£1.5M funding enables social care charity to target growth

Enable currently helps over 11,000 people with additional support needs to live independently in their own local communities and recently invested almost £5 million in enhanced pay for their social care workforce and in digital innovation.

Over the last seven years, Enable has doubled in size and increased its impact significantly, with income growing from £30 million to £60 million. This rapid growth reduced the proportionality of the charity’s cash reserves relative to the size of its operation, whilst the charity consistently generated modest surpluses year on year.

The charity was established in the 1950s and has grown to be one of Scotland’s major social care providers. It has a team of more than 2,500, making it one of Scotland’s top 40 non-public sector employers. The finance boost will help Enable to manage the annual funding cycle and allow the charity to focus additional efforts on growing its impact post-pandemic – at a time when its services and expertise are in high demand across the country.

The funds are part of SIS’s targeted £8.5 million Community Sustainability Support Package, which was launched late last year to support Scotland’s social enterprise and third sector through challenging times. Funding is designed to help with a range of financial requirements including short-term cash flow, large scale projects to increase energy efficiency, initiatives to reduce costs and the development of new income streams.

Beneficiaries of the fund also have access to an online support programme with industry experts offering advice and guidance to social enterprises, charities and businesses through the cost-of-living crisis.