Pollgate- the row and the results

Following a poll released by Social Enterprise magazine, and included in last week's SEN Newsletter (16th August), to find out which social enterprise support organisation provides the best value, the results have been unveiled amidst controversy...

via: socialenterpriselive.com

The School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) has topped the controversial Social Enterprise magazine poll to find out which organisation our readers think provides the best value for money to government.

We launched the poll last week after it was announced that the Office for Civil Society (OCS) was cutting the number of its strategic partners from 42 to 15.

The result was 174 votes and an unexpected wave of controversy. Some supported the way we asked for our readers' opinions and others condemned us as 'crass' and insensitive. Read on for more about 'pollgate'.

SSE, working with UnLtd, proved the most popular in the poll with 51 (29.3 per cent) votes, way ahead of the organisation in second place, CAN, which got 27 votes (15.5 per cent).

SSE has set up learning programmes for social entrepreneurs across the UK and Ireland. It has also opened a school in Australia and is in the process of setting up other schools around the world.

CAN (formerly known as Community Action Network) offers flexible office space to social enterprises, as well as business support and helping them gain access to social investment.

Joint third in the poll was the Development Trusts Association and Social Enterprise Coalition, with 19 votes (10.9 per cent) each, followed by Co-operatives UK with 16 votes (9.1 per cent) and the Plunkett Foundation with 14 votes (eight per cent).

From our list of strategic partners relevant to social enterprise, SSE received one of the lowest amounts of funding from OCS- just £74,000 in 2009/10. Plunkett received £65,000 and CAN received £123,711.

The most funding went to NCVO, which was given more than £1m by the department, followed by the Social Enterprise Coalition with £534,000.

SSE's policy and communications manager, Nick Temple, was one who did not agree with the Social Enterprise poll, but welcomed the result.

He said: 'Though SSE is not keen on setting strategic partners against each other as we believe the sector needs to work together in tough times, we are obviously delighted that the value of SSE's work with UnLtd in this area has been recognised by your readers.'

A Cabinet Office spokesman said that no further information about the cuts would be released, but that a consultation should start at the end of the year with the revised partners programme starting in Spring 2011. He declined to comment on the poll.

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