For many, 2020 will for ever be associated with the coronavirus crisis, despite the fact that the full scale and implications of the pandemic only became evident as the financial year drew to a close.

But much of the year — had we only recognised it at the time — now seems a golden age of normality and we were able to make significant progress on a variety of fronts: influencing key policy-makers in favour of social enterprise, planning the next moves for Birmingham Social Enterprise City, publicising the news, events and services of Birmingham’s busy social enterprises, looking for new collaborations and partnerships that will help create opportunities for the sector and a positive environment for social enterprise.

But looking forward, it is clear that our emphasis for perhaps the foreseeable future will be on recovery planning and ensuring that social enterprise and the principles of trading for social purpose and social value are not forgotten in the rush to a ‘business as usual’ economic recovery.

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