Julia Gillard, Social Inclusion And Economic Empowerment

Self help is what PWF is all about, as we at the grassroots attempt the two-way (?) communication process with decisionmakers in private efforts to look after self and planet. The Mercury Centre’s Alan Greig kindly steers PWF research in many valuable directions. This time it’s the incredibly important economic empowerment aspect of communitybuilding and social inclusion, moving BEYOND focussing on the social welfare of participants.

‘The Economics of Social Inclusion’

In a recent speech Julia Gillard spoke of the economic benefits that can be delivered by ForProfit, community-based, employee owned social enterprises – very important in other parts of the world, but not fully recognised in Oz. Alan is wondering if the new Labor Government has picked up on this?

With Julia as Minister for Social Inclusion and Senator Ursula Stephens as Parliamentary Secretary for Social Inclusion there could be a totally different approach to the development of local economies? But just how well educated are our new ministers on this topic?

Alan believes social inclusion initiatives in other countries are more advanced than here in Australia and provide major opportunities for employee ownership. The UK ‘Social Enterprise of the Year, 2006’ was the wholly employee owned ‘Sunderland Home Care Associates’, a private company owned by an ESOP (Employee Share Ownership Plan) trust.

The employee ownership opportunity here is highlighted in the Foreword to the report on Sunderland Home Care (SCH) Associates – by the UK Minister for Social Inclusion. The report, ‘Caring and Sharing: The Co-owned Route to Better Care’ was written by David Wheatcroft.

Alan has seen nothing from an Australian Minister to compare with the ‘terrific stuff’ from this UK Minister and is hopeful we can emulate this here.

Excerpts From Julia’s Speech

“The concept of social inclusion in essence means replacing a welfarist approach to helping the underprivileged with one of investing in them and their communities to bring them into the mainstream market economy. It’s a modern and fresh approach that views everyone as a potential wealth creator and invests in their human capital.

Including everyone in the economic, wealth-creating life of the nation is today the best way for Labor to meet its twin goals of raising national prosperity and creating a fair and decent society. This is a recognized policy ambition of social democratic parties around the world today.

Fairer workplace laws that encourage enterprise bargaining and cooperation will help create a fairer and wealthier society, but on their own they are not enough. We need a new approach to social and economic policy too. And social inclusion is it “.

The Australian Government is currently advertising for nominees to the Social Inclusion Board – see www.pmc.gov.au – ‘Expressions of Interest for Social Inclusion Board’.

The SCH Report And Policy Implications

The following excerpt from the report shows how important a role employee ownership might play in one of the major election commitments of the new Rudd Government:

“One week in October 2006 provided a snapshot of why Sunderland Home Care’s success should matter to policy makers. On 18 October 2006, the media reported disturbing findings on elderly home care by the Commission for Social Care Inspection. Its ‘Time to Care’ report heavily criticised the standards of home care experienced by hundreds of thousands of older people. “There are problems of recruiting, retaining and training good quality staff” said the CCSI’s chief inspector, Paul Snell.

Exactly one week later, SHC founder Margaret Elliott was picking up the top prize and overall award – as the UK’s outstanding social enterprise in 2006 – in the Social Enterprise Coalition’s Enterprising Solutions Awards, sponsored by the DTI, NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland.

One aim of this paper is to explain why and how SHC manages to provide a standard of care that seems to elude so much of the elder care sector. A lot of that explanation is to do with SHC’s co-owned status – staff own the company, they take decisions together and they feel more part of and proud of the enterprise than counterparts in companies where there’s no staff stake or say.” (Page 5)

NB Margaret Elliott recently received the OBE in the New Year’s Honours List – the only person Alan can recall in this hard working but totally overlooked field – who has received any kind of Government recognition for their work in the ‘local economy’ area anywhere.

UK Invests In Development Of NonProfit & Voluntary ‘Third’ Sector

Another UK initiative we could follow is the establishment of a new independent, multidisciplinary research centre for the Third Sector, by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Office of the Third Sector (OTS) and The Barrow Cadbury Trust.

“The centre will support research of the highest international standing, provide top quality analysis and strengthen the evidence base on the sector and its impact, to underpin policy and practice. Developing partnerships between researchers and research users will be at the heart of the new Centre in order to increase knowledge and expertise about, with and for the Third Sector, to include the voluntary and community sectors as well as social enterprise.

The initiative, which sees a total joint investment of £10.25 million over five years, will establish a single research centre, focused on key third sector issues including the sector’s scale, dynamics, and effectiveness. The centre will address the need for longitudinal and trend analysis data for the sector, will make the evidence base for the sector more accessible, and will assess the impact of third sector policies.”

Might we see the same enlightened approach here?