INSPIRE project
Encyclopedia
The INSPIRE project is a "development partnership" active within the European Union
's EQUAL Community Initiative
against inequality and discrimination in the labour market. Its focus is on developing processes of "replication
" or "social franchising
", which will make it easier and cheaper to create new social enterprise
s.
INSPIRE, a broad-based partnership in North-East England, aims to put the development of social enterprises onto a more professional footing, by replicating business models that are already proven successes. It is focusing on three growth sectors – the environment
, tourism
and care
– and it is in the care sector that it has made spectacular progress. From its base in Sunderland, Care & Share Associates (CASA) is launching a chain of employee-owned home care companies all over the region. It has aroused a great deal of interest among policy-makers, and has already created 70 new jobs.
The INSPIRE partnership set out to apply a new and more strategic approach to the creation and growth of social enterprises. Its founders felt that in Britain it was traditionally the local authorities
– county or district councils – that had financed support agencies for social enterprises, as part of their effort to support economic development
and counter unemployment
and poverty
. The result was that most support agencies have been relatively small, with maybe three of four staff, and have served a population of maybe a million people. They have mostly adopted a 'bottom-up
' approach – in other words, they have taken their clients' needs and wishes as their starting point. So if a group of people has come through the door with ideas about starting a restaurant
, then the agency would help them to do exactly that – by providing training
, helping develop the business plan
, find finance
and so on.
On the one hand this constitutes an excellent service to the population – and it should be mentioned that these local agencies – usually called co-operative development agency or CDAs – were often the only source of help that was prepared to listen to disadvantaged
groups such as women or black people.
However on the other hand it suffers from two shortcomings. First, this tailored approach is very labour-intensive: each group needs to be supported through what is essentially the same process, but in parallel. Secondly, it can lead to weak businesses: each group is pursuing its own business model, and each group has to start form scratch. There is no accumulation of business knowledge.
Therefore INSPIRE set out to change this by system
atising the business creation process. Its idea was to raise the scientific
level of the social enterprise creation ‘industry’, by giving it a research and development function. The partnership set out to identify promising market niches where social enterprises had a high chance of success, and then to develop businesses to occupy these niches. The result would be not just one new business, but a horizontal cluster
of businesses, which has two desirable results in that it creates more jobs and also means the new businesses can support each other. The project also aims to avoid creating a support organisation that has no stake in the success of the businesses it supports.
This conception fitted well with the regionalisation
of local government that is under way in the UK. The idea needs a certain scale to work well, so the partners approached One North East, the government-appointed regional development agency
(RDA) for the North-East of England, for support. In doing this they were building on the work of the first round of EQUAL, as one of the strands of work under the Social Enterprise Partnership (SEP) was to establish regional support bodies. Out of this grew the North East Social Enterprise Partnership (NESEP), which brings together all the important federal bodies in the sector. Along with NESEP, INSPIRE brings on board other key actors such as the regional branches of Social Firms UK and the Development Trusts Association
as well as a number of local social enterprise development organisations. It thus works by being a very inclusive partnership, although one family – the voluntary sector
– is only peripherally involved.
, following an introduction effected by Sunderland’s Director of Social Services, after he moved to the borough. North Tyneside Home Care Associates was launched in May 2004 and now employs over 30 people. Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Manchester are also in operation, each delivering some 400 hours of care per week. Next, the adjacent borough of South Tyneside
awarded CASA a contract, and negotiations are now under way in several other towns and cities across Northern England, including Darlington
and Sheffield
. A start was made in Middlesbrough
, but this has petered out. Contacts have also been made in Scotland
.
Given the model’s track record and the inexorably growing market, there is interest across the political spectrum. Ms Elliott has been to meet both Prime Minister
Gordon Brown
and David Cameron
, Leader of the opposition Conservative Party
, and has even flown to Hong Kong
to explain how it works. CASA is represented on the group advising the government’s Third Sector Commissioning Taskforce, and its experience has been reflected in a white paper issued by the Department of Health. The Royal College of Nursing
has adapted the idea in the form of the ‘nurse-led social enterprise’, and a group called Viva has been set up as a community interest company
to promote employee ownership in the health sector. On the European scale, regulatory
differences in the care industry mean that it will be more difficult to replicate the idea, but the partners feel that the employee ownership aspects are very transferable.
This steady process of growth through multiplication will be sustained through a central structure. Care & Share Associates (CASA) will keep a 10% shareholding in each new care enterprise it spins off. These will then pay an annual licence fee of around £35,000 (€50,000) plus a small percentage of their turnover
(around 0.25%). Each federated company will also hold shares in CASA, thus ensuring the coherence of the group.
