I found this commentary at Nursing Scribbles worthy of note. The author wonders about the newfound motivations to turn to social enterprise in the UK, even though the person has been running a successful social enterprise for over 3 years alongside the NHS system in the UK.

There has been a huge sea change in the NHS over the last 12 months. A year ago, the mention of social enterprises would result in a puzzled expression from most NHS managers. Six months ago it seemed to be the buzzword of the moment following the publication of the white paper and everyone wanted to know what a social enterprise is. Now it seems that more and more PCTs are very very keen to create social enterprises (even though they may have some strange ideas about what one is). So why is this and why are many of these probably doomed to failure?

There seem to be 3 popular drivers for NHS organisations wanting to become social enterprises:

*Looking impressive to political masters
*Trying to stay one-step ahead of the next organisational restructuring
*Pure cold-blooded knee-trembling fear

The author goes on to expand on these three drivers, none of which seem like very good motivations to start SEs. I've been seeing more and more about these types of similar worries come out of the UK regarding the government glee at the prospect social enterprises will take some burden off their backs. Where it works, yes, but a mass Exodus from public sector to private nonprofit SE sector does have its dangers, as the author notes here. Too much of a good thing might end up being a lot of a bad thing if it turns out to be a failure. I've thought for a while that a mixture not too heavy on the state side, not too heavy on the private sector side would be the best. The best of both worlds, right?

In other social enterprise news, or hype, depending on where you stand:

*Prime example #1 ... From The Guardian: Would childcare be better as a business?

*PE # 2: Regenerating our communities is a social, not just state, responsibility says Conservative speaker.