The case between Gloucestershire NHS and local resident Michael Lloyd has ended, but it has created a big thing issue for discussion. The legal battle between the two on giving or not giving the community care service to a non NHS body has raised concerns that general public do not understand social enterprise.

Social Enterprise UK CEO Peter Holbrook discussed the issue. He affirmed that the issue between Gloucestershire NHS and Michael Lloyd is the biggest example which shows that people have no or very little understanding about the public enterprise and it’s working.

Holbrook said that local community would have been with the NHS if they would have involved them since the beginning of the process. The general public was not involved dearly enough and this led to legal battle.

If they would have known about it then there would have no problem. But Holbrook said that he thinks problem is much more than it is perceived. He further affirmed that people do not understand the difference between social enterprise and private business firm.

Both are different in every aspect. The main aim of social enterprise is to help society and reinvest their profit to bring more improvements in the community. However, such is not the case with the private firms whose main motive is to distribute the profit among shareholders.

“If people don’t understand the difference between a social enterprise and a mainstream private business then they are naturally going to be suspicious about social enterprises working in public services. Yet in our experience, social enterprises that deliver health and social care services”, said he.

Things can be improved and general population should be made aware of the difference between the two as well as what is beneficial for them in coming time.