CO-OPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY Consultation Paper
MINISTERIAL FOREWORD
We have set out in "A Partnership for a Better Scotland" our vision of a Scotland which cares for its people and where opportunities are increasing for everyone, enterprise is rewarded, and people have confidence in their communities and in public services. This requires a devolved Scottish government that focuses on the issues that matter to people most, is outward looking and confident, and delivers real and sustainable improvements in our quality of life.
The Partnership Agreement demonstrates our determination to work with all sectors of the economy and with communities across the country to create a Scotland of which we can all be proud, one where the economy grows year on year, where that economic growth is sustainable and where there is opportunity for all.
However, for the Scottish economy to grow and economic success to be achieved in the long term, it will be essential to develop and sustain a higher level of entrepreneurial activity. We need to do more to encourage and support enterprise and responsible risktaking - and develop a real culture of enterprise. Entrepreneurship is complex - it is not just about start-ups and small firms. To reach our economic vision, we also need greater entrepreneurship in our larger firms, in our public services and in our social economy. This will contribute to a better Scotland where there is greater self-confidence, wider and deeper prosperity, and sustainable jobs.
Our future economic success will depend on our ability to tackle cultural and social barriers to entrepreneurship; and to promote innovative, imaginative ways of mobilising labour, capital and business ideas such as co-operative enterprises. Our Partnership Agreement commitment to establishing the Co-operative Development Agency can play a key role in carrying forward that agenda. I will be looking to the Agency to help promote, create and develop dynamic and sustainable co-operatives in a number of sectors of the Scottish economy because of the benefits they can bring to the economy as a whole and to our social well being.
The Scottish government believes that co-operation and mutuality provides both the private and public sectors with a modern and innovative way of delivering services.
The co-operative is a form of enterprise which can also provide important advantages at the micro economic level - for example the benefits of size, including economies of scale.
Co-operative enterprise can also be a means of providing high quality services for users, who can also be members, and can influence the type of service provision in responding directly to customer needs.
Crucially, co-ops can also help Scotland continue to adjust to the needs of the knowledge economy. In many co-ops members have a real influence over management decisions - and participatory management can help generate those crucial intangible assets of knowledge and skills on which our future economic prosperity will depend.
And of course Co-ops can also contribute positively and significantly to our social and community objectives - addressing these and economic growth in a mutually reinforcing way - both through the direct provision of employment and through the delivery of services in places and ways not reached by more conventional businesses. The Executive has adopted this approach in housing policy and in successful models of community development.
Co-operatives are based on the values of self-help, self responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity, and on an ethic of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others. It is essential that these principles and values provide the foundation stones on which the Scottish Co-operative Development Agency is built.
Within this consultation document we have set out ideas about the scope of the Agency, its focus and priorities, the type of body it could be - with options on the model, and its relationship with the Enterprise Networks and with other active players in this marketplace. We expect that the Agency will act as a first-stop shop for those seeking access to the expertise, advice, training and resources required to support the establishment of new co-operatives, and that it will also offer support services to enhance the growth of existing co-operatives.
Responses to the consultation process will help inform our development of policy and determine the shape of the Agency. I intend to consult widely on the functions and priorities of the new Agency, and would welcome views on any aspects of our initial proposals.
I firmly believe that the implementation of this Partnership Agreement commitment can deliver a new and exciting chapter in the history of co-operative enterprise in Scotland, and I look forward to hearing the views of others.
Lewis Macdonald, MSP
Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning