AUGUST 2018

PLATFORM 6:
HELPING THE MOVEMENT
SEIZE ITS MOMENT
By Susan Press
It is something of a paradox that at a time when
the co-operative movement is in pole position
to transform our economy, the number
of co-op development agencies and
bodies offering support to new start-ups
has significantly fallen. But all that could
change, thanks to an online initiative to
consolidate knowledge and expertise using the
latest technology.
Platform 6 Co-operative is headed by Dr
Mark Simmonds, who for the past six years has
been helping people start and grow co-ops via
Co-op Culture, a consortium of members and
associates with wide experience of supporting
co-operatives. It conducts research, and offers
advice on everything from feasibility studies
and finance to drafting community share
offers, grant and loan finance, governance
and structures, and delivering training and
workshops. So far it has helped clients in fields
including agriculture, energy,. housing and
food co-ops.
Dr Simmonds has a long association with
Co-operatives UK and currently occupies
the co-operative development seat on its
board. He agrees that recent years have
not been easy for traditional co-operative
development agencies (CDAs) and co-op
development bodies (CDBs) – but says their
decline started much earlier.
“The main problem is the lack of funding
streams which are available for development,”
he says. “CDAs were doing well until Margaret
Thatcher pulled the funding plug from central
government in the 1980s and over the years
most of them have fallen by the wayside
– although there are about half a dozen
left in places like Coventry, Warwickshire
and Lincolnshire.
“The CDB Forum, hosted by Co-operatives
UK, is still up and running and there are still
about 25 CDBs but they have really struggled
for a variety of reasons including overheads
and the fact there is now more paid work with
social enterprise rather than co-operatives.”
He adds: “At Co-op Culture we realised we
had a lot of expertise within co-ops we had
supported over the years – and lots of them
were already doing development work. But it wasn’t paid and it was under
the radar. The only thing there purely for co-ops is the Hive, funded by the
Co-operative Bank and run by Co-operatives UK. However this is limited
and very competitive.
“Power To Change has lots of Lottery money in trust but it is tied to
community businesses and many co-ops are not eligible. We knew we
could get lots of work supporting community stuff but not worker co-ops
who are the people we want to work with. There is huge demand out there
but it is under-resourced.
“We thought could we create a fund for the whole co-op movement
which would allow people to put money in. That’s where the idea for
Platform 6 came from.”
Platform 6 aims to grow the co-operative economy through the peerto-peer
provision of high-quality expertise, services and funding using a
co-operatively owned and controlled digital platform.
It was incorporated as a co-operative just a month ago and its founder
members are planning a comprehensive network of co-operative
expertise and shared resources. They hope this will generate funds for
co-operative development and broker relationships to deliver formal cooperative
business support to new and existing co-operatives.
If all goes to plan, the network will be developed by the members
through Loomio, a platform which allows online discussion and
structured decision-making by members supporting each other through
peer-to-peer advice. The idea is that the platform will fund payment for
co-operative development consultancy work as well as events training,
workshops and pretty much anything else members want to fund.
Above: Platform 6 has worked in areas including agriculture
36 | AUGUST 2018