Social enterprises continue to transform lives and innovate. A new government cannot afford not to enable their agenda
One of the issues with social enterprises that tackle multiple challenges – social, environmental and economic – simultaneously, is that it's difficult to define exactly which Government department area should be setting the policy agenda.
Should it be health? Environment? Education? Crime and justice?
This consideration was exemplified at an event in Peckham recently organised by the New Economics Foundation. Along with the Policy Studies Institute and the Pioneer Health Foundation, NEF is exploring how a groundbreaking 1930s health research project has relevance today as a social enterprise, with potential to make positive impact on issues such as racial inequality in health and wellbeing, the obesogenic environment, local and sustainable food production and community cohesion.
The radical medical thinkers and practitioners, husband and wife team George Scott Williamson and Innes Pearse founded the Pioneer Health Centre in 1930, as a research hub that would enable them to explore the nature of human health, and show how focusing on what is biologically right can be just as beneficial, if not more, than focusing on pathology, disease and what went wrong. http://www.thephf.org The findings of this research have since influenced authorities across the world, including the World Health Organisation.
The Pioneer Health Centre – later called
The Peckham Experiment after a book written about it – was the living nucleus of the research programme that drew around 10,000 visitors a year and signed up 900 local families to its subscription-based membership programme. It brought together people of all ages and stages of development, in an individual, family and community context, providing material for observation and data on the interdependency and connectivity of health, activity, nutrition and social capital.
The purpose-built centre comprised a swimming pool, a gym, theatre, nursery, school and cafeteria with food from the centre farm, where all organic and local food was grown by members. Self-directed activities were encouraged. Conditions of the membership were such that members paid a weekly two shillings subscription per family, and that members were agreed to an annual health check and consultation as a family. In pre-NHS days, such access to medical expertise and facilities was almost unheard of, while with subjects and observation material completely accessible, research data was reliable and trustworthy.
Hearing firsthand from some of the now elderly people that were children of the Peckham programme, and from a then student observer – the aptly named Mrs Trotter – about the radical and holistic philosophy that inspired the Peckham Experiment, it is exciting to think about its implications, particularly in terms of wellbeing, might hold solutions for today's issues.
The next step for the New Peckham Experiment is to see how it could work in today's context, thinking about changes such as fragmentation of the traditional family unit and advancements in technology.
One of the concerns at the seminar I attended in relation to the next phase was that Government departments are not currently equipped to think about the multi-faceted nature of such projects and social enterprises. This is of particular concern when so many of the aspects and benefits are integrated, interrelated and interdependent.
What's apparent is that while projects like the New Peckham Experiment could hold the answer to many of our outstanding environmental and social problems today, a re-organisation of policy that cross-cuts departments will be needed to lay the infrastructure for their rollout.
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Editor's note: we at ResPublica are currently conducting research into how we achieve just that - and our interim findings will be up for discussion soon. If you would like to contribute, please email asheem.singh@respublica.org.uk or leave a message in the comments below.