Good Deals 12: Social investment: a watershed moment?

Good Deals 2012 - the UK social investment conference - launched this morning with a film made in partnership with the SIB Group marking a decade of social investment. We are now at a turning point for the sector, heard delegates.

'2012 genuinely does really look like a watershed,' says Antony Ross of investor Bridges Ventures in the film. 

'We have had periods when we have felt we were pushing against the stream. But the launch of Big Society Capital does mark a material change - a change in the engagement of government to support the sector to become, in particular, a major supplier of public services.'

'It's been an amazing journey from where things were 10 years ago,' he added. 'Perhaps we're not yet mainstream, but we are a really material part of the economy.'

The film features interviews with social investment leaders as well as organisations that have been able to grow after taking on investments.

Caroline Mason, COO of Big Society Capital, says: 'I think the next 10 years will be very, very good for the sector.'