discussed at the main event the following day. The vision for this network is to “deliver a whole new approach to thinking about public services, away from the competition and the out-sourcing of the past and towards a network approach from the bottom-up, with the organisations we trust and we know in our communities, moving towards long-term, sustained, continuous funding.”

This introduced the themes of the event – public value-driven, multi-sector, multi-stakeholder collaborative approaches to public service transformation.

The day began with a welcome from Julian Blake of Stone King and presentations from several influential people from a range of backgrounds and specialisms. Kicking off the talks was another locally familiar face: Paul Dennett, Mayor of Salford and Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester. Paul spoke of the commitment of Salford City Council to the role of social enterprise in public services, recognising the determination of the people in Manchester to learn and grow, while lamenting the fact that public services are currently not fit for the purpose of helping them achieve this. He asserted that this needs to change, as “inequality is not just bad for the society, it is bad for health”, and detailed a few of the ways in which the council is already enacting this, for example, £10 million in spending is being mapped out to be re-directed to social enterprises and co-operatives.

Rose Marley, CEO at Co-operatives UK, an organisation dedicated to supporting the nation’s co-operatives, covered how their work can be embedded into the public sector to bring about a greater social good. Sandra Hamilton, who is a Public Benefit Consultant here at Stone King, also spoke, exploring the public sector and transformation consultancy, including the importance of utilising social value models.

The day’s discussions centered around practical, actionable ideas to enact change within the complexities of personal and social needs in socio-economic environments, including a presentation from Matt Hardwick, Senior Risk Consultant at Zurich Insurance, on a positive, facilitating, and balanced approach to risk.  

The value of long-term investment in social enterprises was illustrated in a talk from Anna de Silva, CEO of charity Northern Roots, the UK’s largest urban park and farm that works to improve sustainability and support local communities. Following Anna was Joe Prendiville, Innovation Director at AllChild, a charity that works in partnership with schools in some of the most under-served areas of the UK to provide support and opportunities to children that they would otherwise be unlikely to receive.

Throughout the day there were table discussions led by local authorities and social enterprises on specific public service challenges and relating to children’s services, health, local growth, older people, skills and employment, social care, and the development of specific collaborative methodologies, focused on understanding and seriously addressing real complex needs. Bringing together the perspectives of commissioners, social enterprise leaders and funders, the participants in these table sessions shared experience and learning, helped to develop new ideas, and established new contacts to support the  implementation of new approaches. Feeback from last year’s event showed how valuable this can be and we look forward to seeing what comes forward as a result of Imagine 2025.