A story of strategic change : becoming a social enterprise in English health and social care

Reform of the health and social care sector is increasingly promoting competition and choice of new service providers to stimulate growth and efficiency. In England, there has been a growing interest in social enterprise organisations as a more innovative and responsive alternative for both users and healthcare staff. The purpose of this article is to analyse how English healthcare staff responded to a policy initiative that aimed to encourage them to establish social enterprise organisations. Using a strategic change perspective, it shows how individuals leading the process made sense of becoming a social enterprise and communicated this strategic change to internal and external stakeholders. The article concludes suggesting that the success of strategic change efforts to establish social enterprise in these contexts will depend not only on the organisation's ability to implement new structures and processes but also the ability to convey this new mission and vision to the wider health and social care system.