ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 1/64 - The impact of community businesses on pe…

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 2/64 - Executive Summary

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 3/64 - Community business helps the most depriv…

Community business helps the most deprived communities

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 4/64 - The challenges community businesses tack…

The challenges community businesses tackle

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 5/64 - How community businesses support people

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 6/64 - Community businesses have many impacts. …

Community businesses have many impacts. These are often bespoke to their local area and the challenges residents face. Yet they have notable impacts on peoples lives in several common ways.

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 7/64 - Community business provides better acces…

Community business provides better access to services

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 8/64 - Questions for Power to Change to conside…

Questions for Power to Change to consider

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 9/64 - Contents

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 10/64 - 01

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 11/64 - .

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 12/64 - Through this discussion, the paper also …

Through this discussion, the paper also contributes evidence testing several of Power to Changes core hypotheses:

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 13/64 - 02

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 14/64 - What challenges do community businesses …

What challenges do community businesses tackle?

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 15/64 - Employability

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 16/64 - Social isolation

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 17/64 - Figure 1: Community businesses intended …

Figure 1: Community businesses intended social impacts (n=312)

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 18/64 - Given the diversity of activity, Power t…

Given the diversity of activity, Power to Change grantees are also asked which of their social impacts they consider to be their primary impact. Promoting greater community cohesion remains a high priority focus, as illustrated in Table 1.

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 19/64 - 03

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 20/64 - Who do community businesses work with?

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 21/64 - Fig 2: Average customers and service use…

Fig 2: Average customers and service users per community business The impact of community businesses on people: September 2020

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 22/64 - The total number of people engaged by co…

The total number of people engaged by community businesses varies according to their organisational maturity, sector and location. For example, newer community businesses typically reach fewer customers or service users than more mature organisations. This is illustrated by comparing two Power to Change programmes � Trade Up, which supports earlier-stage community businesses, and the Community Business Fund, which typically supports more mature ones. Comparisons suggest that more mature community businesses engage a greater number of people on a monthly basis than earlier-stage community businesses do in a year (Litchfield et al., 2020).

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 23/64 - The social impact of many community busi…

The social impact of many community businesses is localised. The evaluation of the Community Business Fund shows that despite engaging a large number of people, a high proportion of those are from their local community. On average, 85 per cent of customers or service users are from the local area. This reinforces the point that most community businesses trade within a small catchment area, and prefer more intensive engagement over wide outreach.

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 24/64 - Figure 3: Community business beneficiari…

Figure 3: Community business beneficiaries (application data January 2015�June 2020; n=1,081) 1

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 25/64 - Grantees seek to help these groups in di…

Grantees seek to help these groups in different ways, recognising their unique challenges. For the beneficiary groups highlighted, the most common challenges being addressed are:

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 26/64 - Table 4: Intended impact within each ben…

Table 4: Intended impact within each beneficiary type (application data January 2015�June 2020; n=1,081) 2 Beneficiary

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 27/64 - 04

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 28/64 - How do they do it?

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 29/64 - Across the sector there are, on average,…

Across the sector there are, on average, around 15 employees per business (14 (Higton et al., 2019); 15 (Power to Change Research Institute, 2019)). Community business employees may be more likely to work parttime, as over half of all staff are employed on this basis (2019, 64 per cent; 2018, 55 per cent) (Higton et al., 2019). Following a grant from Power to Change, the number of parttime staff typically increases by one. This new post is most likely to held by a local person (Litchfield et al., 2019).

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 30/64 - Homebaked � navigating the crisis 3

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 31/64 - Despite such constraints, previous resea…

Despite such constraints, previous research on the working conditions in smaller businesses (Croucher et al., 2013) has shown how many offer decent maternity protection (Lewis et al., 2014) and pay the living wage (Werner, 2016), in ways that also contribute to the sustainability of the business. Middlesex University was awarded a research grant by Power to Change in late 2019 to further explore what `good work looks like in community businesses. Its initial investigations have found that many community businesses are supporting the Real Living Wage and are motivated to provide good working conditions � meaningful work does not have to be at the price of decent work conditions.

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 32/64 - Mobilising communities

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 33/64 - Table 5: Volunteering rate in six priori…

Table 5: Volunteering rate in six priority places (2016) 4

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 34/64 - The average number of volunteers per bus…

The average number of volunteers per business is around 30 (27 (Power to Change Research Institute, 2019); 32 (Higton et al., 2019)). Recent estimates suggest these volunteers provide between 15.5 and 18 million hours of time every year. This time is worth �210��250 million each year, or the equivalent of �24,000��27,000 on average for each community business (Nicol, 2020). Following a grant from Power to Change, 41 per cent of mature community businesses reported an increase in volunteers. Following the lockdown triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, 10 per cent of community businesses reported an increase in community support, while six per cent reported an increase in volunteers (Higton et al., 2020).

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 35/64 - Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, most vol…

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, most volunteers within community businesses were older (aged 45 and over) and female. This is linked to life-stage and paid employment patterns. Secondary evidence suggests women and older people are less likely to be engaged in full-time paid employment, and thus more likely to volunteer (Miller, 2019).

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 36/64 - Community businesses have also played a …

Community businesses have also played a key facilitating role in coordinating volunteer activity during the emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 37/64 - Putting communities in charge

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 38/64 - While the concept is long-established, i…

While the concept is long-established, its importance is increasingly gaining recognition amongst policymakers. Andy Haldane, Chief Economist at the Bank of England, argues that our ability to nurture and develop our individual and collective social capital will be key to the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic (Haldane, 2020). Social capital was already `recognised as a driver for economic growth and as a facilitator for a variety of improvements for individual and wider community wellbeing (ONS, 2017). As this paper demonstrates, it can therefore play a key role in individual level improvements, such as improving health outcomes and reducing isolation. The next Impact Committee paper will focus on its role in improving outcomes at community level.

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 39/64 - While mixing between local areas facilit…

While mixing between local areas facilitates

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 40/64 - In practice, accountability is delivered…

In practice, accountability is delivered not only through formal governance and meetings, but also through dialogue and communication such as consultation and social media. It is important for businesses to be able to demonstrate that effectively, particularly to funders (Buckley et al., 2017).

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 41/64 - 05

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 42/64 - What impact do community businesses have…

What impact do community businesses have on local people?

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 43/64 - Fig 4. overview of community business im…

Fig 4. overview of community business impacts on people

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 44/64 - Reduced social isolation

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 45/64 - The openness of community businesses is …

The openness of community businesses is therefore a key feature of their social impact.

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 46/64 - This idea had already gained some tracti…

This idea had already gained some traction with healthcare leaders prior to the pandemic7 and is likely to receive further attention following the collective response to it.

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 47/64 - In addition to supporting individuals, c…

In addition to supporting individuals, community businesses also improve community wellbeing. They do this in three ways:

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 48/64 - Better access to services

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 49/64 - Improving employability

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 50/64 - Community-led housing

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 51/64 - Improving the local environment

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 52/64 - 06

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 53/64 - Conclusion

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 54/64 - Hypothesis

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 55/64 - Social capital (members/shareholders): C…

Social capital (members/shareholders): Community businesses increase bridging social capital by engaging members and/ or shareholders in local decision-making through the development of skills and access to information.

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 56/64 - Appendix:

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 57/64 - Appendix: Standards of evidence in this …

Appendix: Standards of evidence in this paper

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 58/64 - The following table presents the quantit…

The following table presents the quantity and quality of evidence for each chapter, as well as the quality of analysis. Quantity of evidence Quality of evidence Quality of analysis

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 59/64 - Bibliography

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 60/64 - Bibliography

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 61/64 - Croucher, R., Stumbitz, B., Quinlan, M. …

Croucher, R., Stumbitz, B., Quinlan, M. and Vickers, I. (2013) Can better working conditions improve the performance of SMEs? An international literature review. [online]. Accessed 24/07/20.

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 62/64 - Kay, A. (2005) `Social capital, the soci…

Kay, A. (2005) `Social capital, the social economy and community development, Community Development Journal, 41(2), 160�173.

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 63/64 - Public Health England (2017) Spatial Pla…

Public Health England (2017) Spatial Planning for Health: An evidence resource for planning and designing healthier places. [online]. Accessed 24/07/20.

ER-2020-08-The impact of community businesses on people.pdf - page 64/64 - Power to Change The Clarence Centre 6 St…

Power to Change The Clarence Centre 6 St Georges Circus London SE1 6FE 020 3857 7270 info@powertochange.org.uk powertochange.org.uk @peoplesbiz Registered charity no. 1159982 Author: Stephen Miller The impact of community businesses on people: September 2020