How the social franchise system works
As the franchisor, CASA offers its franchisees:
Experience teaches that one of the most critical steps in getting a new care business up and running is finding a good manager who has experience of home care, and installing them ahead of time. But before that stage can be reached, the necessary partners have to be brought on board. These include the local social services department, the employment services and whichever body is responsible for regeneration in the area concerned. It is estimated that an investment of about £75,000 (€110,000) is sufficient to create around 20 high-quality jobs.
INSPIRE is in the process of setting up a project called Community Renewable Energy (CoRE) to promote local renewable energy
ventures. It believes that renewable energy offers a tremendous opportunity for social enterprises to offer an alternative way of doing things, and to bring a small part of the energy sector under the ownershipof the local community
. Community Energy has elicited a lively public interest, with its network meetings attracting 50 or more people. In Berwick upon Tweed, along with the local Development Trust, INSPIRE is investigating opportunities to build wind farm
s, and companies are being set up to provide biomass
heating and combined heat and power (CHP). It is also working with the Forestry Commission
, Britain's national forestry
organisation, to develop wood
chips as an energy source. Other ideas are to produce biodiesel
from old chip fat, and to market renewable energy certificates (ROCs).
Sustainable transport is another area of INSPIRE's work, and one where transnational learning is taking place. Having taken a look at the car-sharing scheme in Genoa
, it is leading a pilot project to replicate it in North-East England. It started a two-car pilot scheme in Durham
in October 2006, and Newcastle and Darlington are also interested. Using the new legal structure for social enterprises that was introduced in the UK in 2005, the project has founded a Community Interest Company called Option C to promote new car-sharing schemes.
Towards the end of the project, the partnership plans to publish a manual for each sector, plus a portfolio of cases.
is a principle of the EQUAL initiative, and INSPIRE’s transnational partnership is called Sustainable Business Concepts for the Social Economy, although its acronym, SIPS, echoes the process of ‘sharing, identifying, promoting and supporting’ new business ideas. It brings together a second British partnership, Realise, as well as organisations in Germany, Finland, Italy, Lithuania and Poland. SIPS’ work was launched, along with that of INSPIRE, at a conference in Newcastle in November 2005, which established a series of working groups. The second major event took place in Berlin
in September 2006, and was based on the Open Space Technology
, through which participants collaboratively defined their own subject matter and working methods. It also offered a programme of visits to German social enterprises.
Towards the end of 2007 the partners created the European Social Franchising Network (ESFN), which is being constituted as a European Economic Interest Group, to work on the issue of replication at European level.
Particularly with such experienced partners, the single European market means that this transnational collaboration can quickly move from words to deeds. The project intends to contract its Genoese partner WIP (Welfare, Inclusione, Partecipazione) to develop social enterprise in catering
, with a view to bidding to supply school meals in Newcastle.
Discussions have also resulted on setting up a ‘recycling
village’ in the North-East England, an idea that Germany
and Finland
are also aiming to transfer from the USA. Such a village acts as a focus for businesses to be created to process various fraction
s of the waste
stream, and to market their products, which might include for instance salvaged architectural elements, pen
s made from waste paper
or furniture
made from plastic
chips. The village concept aims to overcome the problem of fragment
ed waste collection, enables a higher-tech process to be used, and identifiable products to be marketed.
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
's EQUAL Community Initiative
EQUAL Community Initiative
EQUAL was the ‘Community Initiative’ within the European Social Fund of the European Union. It concerned “transnational co-operation to promote new means of combating all forms of discrimination and inequalities in connection with the labour market”...
against inequality and discrimination in the labour market. Its focus is on developing processes of "replication
Replication
Replication may refer to:Science* Replication is one of the main principles of the scientific method, a.k.a. reproducibility** Replication , the repetition of a test or complete experiment...
" or "social franchising
Social franchising
Social franchising is the application of commercial franchising concepts to achieve socially beneficial ends, rather than profit .-Overview:Social franchising, similar to commercial franchising, is a contractual relationship wherein an independent coordinating organization offers...
", which will make it easier and cheaper to create new social enterprise
Social enterprise
A social enterprise is an organization that applies business strategies to achieving philanthropic goals. Social enterprises can be structured as a for-profit or non-profit....
s.
INSPIRE, a broad-based partnership in North-East England, aims to put the development of social enterprises onto a more professional footing, by replicating business models that are already proven successes. It is focusing on three growth sectors – the environment
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
, tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
and care
Home care
Home Care, , is health care or supportive care provided in the patient's home by healthcare professionals Home Care, (also referred to as domiciliary care or social care), is health care or supportive care provided in the patient's home by healthcare professionals Home Care, (also referred to as...
