After two years of exclusively online activity, 2022 was the year to resume a more normal programme of events for members of our Social Enterprise Leaders’ and Bold Commissioners’ Clubs, as well as our wider community.

Covid’s shadow still loomed large at the start of the year and our first two events were conducted via Zoom. The Bold Commissioners started with a discussion about Integrated Care Boards, before a virtual drinks event combined members of both clubs with the E3M partners, Buzzacott, Stone King and Zurich, for a discussion kicked off by Rob Whiteman of CIPFA’s views of the strategic outlook and challenges for local authority services.

Finally, early in February it was time for some of our Social Enterprise Leaders to meet in person once again at the Away Day. Usually an annual event that sets the tone for the year ahead, obviously it couldn’t run in 2021, so this was the first time any number of our members had been together in one place since the E3M Growing the New Economy Conference in Oldham in February 2020. A healthy mix of new members with some more seasoned Leaders combined well with representatives of our partners to discuss topics ranging from delivery models to sustainability, leadership to governance. As ever, it was a great opportunity for all those present to take a step back from the day-to-day and gain a fresh perspective to take back to their respective organisations.

Unfortunately, it took until July for our Bold Commissioners to get together in one room again, this time due to industrial action on the railways rather than Covid. Thankfully, in the meanwhile they’d had another Zoom session in March to keep everyone in touch and – a pandemic positive – everyone’s experience of online working meant that even those who couldn’t travel to London for this meeting and dinner were able to join in, making it our first hybrid meeting. On the agenda was a look at a new model for commissioning adult social care and an early intervention service for children with a learning disability, as well as an opportunity to introduce the new E3M Action-Focussed Funders Group to start exploring if there are any new challenge areas where we could bring our E3M Alchemy approach to help support the development of new solutions. Big Society Capital’s Aman Johal also shared some of the key findings from her analysis of social outcomes contracts ahead of dinner.

The group then met again in October to share experience from Wales of transforming social care, explore whether relational commissioning can deliver better outcomes, as well as learning from experience gathered from the Covid vaccination programme. Thanks goes to Liz Perfect for speaking at this event’s dinner.

The Leaders’ programme escaped disruption, with roundtables and dinners held in April, July, September and November. Topics covered include levelling up, delivering impact, developing a positive organisational culture, strategies for growth and diversification of income, responding to the current economic climate, aspects of Social Enterprise governance in Public Services, and a new deal for CSR. We were delighted to welcome some inspiring dinner speakers and are very grateful to Professor Carolyn Wilkins, Danyal Sattar, Nick Davies and Baroness Glenys Thornton for their time and insights.

While it has been great getting people together again, online delivery of content was also used to great effect this year with two webinars showcasing the E3M Procurement to Partnership Toolkit and a Zoom exchange with Barcelona’s Suara Cooperative. The first webinar in March on the subject of relational commissioning had around 50 people taking in learning from Croydon, Plymouth and Cheshire West & Chester, as well as the legal perspective from Julian Blake of Stone King, while September’s webinar was an interactive Q&A session aimed at supporting those putting in place new partnerships between public authorities and social enterprises, and the wider social economy sector. The more recent link up with Suara saw representatives of E3M member organisations Locala and Provide sharing their experiences of developing multi-disciplinary home care teams and of using wearable audio-visual technology to support integrated care teams, while Suara presented its use of adapted Smart TVs to reduce isolation among older people being cared for at home, as well as its staff wellbeing platform.

New this year is the E3M Action-Focussed Funders Group. Currently formed by representatives of six funding organisations that are investing in social enterprises and the wider social economy in different ways, our aim is to share learning across the group and to add a funder’s perspective to the work of our other groups. This will inform the development of new events in 2023, using our local Alchemy methodology to support place-based social enterprise innovation.

The highlight of the year has to be the celebration of E3M’s 10-year anniversary, marked in May by a whole-day seminar, followed by a drinks reception. Held in the impressive Clothworkers’ Hall in London, the seminar explored how public bodies can harness the full potential of social enterprises as purpose-aligned partners to the public sector, while the reception brought together people from E3M’s past, present and future to celebrate its achievements and the publication of the report, 10 Years of Catalysing Innovation, Purpose and Better Outcomes in Public Service Delivery. It was a fantastic opportunity to catch up with colleagues, friends and to build on newer relationships, but perhaps the sentiment in the room is best conveyed by a blog written around that time by Fay Selvan, CEO of The Big Life Group.

As we approach 2023 and the next ten years, we aim to build on all that we’ve achieved this year and the previous ten, to keep working towards greater social impact and better outcomes for more people, and to provide support with challenges that lie ahead.