MHEP named a finalist in the UK Social Enterprise Awards as a world changing business

Mental Health and Employment Partnership (MHEP) has been shortlisted as a finalist for the ‘Social Investment Deal of the Year’ Award for the UK Social Enterprise Awards 2019.  MHEP was set up in 2015 to drive a large-scale expansion of high-quality supported employment programmes for people with mental health issues, health conditions and disabilities. In the last year, MHEP has received a £627,000 investment from Big Issue Invest to increase their social impact through two delivery partners WDP and Twining. WDP will provide assistance to 1,700 ex-addicts looking to enter the employment market in eight London boroughs, and Twining will deliver support to 300 people with mental health issues secure employment over the next two years.

Social enterprises are businesses which trade for a social or environmental purpose. There are 100,000 social enterprises in the UK contributing £60 billion to the UK economy, each one being set up to tackle some of the biggest challenges we face from homelessness to climate change.

The UK Social Enterprise Awards run by Social Enterprise UK, the national membership body for social enterprises, recognise the nation’s most pioneering social enterprises. MHEP will join the other shortlisted organisations at the prestigious awards ceremony held at London’s iconic Guildhall on 4 December, 2019.

Previous winners have included a coffee company set up to create jobs for people who are homeless, an employee owned community health care provider and a company set up to tackle funeral poverty.

“MHEP is the largest individual placement and support social impact bond service to date backed by a social investor. Mental Health and Employment Partnership is an exemplary case of Big Issue Invest Outcomes Fund investment proving and then scaling an exciting innovation that’s positively impacting hundreds of lives. We are proud to have MHEP represent us as our Social Investment Deal of the Year,” said Lars Hagelmann, investment director at BII.

Commenting on the Awards, Chief Executive of Social Enterprise UK Peter Holbrook said:

“Every year the standards of applications for the UK Social Enterprise Awards gets higher and higher. At a time when public confidence in business is at a low and when we are facing crises both political and environmental – this year’s shortlist shows how business can be used to build a better world.”