– and it is in the care sector that it has made spectacular progress. From its base in Sunderland, Care & Share Associates (CASA) is launching a chain of employee-owned home care companies all over the region. It has aroused a great deal of interest among policy-makers, and has already created 70 new jobs.
A new style of social enterprise support
Local government in the United Kingdom
The pattern of local government in England is complex, with the distribution of functions varying according to the local arrangements. Legislation concerning local government in England is decided by the Parliament and Government of the United Kingdom, because England does not have a devolved...
– county or district councils – that had financed support agencies for social enterprises, as part of their effort to support economic development
Economic development
Economic development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health of a specific area...
and counter unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
and poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
. The result was that most support agencies have been relatively small, with maybe three of four staff, and have served a population of maybe a million people. They have mostly adopted a 'bottom-up
Bottom-up
Bottom-up may refer to:* In business development, a bottom-up approach means that the adviser takes the needs and wishes of the would-be entrepreneur as the starting point, rather than a market opportunity ....
' approach – in other words, they have taken their clients' needs and wishes as their starting point. So if a group of people has come through the door with ideas about starting a restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
, then the agency would help them to do exactly that – by providing training
Training
The term training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relate to specific useful competencies. It forms the core of apprenticeships and provides the backbone of content at institutes of...
, helping develop the business plan
Business plan
A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals....
, find finance
Finance
"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...
and so on.
On the one hand this constitutes an excellent service to the population – and it should be mentioned that these local agencies – usually called co-operative development agency or CDAs – were often the only source of help that was prepared to listen to disadvantaged
Disadvantaged
The "disadvantaged" is a generic term for individuals or groups of people who:* Face special problems such as physical or mental disability * Lack money or economic support....
groups such as women or black people.
However on the other hand it suffers from two shortcomings. First, this tailored approach is very labour-intensive: each group needs to be supported through what is essentially the same process, but in parallel. Secondly, it can lead to weak businesses: each group is pursuing its own business model, and each group has to start form scratch. There is no accumulation of business knowledge.
Therefore INSPIRE set out to change this by system
System
System is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole....
atising the business creation process. Its idea was to raise the scientific
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
level of the social enterprise creation ‘industry’, by giving it a research and development function. The partnership set out to identify promising market niches where social enterprises had a high chance of success, and then to develop businesses to occupy these niches. The result would be not just one new business, but a horizontal cluster
Business cluster
A business cluster is a geographic concentration of interconnected businesses, suppliers, and associated institutions in a particular field. Clusters are considered to increase the productivity with which companies can compete, nationally and globally. In urban studies, the term agglomeration is used...
of businesses, which has two desirable results in that it creates more jobs and also means the new businesses can support each other. The project also aims to avoid creating a support organisation that has no stake in the success of the businesses it supports.
This conception fitted well with the regionalisation
Regionalisation
Regionalization is the tendency to form regions, or the process of doing so.Regionalization can be observed in various disciplines:*In geography, it has two ways: the process of delineating the Earth, its small areas or other units into regions and a state of such a delineation.*In globalization...
of local government that is under way in the UK. The idea needs a certain scale to work well, so the partners approached One North East, the government-appointed regional development agency
Regional Development Agency
In the United Kingdom, a regional development agency is a non-departmental public body established for the purpose of development, primarily economic, of one of England's Government Office regions. There is one RDA for each of the NUTS level 1 regions of England...
(RDA) for the North-East of England, for support. In doing this they were building on the work of the first round of EQUAL, as one of the strands of work under the Social Enterprise Partnership (SEP) was to establish regional support bodies. Out of this grew the North East Social Enterprise Partnership (NESEP), which brings together all the important federal bodies in the sector. Along with NESEP, INSPIRE brings on board other key actors such as the regional branches of Social Firms UK and the Development Trusts Association
Development trust
Development Trusts are organisations which operate in the United Kingdom that are:*community based, owned and led*engaged in the economic, environmental and social regeneration of a defined area or community...
as well as a number of local social enterprise development organisations. It thus works by being a very inclusive partnership, although one family – the voluntary sector
Voluntary sector
The voluntary sector or community sector is the sphere of social activity undertaken by organizations that are for non-profit and non-governmental. This sector is also called the third sector, in reference to the public sector and the private sector...
– is only peripherally involved.
Replication: 1.. 2... 4...
