Leveraging the potential of social enterprises in England to support marine nature recovery and its monitoring and evaluation

Research question: 'What potential role(s) might social enterprises play in supporting marine nature recovery and its monitoring and evaluation, and how can this potential be leveraged effectively?' Task: Map out the range of marine social enterprises operating in the UK; including the skills, experience and work they can offer. Explore how this aligns with the marine monitoring and nature restoration needs of Natural England. Clarify the opportunities and barriers to leveraging the potential of social enterprises, including their ability to participate in government procurement and access social investment. Provide recommendations for Natural England based on the above. Task breakdown: - Complete a document review and a workshop with members of Natural England's marine staff to ensure understanding of Natural England's marine work remit and the wider marine nature recovery landscape. - Identify marine social enterprises operating in the UK, including through reference to Home | Social Enterprise UK and The School for Social Entrepreneurs (the-sse.org). - Map the different marine social enterprises against the relevant work undertaken within Natural England and use this to explore where overall gaps might lie. Include where the social enterprises are, what they do, their purpose, how big they are and when they started. Explore the UK social enterprise 'ecosystem' within which these social enterprises sit. - Agree with Natural England three case studies of marine social enterprises to explore the ways in which they might meet marine nature recovery (monitoring and delivery) needs. - Complete interviews with staff from the above social enterprises to assess the opportunities and barriers facing such social enterprises, in relation to being involved in marine nature recovery work and/or its evaluation and monitoring. - Provide an overview of the current UK social enterprise 'ecosystem', based on relevant literature, positioning the findings of the above research within this wider UK social enterprise context. - Prepare a report summarising findings from the above research and making recommendations that address the research question.