It is our intention to regularly feature in ACCORD Bytes international research, which we believe has relevance for Australian audiences. This issue we look at the work of the Plunkett Foundation in the UK.

The Plunkett Foundation is an educational charity, based near Oxford in the UK. It supports the development of rural group enterprise worldwide. The Foundation draws on 80 years of practical experience and research working with partners from the public and private sectors to promote economic self-help solutions to rural problems.

Three recent projects and activities are of particular interest:

• Plunkett is working with the UK Co-operative Union and a number of other co-operative partners on a $1M (Aus) UK government funded project "Growing rural businesses through collaborative solutions". The project, which will run over 2 years, is described as being about people working together and finding joint ways forward for their common business needs. It is about collaboration and collaborative structures - co-operative solutions of various kinds.
• Plunkett also recently held a Conference on the theme Social Enterprise in Rural Communities. This conference is part of Plunkett developing focus on the role of social enterprise in rural areas.
• Plunkett has been undertaking research into the state of social enterprise in rural Oxfordshire. It found that whilst the formal sector is developing rapidly, there are many more informal, social enterprise-type activities, 'swimming below the surface'. The report noted that the very affluence of Oxfordshire actually worsens social exclusion for members of the community without access to transport by reducing the viability of village services. In many villages, social enterprises such as community-owned village stores and transport schemes are the only providers of certain services. Many of the findings of the project appear to be applicable at national level.

Plunkett is teaming-up with think-tank organisation Mutuo to systematically research the impact that rural social enterprise is having on service access, and to consider how public policy should more fully support this emerging sector.

You can read more about the work of the Plunkett Foundation by visiting their website at http://www.plunkett.co.uk/.