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The process of organisational self-assessment is designed to enable those running an organisation to reflect on its current performance and benchmark it against others in the sector. The process rates an organisation’s performance in accordance with the three core values of social enterprise:

• Sustainable enterprise
• Inclusive governance
• Social investment

So that an assessment is relevant, tangible and useful in its own right it will explore the key elements of an organisation:

• Structures – Legal, governance and management structures
• Planning – Plans and the planning process
• Day-to-day activities – actions and management

Assessment scores in a wide-range of categories and associated benchmark scores can then be used to create a development plan for the organisation. So by completing the process it enables an organisation to maintain an objective view of its performance and maintain a momentum for its development.

As a complete assessment would be time consuming the process has been broken down into three parts corresponding to the different levels of membership:

• Associate Assessment – measures the level of organisational commitment
• Member Assessment – measures how an organisation is managing and
• delivering the fundamental principles of Social Enterprise Certified Social Enterprise Assessment – measures a more holistic performance of the organisation against current best practice

Associate and Member assessments are carried out through an on-line self-assessment system through which users answer a series of questions relevant to their stage of development. However an external assessor must assess a Certified Social Enterprise. External Assessors use a model of best practices that they can interpret into the circumstances of an individual organisation. This enables resulting scores to reflect the principles of the models rather than the use of specified practices. These external assessors are Fellows of the Social Enterprise Foundation. Fellows have been Accredited Practitioners and they currently work within a Certified Social Enterprise. This enables Fellows to evaluate the merits of different practices and how they relate to the core principles and values of the sector.

The self-assessments can be taken over almost any reasonable length of time that suits you and each level can be broken down into smaller modules that can be completed at your convenience. So there is nothing to stop you joining us now!