Helping a life-changing social enterprise to tell more than Half the Story
Helping a social enterprise to tell more than Half the Story Expertise and funding from the CIPS Foundation is helping this groundbreaking employment initiative to scale its activities and put its revolutionary biscuit making on a solid footing.
CIPS Foundation is supporting biscuit company Half the Story by professionalising their procurement and supply chain operations. The fact that they make biscuits is just ‘half the story’ They are a social enterprise who provide meaningful work, and support to people who have faced major barriers to work, including homelessness, to rebuild their lives.
They bake shortbread biscuits which are then packed using sustainable, plant-based wrapping at Half the Story’s facility, employing 22 people with a living wage and a support network. Using the CIPS Foundation Diagnostic tool, the social enterprise will receive the help they need to implement operational efficiencies and scale their operation to help even more people.
Translating growth into impact
The assistance from CIPS Foundation will take the form of practical support to help them as they enter their next phase of growth through a four-stage approach..
- Stage one: the diagnostic review Experts from CIPS conduct a review of procurement processes, supplier arrangements and governance
- Stage two: implementation planning Using information from the review, CIPS will draw up a plan with support from the leadership team. The plan will look at how they can best use the experts’ time to get the greatest benefit and have the most long-term impact.
- Stage three: targeted technical assistance CIPS will give hands-on support across the prioritised areas of focus. This could be developing procurement frameworks, working on their relationships with suppliers, looking at their sustainable procurement practices and processes.
- Stage four: final review A final assessment looks back on CIPS’ work with Half the Story and checks in with what has been accomplished. It’s a chance to look at what lessons have been learned and look at some priorities for the next stage of the journey.
Long-term objectives
The involvement of the CIPS Foundation in addressing the challenges of scaling within the procurement and supply function is not about the growth for its own sake. It is what that growth means. It adds up to more opportunities to employ more people and to help them on the next stage of their employment journey. For a social enterprise that is rooted in its community, this is vital.
The statistics behind them are already impressive. Half the Story have sold over a million biscuits to date and created what they estimate to be 10,000 hours of paid work. This equates to 800 hours of Real Living Wage work a month.
Accessing the procurement and supply expertise of the CIPS Foundation will help Half the Story scale its processes to cope with their expected growth and codify its values. They have already demonstrated that they can have a transformative effect on the lives of their employees. This will help them reach more and bake success into the next batch of shortbread.
“Our work with Half the Story demonstrates our belief in the integrity of the standards that are embedded in CIPS. By using these standards to improve their procurement and supply processes, we are making it possible for them to scale to create even more lifechanging job opportunities.” - Ben Farrell, CEO of CIPS