NewsWelsh Coalition kickstarted with £700k from Welsh Assembly Government02/02/10 The Welsh Assembly Government has agreed 'in principle' to give a total of £700,000 to kick start action at a new Welsh Social Enterprise Coalition (WSEC), which is expected to officially launch at Voice10 next month. The coalition will be chaired by John Bennett, CEO of award-winning Welsh social enterprise Pack-IT, but does not yet have a CEO. A statement on the Welsh Assembly Government's website says: 'The minister for social justice and local government, and the deputy minister for regeneration have agreed for the Welsh Assembly Government to provide pump-priming funding for the Welsh Social Enterprise Coalition (WSEC) at a cost of £700,000 revenue in principle over four financial years, subject to budgetary availability.' Explaining his vision for the WSEC, Bennett said: 'It's my firm belief that the Welsh Coalition should be fiercely non-political in its agenda and driven by its members. 'While I'm aware that some people will view such a coalition as an expensive talking shop, this is absolutely not how it should be perceived and I know that WSEC will work hard to see that the coalition will be a truly member-driven organisation. 'Among the issues that I expect to be high on the initial agenda are procurement and social clauses.' The WSEC has four main objectives: to represent the views of social enterprises by being the voice for social enterprises in Wales; to be a membership-led organisation; to raise the profile of social enterprise in Wales as a dynamic business model; and to work with existing support agencies and facilitate access to support and be an information portal for social enterprises. Bennett said he was not yet able to reveal the other members of the board, but said they had been chosen by and from a 'broad representative group within the sector' and that three were advisers to the Welsh Assembly Government. He added: 'We have to make sure we have a CEO who is respected by members and who will be a genuine leader with vision and passion for the job. We expect to recruit a CEO soon and will have an AGM later this year.' However, Bennett said that people needed to be realistic about what the WSEC could achieve. 'There is an air of anticipation in Wales and while we hope to launch at Voice10, we must be realistic about what the coalition can do,' he said. 'We don't want people to think we can deliver more than we can.' On the WSEC relationship with other coalitions around the country, Bennett added: 'I do believe there should be a unified national voice for social enterprise in the UK, and over time I'm sure that WSEC will build good, open, cohesive, co-operative relationships with our sister social enterprise coalitions in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.' A WSEC website will be coming soon at www.welshsec.org ........................................................................................
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