As part of its EQUAL project, Inspire has worked with SHCA to set up Care & Share Associates (CASA) as a vehicle to replicate the same model in other towns – work which has so far created 70 new jobs. The first success was just up the coast in North TynesideNorth Tyneside
The Metropolitan Borough of North Tyneside is a metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England and is part of the Tyneside conurbation. Its seat is Wallsend Town Hall....
, following an introduction effected by Sunderland’s Director of Social Services, after he moved to the borough. North Tyneside Home Care Associates was launched in May 2004 and now employs over 30 people. Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Manchester are also in operation, each delivering some 400 hours of care per week. Next, the adjacent borough of South Tyneside
South Tyneside
South Tyneside is a metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear in North East England.It is bordered by four other boroughs - Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead to the west, Sunderland in the south, and North Tyneside to the north. The border county of Northumberland lies further north...
awarded CASA a contract, and negotiations are now under way in several other towns and cities across Northern England, including Darlington
Darlington
Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, part of the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It lies on the small River Skerne, a tributary of the River Tees, not far from the main river. It is the main population centre in the borough, with a population of 97,838 as of 2001...
and Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
. A start was made in Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough is a large town situated on the south bank of the River Tees in north east England, that sits within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire...
, but this has petered out. Contacts have also been made in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
Given the model’s track record and the inexorably growing market, there is interest across the political spectrum. Ms Elliott has been to meet both Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
and David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
, Leader of the opposition Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
, and has even flown to Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
to explain how it works. CASA is represented on the group advising the government’s Third Sector Commissioning Taskforce, and its experience has been reflected in a white paper issued by the Department of Health. The Royal College of Nursing
Royal College of Nursing
The Royal College of Nursing is a union membership organisation with over 395,000 members in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1916, receiving its Royal Charter in 1928, Queen Elizabeth II is the patron...
has adapted the idea in the form of the ‘nurse-led social enterprise’, and a group called Viva has been set up as a community interest company
Community interest company
A community interest company is a new type of company introduced by the United Kingdom government in 2005 under the Companies Act 2004, designed for social enterprises that want to use their profits and assets for the public good...
to promote employee ownership in the health sector. On the European scale, regulatory
Regulation
Regulation is administrative legislation that constitutes or constrains rights and allocates responsibilities. It can be distinguished from primary legislation on the one hand and judge-made law on the other...
differences in the care industry mean that it will be more difficult to replicate the idea, but the partners feel that the employee ownership aspects are very transferable.
This steady process of growth through multiplication will be sustained through a central structure. Care & Share Associates (CASA) will keep a 10% shareholding in each new care enterprise it spins off. These will then pay an annual licence fee of around £35,000 (€50,000) plus a small percentage of their turnover
Revenue
In business, revenue is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, revenue is referred to as turnover....
(around 0.25%). Each federated company will also hold shares in CASA, thus ensuring the coherence of the group.
How the social franchise system works
As the franchisor, CASA offers its franchisees:
- business planning and contract management
- the business manual – covering philosophy, brandBrandThe American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
and image, personnel systems, financial systems, operations and care management (personal care plans, user focused services, safe working practices, risk assessment) - quality systems to comply with inspection regime
- recruitmentRecruitmentRecruitment refers to the process of attracting, screening, and selecting qualified people for a job. For some components of the recruitment process, mid- and large-size organizations often retain professional recruiters or outsource some of the process to recruitment agencies.The recruitment...
and induction - early-stage interim management support
- ongoing administrative and training support
Experience teaches that one of the most critical steps in getting a new care business up and running is finding a good manager who has experience of home care, and installing them ahead of time. But before that stage can be reached, the necessary partners have to be brought on board. These include the local social services department, the employment services and whichever body is responsible for regeneration in the area concerned. It is estimated that an investment of about £75,000 (€110,000) is sufficient to create around 20 high-quality jobs.
Three manuals for three promising sectors
Home care is the area where INSPIRE has moved forward fastest, but is not the only string to INSPIRE's bow. The project identified three sectors of the economy (all of which were among the 'new sources of jobs' identified by the European Commission in 1996) where the time is ripe for colonisation by social enterprises:- care
- the environment
- culture and tourism
INSPIRE is in the process of setting up a project called Community Renewable Energy (CoRE) to promote local renewable energy
Renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
ventures. It believes that renewable energy offers a tremendous opportunity for social enterprises to offer an alternative way of doing things, and to bring a small part of the energy sector under the ownershipof the local community
Community
The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
. Community Energy has elicited a lively public interest, with its network meetings attracting 50 or more people. In Berwick upon Tweed, along with the local Development Trust, INSPIRE is investigating opportunities to build wind farm
Wind farm
A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electric power. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines, and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other...
s, and companies are being set up to provide biomass
Biomass
Biomass, as a renewable energy source, is biological material from living, or recently living organisms. As an energy source, biomass can either be used directly, or converted into other energy products such as biofuel....
heating and combined heat and power (CHP). It is also working with the Forestry Commission
Forestry Commission
The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for forestry in Great Britain. Its mission is to protect and expand Britain's forests and woodlands and increase their value to society and the environment....
