A short thread for policy colleagues lobbying government for support for #charities and #socent during #COVID19 and those interested in the future of these sectors. 1/7

There is an implicit assumption in some of the comms from gov that #charities and #socent should have to justify how they are helping communities through #COVID19 in order to get help. Many orgs are doing this, but many are not in a position to do this for obvious reasons. 2/7

There is a danger therefore that support is only targeted at a narrow group that have a direct connection to helping UK through #COVID19. But if this was the case for us, then why has £10bn in grant been given to private sector without conditions? 3/7

There are rumours that a very small fund (in low hundreds of millions) could be offered to the sector and focused on the smallest orgs. But #socent is a complex sector and supply chains are interlinked. You cannot just help one group and expect everything else to survive 4/7

Also why should the largest #socent and charities go to the wall? The government is stepping in to help all sizes of business, our sector shouldn't be any different. Also what message does this send to entrepreneurs trying to grow their business? 5/7

The creation of grant programmes, the #socinv market, capacity building support etc. in previous years is a recognition by government that we are valuable and that we need extra help -in the good times- surely even more the case during this crisis? 6/7

Social enterprises need help urgently, but we also need to be careful how we frame this. Otherwise we could end up setting parameters that exclude 0000s of orgs that desperately need help. We need the -whole- social economy to survive, not just part of it. 7/7