Nigel Fenner is manager of Hertfordshire PASS, a user-driven charity using employment and self-directed support to enable disabled people to live more independently.

He was given a grant from Social Enterprise East of England (SEEE) to write a paper (representing his views alone) on “User-driven social enterprise” based on his experiences of working with disabled people.

Summary

The person-system-role framework is considered an appropriate framework to understand user-driven social enterprises.

• The starting point for ‘user-driven social enterprise’, are the PERSONAL LIVED EXPERIENCES of ‘users’ and those who work with or for them, and those who don’t, because they are ‘scared, frightened, or ignorant of disability’.
• In transforming ‘users’ into ‘drivers of social enterprise’ it is important to focus on key ROLES, such as citizen, co-producer, expert by experience, and those who collaborate with them, such as “power sharer” and so on.
• Such personal lived experiences and the roles people strive to take up are set in a context or SYSTEM defined by the system’s purpose or aim.

In applying this person-system-role framework to case studies largely focussing on disabled people striving to be independent, the authors have identified the following main findings and conclusions for establishing and developing „user-driven social enterprise‟. These include the importance of

• Using the ‘person-system-role’ framework to understand and develop userdriven social enterprises,
• Valuing the lived experience of disability especially in relation to poverty and unemployment, and citizenship,
• Using such lived experience to promote sharing and networking, and to clarify the purpose of organisations,
• Exploring co-production as a catalyst for bringing together ‘user-lead’ and ‘social enterprise’, and
• Exploring and developing the means to measure and validate user-driven social enterprise.

Download the Paper ‘User Driven Social Enterprise’