As we reach the end of another productive year of E3M supporting social enterprise innovation in public services, it’s worth reflecting on what we have achieved and what we will be taking forward into 2026.

We ran quarterly meetings for our three networks of social enterprise leaders, bold commissioners and funders, covering a wide range of topics that could support them to be more successful in what they are doing and, wherever possible, we tried to combine the perspectives of the three groups to boost their mutual understanding of big challenges such as children’s social care, the role of different types of social impact investment, more relational approaches to commissioning, and problems in the way social value has been included in public procurement.

It has been really positive to see this interaction and to see how the Funders Group has grown, with new members including some of the Combined Authorities who are now looking to invest in the social economy.

Combining all three membership groups and some additional guest delegates, in May we held the second E3M Imagine event in Manchester. Opened by Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, the event brought together public service commissioners, social enterprises and co-operatives, and funders and social impact investors to work on challenges brought by members of E3M’s Bold Commissioners’ Club (BCC) covering issues from Social Care, Local Growth, Skills and Employment, Children’s Services, Health, and Older People. 2024’s event resulted in collaborations between E3M partners, social enterprise members and local authorities, and we are hopeful that there will be similarly positive outcomes from this year’s.

Other events outside the core members’ programmes of roundtables and dinners included a breakfast meeting at the Labour Party Conference in September, and a visit to The Hartree Centre in December. The Conference event provided an opportunity for some of our members to present case studies about their work to MPs including Patrick Hurley, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Social, Co-operative and Community Economy, which then led to a general discussion about the key things that can support scaling social enterprise innovation. The Hartree Centre helps UK businesses and public sector organisations to explore and adopt supercomputing, data science, cloud, quantum and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for enhanced productivity, smarter innovation and economic growth. This visit was a wonderful opportunity for E3M members to see its work and the potential for them to use tech to expand their offer and impact within their communities.

We were also busy engaging in thought leadership activities to raise the understanding of what social enterprise can do to tackle some big public services challenges. E3M worked with leading organisations across philanthropy, impact investing, and purpose-driven business as part of the Impact Economy Collective to encourage government to establish the new Office for the Impact Economy. This has been set up in the Cabinet Office to enable the government to work more strategically and effectively with the impact economy to drive inclusive growth and tackle social and environmental challenges. While its work is just beginning, after many years of previous governments taking little interest in this agenda, it provides a real opportunity to move things forward.

Building on discussions among members of our Social Enterprise Leaders’ Club, we have also been working on an influencing project designed to showcase social enterprise innovation in public services and how social enterprises, co-operatives, mutuals, leisure trusts, employee-owned businesses and trading charities deliver public services with people and places at their heart. We have already published some Case studies, and a full report with more case studies and a set of recommendations about the key factors for scaling social enterprise innovation in public services will be launched in early 2026.

E3M was also actively engaged as a partner in supporting the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Social, Co-operative Economy (Chaired by Patrick Hurley MP), taking part in a series of online and in-person meetings. In July, we helped to curate a special session on alternative models for Children’s Residential Social Care with Georgia Gould MP, who at that point was the minister in the Cabinet Office for public service reform

As another example of engagement with government, in August E3M hosted a special online session with officials from the Cabinet Office about the government consultation on changes to the public procurement rules. Our Social Enterprise Leaders were joined by members of the BCC to hear about, and push for, the possible changes to include creating more opportunities for social enterprises, potentially different arrangements for procuring people focussed services (Children’s Services, Adult Social Care and possibly other groups) and a more refined approach to social value. We also encouraged and supported members to participate in the consultation, which closed in September. We await the official government response that will be published in 2026.

Looking back over one year highlights all the work to be done in the next, so follow us on LinkedIn to keep up with how E3M continues to support and promote social enterprise innovation in public services for maximum social impact.