, Britain's national forestry
Forestry
Forestry is the interdisciplinary profession embracing the science, art, and craft of creating, managing, using, and conserving forests and associated resources in a sustainable manner to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human benefit. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands...
organisation, to develop wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
chips as an energy source. Other ideas are to produce biodiesel
Biodiesel
Biodiesel refers to a vegetable oil- or animal fat-based diesel fuel consisting of long-chain alkyl esters. Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting lipids with an alcohol....
from old chip fat, and to market renewable energy certificates (ROCs).
Sustainable transport is another area of INSPIRE's work, and one where transnational learning is taking place. Having taken a look at the car-sharing scheme in Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, it is leading a pilot project to replicate it in North-East England. It started a two-car pilot scheme in Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
in October 2006, and Newcastle and Darlington are also interested. Using the new legal structure for social enterprises that was introduced in the UK in 2005, the project has founded a Community Interest Company called Option C to promote new car-sharing schemes.
Towards the end of the project, the partnership plans to publish a manual for each sector, plus a portfolio of cases.
A transnational dimension
TransnationalityTransnationality
Transnationality is a principle of carrying out an action across national borders, so as to have effects at a more general level. It is commonly referred to with reference to the actions of the European Union , in distinction to 'international' or 'supranational' Transnationality is a principle of...
is a principle of the EQUAL initiative, and INSPIRE’s transnational partnership is called Sustainable Business Concepts for the Social Economy, although its acronym, SIPS, echoes the process of ‘sharing, identifying, promoting and supporting’ new business ideas. It brings together a second British partnership, Realise, as well as organisations in Germany, Finland, Italy, Lithuania and Poland. SIPS’ work was launched, along with that of INSPIRE, at a conference in Newcastle in November 2005, which established a series of working groups. The second major event took place in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in September 2006, and was based on the Open Space Technology
Open Space Technology
Open-space technology is an approach for hosting meetings, conferences, corporate-style retreats, and community summit events, focused on a specific and important purpose or task—but beginning without any formal agenda, beyond the overall purpose or theme.- Law of two feet :If at any time you find...
, through which participants collaboratively defined their own subject matter and working methods. It also offered a programme of visits to German social enterprises.
Towards the end of 2007 the partners created the European Social Franchising Network (ESFN), which is being constituted as a European Economic Interest Group, to work on the issue of replication at European level.
Particularly with such experienced partners, the single European market means that this transnational collaboration can quickly move from words to deeds. The project intends to contract its Genoese partner WIP (Welfare, Inclusione, Partecipazione) to develop social enterprise in catering
Catering
Catering is the business of providing foodservice at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, public house , or other location.-Mobile catering:A mobile caterer serves food directly from a vehicle or cart that is designed for the purpose...
, with a view to bidding to supply school meals in Newcastle.
Discussions have also resulted on setting up a ‘recycling
Recycling
Recycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse...
village’ in the North-East England, an idea that Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
are also aiming to transfer from the USA. Such a village acts as a focus for businesses to be created to process various fraction
Fraction
In common usage a fraction is any part of a unit.Fraction may also mean:*Fraction , one of more equal parts of something, eg...
s of the waste
Waste
Waste is unwanted or useless materials. In biology, waste is any of the many unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from living organisms, metabolic waste; such as urea, sweat or feces. Litter is waste which has been disposed of improperly...
stream, and to market their products, which might include for instance salvaged architectural elements, pen
Pen
A pen is a device used to apply ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Historically, reed pens, quill pens, and dip pens were used, with a nib of some sort to be dipped in the ink. Ruling pens allow precise adjustment of line width, and still find a few specialized uses, but...
s made from waste paper
Paper
Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
or furniture
Furniture
Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
made from plastic
Plastic
A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...
chips. The village concept aims to overcome the problem of fragment
Fragment
Fragment may refer to:* A small part/portion broken off something; debris* Fragment , all the data necessary to generate a pixel in the frame buffer* Sentence fragment, a sentence not containing a subject or a predicate...
ed waste collection, enables a higher-tech process to be used, and identifiable products to be marketed.