The Pfizer UK Social Enterprise Programme 2023 is designed to support leaders who are ambitious about growing and expanding their impact and work.
I credit my ability to be 6 years in business as a result of key business support prgrammes and grants from my start up days. SSE Scotland's Trade Up Programme was key to my previous success, therefore, I believe I will be able to have the motivation and challenge from this programme to achieve my scale up goals.
Callum MacKinnon (Founder & Executive Director)
This programme is initiated and funded by Pfizer. SSE have full responsibility for candidate selection and administration of the programme on Pfizer’s behalf.
The programme aims to give social entrepreneurs the best possible chance of scaling their impact, through access to support and funding. There were 10 places available to organisations working across the UK.
This programme helps social entrepreneurs to:
- Learn how to strengthen your project and increase your impact through a package of support over six months, including up to 10 learning sessions with other social entrepreneurs, action learning sets and one to one mentoring.
- Fund growth plans with a £5,000 grant.
- Access a diverse network of social entrepreneurs, who will support the organisations plans and help through tough times.
- Collaborate and build a relationship with SSE and its wider fellows’ network.
Callum MacKinnon (Founder & Executive Director) - 1 of 10 selected
Callum previously participated in SSE Scotland's Trade Up programme from 2018-19 (picture below from the graduation event in Edinburgh) -
Francesca Smart (Occupational Therapist) and Callum MacKinnon (Founder & Specialist Occupational Therapist) in Edinburgh - SSE Scotland Trade Up Graduation, October 2019
Now, Callum has applied to the Scale Up programme to get support with replicating BounceOT as a ‘business for good’ via exploring sustainable and social business models.
Simply, this could be achieved by adopting 2 models -
1. Licensed Training
2. Franchise
The 10 entrepreneurs, SSE staff, and a representative from Pfizer UK met in Birmingham today [Tuesday 25th July 2023] to launch the programme.
It was so nice to meet everyone - we are all at similar stages of business and facing some of the same challenges. I can't wait to participate with the online and in-person sessions across the next 6 months!
Additional information about BounceOT
Bounce OT is an activity-based service that was founded in April 2017 [initially as Forth Valley Rebound Therapy Service CIC].
Our mission is to improve the quality of life and participation in meaningful activities for children and young people with disabilities, and their families. This is achieved by offering a range of direct and non-direct support from Occupational Therapy staff and certified Play Leaders. Our interventions are categorized into Universal, Targeted, and Specialist support.
As we aim to be as accessible as possible, we are ‘open referral’ for anybody to request assistance. We are not limited to only working with families referred by other services.
We are open 7 days per week and have a filled timetable between 9am-6pm every day - 1 hour time slots for 1 family to attend per hour. We offer a mixture of 1:1 facilitated sessions by professional health and social care staff - or families can use the space for family fun time. In addition, we do outreach work in local communities
Additional information about the Scale Up programme -
Learning sessions across the 6 months will cover topics like:
Social Impact Measurement
Business, Innovation and Growth
Organisational Structure
Financial Management
Marketing and Communications
Developing yourself as your organisation grows
Peer to Peer Support Session
Social Impact Review, balancing Profit with Purpose
Social Value
Social value is a familiar concept to many social entrepreneurs. Through this programme,
Pfizer UK and SSE are seeking to boost impact across four social value themes, in line with
the UK Government’s Social Value Act:
Covid-19 recovery, for instance:
- Support for the physical and mental health of people affected by COVID-19.
- Support for people and communities to manage and recover from the impacts of
COVID-19, including those worst affected or who are shielding. - Creation of employment, re-training and other return to work opportunities for
those left unemployed by COVID-19.
Equal opportunities, including: - Reducing the disability employment gap including by increasing the representation
of people with disabilities in workforces and supporting people with disabilities to
develop new skills and access to training schemes. - Training and education to raising awareness about modern slavery, or support for
victims of modern slavery. - Support in-work progression to help people, including those from disadvantaged or
minority groups, to move into higher paid work by developing new skills.
Wellbeing, for example: - Supporting people’s physical and/or mental wellbeing.
- Promotion of strong, integrated communities.
- Community-led initiatives such as improving transport links; reducing crime;
reducing homelessness, poverty and hunger; reducing loneliness; helping with
English language proficiency; and helping meaningful social mixing among people
with different backgrounds.
Tackling economic inequality, e.g.: - Training, or apprenticeship opportunities for disadvantaged groups.
- Creation of employment opportunities particularly for those who face barriers to
employment, such as prison leavers, and/or who are located in deprived areas, and
for people in industries with known skills shortages or in high growth sectors. - Career advice such as mentoring; mock interviews; CV advice and careers
guidance; learning and development; volunteering; influencing staff, suppliers,
customers and communities through the delivery of the contract to support
employment and skills opportunities in high growth sectors.
