Fifth stakeholder group meeting in Scotland

The Scottish stakeholder group for RaiSE celebrated the fifth meeting on 14 May 2019 in Glasgow.

The fifth Scottish Regional Stakeholder Group was held in Glasgow on Tuesday 14th May 2019. The meeting was very well attended with 30 persons present, representing 25 organisations, and reflecting Scotland’s strong co-production approach to the sector. Representatives included Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Government, Highlands & Islands Enterprise, Senscot, Firstport, Social Firms Scotland, Community Enterprise and Big Lottery Fund.  

This meeting was used as a strategy forum to update on progress and programmes relating to Scotland’s 10 Year Social Enterprise Strategy and discuss the forthcoming Scottish Social Enterprise Action Plan, paying attention to the measures and the census.

Aims of this meeting were to:

Progress key developments including the Scottish Government’s social enterprise priorities: The 2019 Social Enterprise Census, Business Support Contract status, results from SWOT analysis and the activities and measuring of the action plan
Update all stakeholders on the progress of the RaiSE Project
Engage in an interactive session aimed at appropriate consultation, implementation and evaluation of the social enterprise action plan.

RaiSE Project

Darah Zahran provided an update on the RaiSE project activity and next steps. She pointed out that the project is coming to the end of phase one, whereby the knowledge exchange element and study visits have been of significant value. This knowledge exchange has played a critical role in influencing and shaping the following three actions:

Business Support Contract
Social Enterprise Observatory
International Learning Journeys (SEWF)

Phase 1 will end with a meeting in Brussels in June involving the Scottish Enterprise RaiSE team plus Chris Raftery and Laura Worku from Scottish Government. Phase two begins in July 2019 and will focus on the monitoring and evaluation of the project.