Social Enterprise Scotland Summit: First Minister's speech

Good afternoon everyone.

It has been a great joy for me to watch the development and growth of the social enterprise sector. As I look out at this gathering today, it rather speaks for itself of the formidable strength that the sector has acquired over the years.

I want to express first of all my thanks to all of you for the contribution you have made to Scottish society and to the Scottish economy, and for the vision you represent, which very closely aligns with the vision I have for Scottish society and the Scottish economy. I will share more on that in the course of my contribution today.

Over the course of my parliamentary life, I have had a deep engagement with the social enterprise movement. When I was liberated from office as Deputy First Minister – voluntarily I might add – a year past March, my door was beaten down very quickly by Chris and Douglas to encourage me to take up a role as the Convenor of the Cross-Party Group on Social Enterprise.

I really hoped that would be a longstanding commitment that I could give to the movement, to continue to provide some stewardship to the movement. That plan went hopelessly wrong because of my rather abrupt return to ministerial office, an office that I did not in all honesty really think I would have the privilege of holding.

When I launched my bid to become leader of the my party, where did I go to do that? I went to the Grassmarket Community Project. Why? As I set out in the opening remarks I made to that event, I invited people to come to the Grassmarket Community Project because it spoke to who I am. It spoke about my values. It spoke about the fact that we have to offer hope to people in our society to allow them to make a contribution to our society and we also must be prepared to do business differently to how we have done it.

It was a source of absolute privilege for me to go to the Grassmarket Community Project in a bid for the party leadership. I use that example to illustrate to you that as I go through the enormous privilege of being First Minister of Scotland, I carry with me the sentiment that drew me to the Grassmarket project.

It is about that desire to try to find a space, a growing space, in Scottish society for this movement to reach people and make an impact on people’s lives, to open up opportunities for people and make a substantial economic and social contribution in every aspect of what you can do within our society.

I want to make sure I do everything I can as First Minister to try to enable that to be the case as we take a course through many of the challenging times that lie in front of us. Please be assured that the social enterprise enthusiast that you knew before I became First Minister remains a social enterprise enthusiast now that I am the First Minister. I want to try to do all  I can to help and to nurture the growth and the development of this sector.

Why is that important? It is important because we are at a really quite pivotal moment in our society at the present moment. I delivered a speech a few weeks ago where I talked about the effects of what has been, in my view, a long, dark economic winter. It has been characterised by the implications of Brexit, of Covid, of the war in Europe, the resulting energy crisis and the inflation shock.

Our communities have been through a long, dark economic winter, characterised also by enormous constraints in the public finances. That has made for very difficult choices for Government. It has made for very difficult choices for people in this room just now.

I think we have reached a moment where we have to turn our back on the long, dark economic winter and start to focus on how to prepare the ground for spring.

To be fair, the United Kingdom Government’s Budget from last week gives us some opportunities to plan for the spring. There are also some significant worries and anxieties that come with that Budget, not least of which is the implications of the increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions, which has a very real and tangible impact on the sustainability of many ventures in this room that are making a contribution to the delivery of public services.

They are making a contribution to the delivery of the outcomes we achieve as a consequence of investment from public finances. We will feel a real strain from the increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions unless they are compensated for.

That is one of the substantive points we are taking up with the United Kingdom Government arising out of the Budget about how far will there be scope for ensuring that organisations are compensated for the impact of the contributions increasing. That can be and will be a significant factor this sector has to wrestle with in the same with as the public sector has to wrestle with it.

I do think we are at a moment where we have an opportunity to invest and to prepare for the spring that lies ahead. What does that look like for me? Well, for me, it is about ensuring we focus relentlessly on the four priorities that I have set out in Government. That we focus on the eradication of child poverty. That we focus on growing the economy. That we focus on making the transition to net zero. And that we focus on strengthening our public services so we deliver better outcomes for people in our society.

In each of these different priorities, I do not want you to think in any way, shape or form that I have four compartments in my mind and that some how these are four distinct priorities and there is never any crossover between. For me, these four priorities are absolutely, totally, utterly interlinked.

We need to create a strong and vibrant economy to make sure that we generate the revenues to invest in our transition to net zero, to the work of eradicating child poverty and making sure our public services meet the needs of the public.

We also need to be prepared to reform the way our public services operate to ensure we deliver better outcomes for the people of Scotland. One of the central themes of the Programme for Government and its focus on eradicating child poverty is about recognising the importance of supporting families to overcome the challenges they face. To find ways to ensure that we provide the assistance, conveniently and supportively, to families to help them to navigate their way out of the challenges they face and to make an economic contribution.

As I look at these four priorities and the links between them, I am constantly struck by the contribution that this sector can make to delivering the innovation that is required to ensure we are much more effectively achieving those objectives.

I worry about public services being delivered in a transactional fashion. I worry that we do not truly engage public services around families and individuals to make sure that the best outcomes can be achieved. I often experience, from my constituency experience directly, but also from the privilege I have of visiting ventures and seeing constructive work around the country, that social enterprises have a structure and an ethos and a set of values underpinning them that enables us to maximise the effectiveness of those ventures in transforming the lives of individuals in our society.

What I have got to try to do as First Minister, and believe me, I am trying to give this leadership to public services, is to enable a change to the ways of thinking and the ways of operating to try to create the space where we can make that more formidable impact on outcomes for people in our society.

Only if we create that space will we be able to achieve the vision that I have set out to you this afternoon.

What I am committed to is making sure that as we take forward our agenda, we work with you to create the space to enable you to make more of an impact on improving outcomes for people in our society and to help us to achieve those priorities of eradicating child poverty, strengthening the economy, delivering on our journey to net zero and improving our public services.

In my view there is plenty of space for us to apply innovation to ensure that can be the case.

That is easier said than done. There are so many institutional barriers, there are so many attitudes of mind, there are so many different obstacles to reforming the way in which we operate to ensure that we can achieve that vision. My commitment to you is to make sure that we achieve that journey because the improvement in the life chances and the opportunities for people in Scotland will be dependent on the success of that journey.

Later on today there will be an event at Parliament that will be the presentation of the social enterprise awards in Scotland. I just want to take a moment to wish everybody that is taking part in those awards tonight every success.

I had the great pleasure of being at the awards last year to see the Isle of Skye Ferry Community Interest Company being crowned the social enterprise of the year. If you have not used the Isle of Skye ferry, it is an absolutely magnificent dive into the past of Scotland and a wonderfully sustainable venture which is a magnificent journey.

It is an illustration of the point I am making. That venture could have ended when the Skye Bridge was constructed, but tenacious people gave leadership that created an economic opportunity, which created a mystical approach to the island of Skye, and a wonderful and beautiful journey. It creates employment and community benefit into the bargain. What is not to like about all the positive impact of that?

In so many different ventures around the country, you will be involved in exactly that. I am sure that tonight’s awards ceremony in the Scottish Parliament will be a happy and joyful occasion, and one that gives you an opportunity to celebrate the strength of the sector.

In so doing, please be assured that the First Minister of Scotland and his Government are absolutely on your side, wanting to create the pathways that will allow you to make a greater contribution to Scottish society. If we succeed in that journey, Scotland will be better as a consequence.