Does social enterprise help social inclusion?

Aim: Social inclusion is de?ned as having a broad social network and participating in community based activities including paid work. Employment provides independence, empowerment and choice, enabling increased self-esteem and status helping to overcome prejudice and stigma. Government policy in the UK also stresses the importance of the bene?ts of work aiming to end discrimination faced by disabled people. A UK social care organization commissioned the Tizard Centre to compare a social enterprise to day centre provision in relation to social networks from the view point of service users.

Method: Semi-structured interviews were held with ?? individuals with intellectual disabilities, ?? of whom worked in the social enterprise, the rest attending day centres across ? areas of a county in South East England. In line with service user involvement, participants were supported to disseminate results.

Results: Compared to individuals attending day centres, those working in the social enterprise scored signi?cantly higher on life experience domains, selfesteem and satisfaction levels and differences in knowledge of employment rights were found. However, no differences in social network size or density were recorded.

Conclusions: Social enterprises are better training grounds for future employment compared to day centres but social inclusion is still lacking.