Lowick Cluster of Social Enterprises

The origins of the Enterprising Communities involvement

The involvement of Enterprising Communities in the Lowick Social Enterprise Cluster is a curious one in that for some time the Enterprising Communities key advisor was also the Chair of the School Board of Governors - Rose Bugler. Rose’s background is local; she grew up near Barrow, and was educated to Master’s level.  She had a range of jobs: working as a biochemist and information scientist as well as having overseas banking experience and running her own IT business.  More recently she worked as a New Start Business Counsellor and Trainer with Furness Enterprise, which was the local, Training and Enterprise agency as the New Start Business Counsellor and trainer, and with Community Action Furness in governance skills.  She is also a community activist and had previously been part of a group fighting the closure of a community nursery. 

‘I became Chair of Governors from September 1999, on the resignation of the local vicar from the role.  Soon after that I made contact with Kate Braithwaite at Voluntary Action Cumbria (VAC) and through VAC applied for Millennium funding for our Rural School for the Future project.  We then started to develop a model for a rural extended school and ran community consultations, art workshops and holiday activities for children, ran a cyber café for silver surfers etc.  We explored ways to raise additional income to balance the small deficit (£3,000 per year) by widening the use of the building.  In comparison to the challenges at Community Action Furness this seemed small potatoes to deal with!  We were implementing an integrated response to national educational and rural development policy, and felt that we were really getting somewhere.  We felt that it would protect the school from closure for the future as we were generating additional funding on a regular basis and paying off the deficit that had accumulated over several years of low pupil numbers.’

Rose’s involvement with VAC developed in other areas, and she became an Associate with the organisation.  Her work at the time for VAC included a project on Social Audit Support, a piece on the Compact between the voluntary sector and statutory authorities, and a piece of research with the New Economics Foundation (NEF)  explored the impact of Cumbrian projects within their community using a local multiplier process that led to NEF’s LM3 tool.  It was while she was working as an associate for VAC that the public consultation on the review for closure of Lowick School began.  Shortly after this, Rose was appointed as the Development Worker for Enterprising Communities.

Rose’s initial work did not include paid time working with Lowick – despite her involvement in the Board of Governors being discussed in the course of her appointment to the post.  Her early work for Enterprising Communities was similar to that for other Development staff, and included audits of local social enterprise activities.  During this time she continued an involvement in a voluntary capacity using evenings and weekends to support the campaign against the closure of the school.  This was an intensive period with late nights spent in  community meetings, working with barristers and as part of the team making presentations to committees, councillors and officers.