The senior designer at Bath-based charity Designability, which makes life-changing technology, will speak at an event in the city this week about how it converts innovative ideas into commercially-viable products that have a real impact on people’s lives.
Keir Haines will be joined by Bath Innovation Centre director Simon Bond, and Dick Penny, managing director of Bristol’s multi-media centre Watershed, as part of a seminar series to support Bath charity St John’s Hospital’s new social lending scheme. 
The event, on Thursday evening, will explain how the £4m fund can support innovation and growth in social enterprises and charitable organisations in Bath with social, cultural and environmental aims.
The loans are from £25,000 upwards and will be made over the next four years. They are designed to help local people and communities make a step change in the services they provide.
Designability, based at the Wolfson Centre at the city’s Royal United Hospital, is a national charity that aims to enhance the lives of people with disabilities or health problems.
One of its products, the Wizzybug powered wheelchair, pictured, is designed for children aged under five with mobility problems caused by illnesses such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy and spinal muscular atrophy.
Generally there is no NHS funding for products like the Wizzybug, so Designability operates a free loan scheme for as long as the child can benefit and then refurbishes the chair for other families to use.
At Thursday’s event – which takes place between 5pm- 7pm at law firm Thrings’ Queen Square office, Keir Haines will speak on how to convert ideas such as Wizzybug into trading opportunities, why this product has been successful and how social investment could support organisations such as Designability have more impact on those they are trying to reach.
He said: “Financial support is very important to not-for-profit organisations that have developed innovative ideas that can have a real social impact. Social lending is an option for organisations that maybe don’t have the time or ability to raise investment through traditional lending routes to maximise that idea.
“The more successful products we can bring to market, the more we can reinvest in creating and building new ideas to meet unmet needs, and in turn the more we can help those people who need that help."
Examples could include:
- Growing and developing the organization
- Supporting day to day expenses to set up a new project
- Buying and refurbishing a property
- Employing more people
- Buying vans, trucks and other equipment so more people can benefit
The ground-breaking programme will run alongside the charity’s existing grants programme, which has been running for more than 20 years.
Last year it made grants to individuals and organisations working with disadvantaged people and communities totalling around £450,000.
The West of England is a leading region for social enterprises. There are around 600 with a combined annual turnover of £380m. They are made up of 2,800 voluntary groups, 250 community interest companies (CICs) and co-ops and sustain 10,500 jobs.
St John’s head of social investment at Sue Cooper, said: “St John’s has engaged with a wide range of local charities through its community grants programme and identified a number of organisations whose turnover was too large to qualify for a grant, but who were struggling to access capital to help them sustain their services.
“A fund such as this enables social enterprises such as Designability to expand in a way that makes them more resilient, able to deliver more and wider services and ultimately be more sustainable, rather than relying on smaller one off grants.”
