New Audit Committee Role for Mark Mark has been appointed to the audit committee of leading multi academy trust, the Dean Trust. The Trust runs 6 schools across the North West of England, including 4 secondaries and 2 primary schools. The Trust recently celebrated the award of a new free school opportunity for Manchester City [...]

LLG Governance Conference We will be attending the annual LLG governance conference on 4-5 November, this year being held in Blackpool. Tony Travers from LSE will be the keynote speaker. With the number of exotic models for public service delivery in local government multiplying, there is a major challenge for commissioners, officers and elected members [...]

SEUK's Northern Meet-Up We will be attending Social Enterprise UK’s northern meet-up on 5 October at Manchester’s exciting new arts venue HOME. HOME bills itself as the venue for curiosity seekers, for lovers of the dramatic, the digital and the deeply engaging; for radicals and reciprocators! We like the sound of that and hope to [...]

Pioneering Community Share Offer Launched for Youth Services 25 September 2015 A new technique for raising capital and building engagement with local citizens has been applied to youth services in Staffordshire. Biddulph Youth & Community Zone Limited is a new social enterprise established as a charitable community benefit society. The enterprise secured a contract to [...]

Mark Achieves ICSA Qualified Status Our Principal Mark Johnson has become a graduate of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries & Administrators, the highly respected international professional body for governance and compliance professionals. In order to achieve the coveted postgraduate level GradICSA qualification, students are required to demonstrate competence across the key modules of corporate governance, [...]

Did you know that Elderflower Legal is the first solicitor-owned entity to be granted a licence to practise by the Bar Standards Board? Under new reforms introduced by the Legal Services Act, the Bar Standards Board obtained new powers to grant licences to practice ‘reserved legal services’ to corporate entities set up by barristers, solicitors [...]

Joint Ventures on the rise? Joint ventures can be a useful route to combine resources and skills, to secure greater market power or better access to markets for public bodies, SMEs, charities and social enterprises. A new corporate entity can be used to ring-fence more risky trading activities or to develop a distinct brand or [...]

CICs Celebrate 10th Anniversary The Community Interest Company Association has announced a 2015 Survey of CICs. Speaking at the 10th anniversary event for CICs in London today, CIC Association Chairman John Mulkerrin said: ‘It is ten years since the legislation passed into law, and we feel this is a perfect time to build a comprehensive [...]