Integration & business creation

Kit departementalESS N°11

June 2021

Réseau des collectivités Territoriales pour une Economie Solidaire (RTES)

In connection with the renewal of departmental and regional executives in June 2021, the RTES is proposing a DepartmentalESS kit to raise awareness among candidates and provide tools for future teams wishing to support the social and solidarity economy (SSE).

This kit will include about twenty practical sheets, based on the principle of the MunicipalESS Kit published in 2020, illustrated with examples, and presenting in a synthetic and concrete way how a regional council can include the SSE in its policies.

Sheet No. 11 specifies the role of the departments in local integration policies.

The departmental councils are in charge of integration policies (allocation of the RSA and support for beneficiaries in their integration process), which they implement through a departmental integration programme (PDI).

The SSE actors are essential partners of the departments in their integration policies, through all the actors contributing to social and professional integration.

Beyond access to employment, which is only one of the means of integration, the departments can also act on other levers of integration with the support of SSE actors: mobility, health, or housing.

Several possible levers of action:

Supporting the IAE networks in their role of animation and network

The departments can support these networks in order to contribute to the development objectives of AEI (ambition AEI pact with the State), to the objectives of the departmental integration programme, and to develop innovative solutions for local employment. They can also integrate AEI actors in the consultation bodies and departmental plans.

Develop social clauses in public contracts and use the services of SIAEs

Within the framework of their public procurement, the departmental councils can call on integration operators. In particular, they can systematise the use of social inclusion clauses, set up a SPASER or publish a report on the department’s public purchases (see sheet 12).

Strengthen the place of the SSE in the European Social Fund (ESF) actions

As managers of the European Social Fund (ESF), departmental councils can ensure that SSE actors are included in all funded actions, for example in their calls for ESF projects.

The ESF aims to create more and better jobs in a more socially inclusive society. It helps to fight poverty, promote education, skills acquisition and lifelong learning (Europe 2020 strategy).

Financing support and co-financing integration posts

Departments can support the socio-professional support offered to employees in integration. They can also co-finance integration posts with the State, particularly for RSA recipients, beyond the workshops and integration sites.

Inclusion clauses in public contracts

The Meurthe-et-Moselle department includes a social inclusion clause in its public contracts whenever possible. For example, for the installation and recycling of computer equipment used by departmental agents and schoolchildren or for the maintenance of green spaces on sites belonging to the departmental council. In Haute-Garonne, the Schéma Départemental de la Commande Publique (Departmental Public Procurement Plan) sets the objective of further deploying the social inclusion clause in all contracts, and of developing contracts reserved for SIAEs and adapted companies.

Supporting inclusive mobility initiatives

Mobility is a key issue in terms of social and territorial inclusion. The departmental councils can support SSE initiatives for inclusive mobility such as solidarity mobility platforms or solidarity garages.

Supporting the creation of jobs and activities in the SSE

The departments can support the development of SSE activities, as the Oise departmental council can do by supporting the Busin’ESS clubs run by the CRESS Hauts-de-France, which aim to promote the development of SSE structures by sector and by territory.

The departments can also promote the development of Cooperatives of Activity and Employment (CAE) in different sectors of activity on their territory. The public targeted by the CAEs is varied: part-time employees, RSA recipients, jobseekers or students at the end of their studies.

They can also support collective entrepreneurship support schemes centred on learning by doing and collective ownership, such as the Coopératives Jeunesse de Service (CJS), the Coopératives Jeunes Majeurs (CJM) or the Coopératives de territoire.

The Mobil’Arden inclusive mobility platform

Mobil’Arden brings together mobility service offers throughout the Ardennes.

The Ardennes Departmental Council has been providing financial support to this association under the Departmental Integration Programme (PDI) and the Fonds d’Aide aux Jeunes en Difficulté (FAJD) since its creation at the end of 2017. This funding enables the association to pay for mobility counsellors to work with RSA recipients and young people, driving licences to be taught by a driving school, and transport on demand.

Supporting the Territoires zéro chômeur de longue durée (zero long-term unemployed) experiments

Initiated by ATD Quart-Monde, the aim of the experimentation is to demonstrate that it is possible, on a territorial scale, to offer any long-term unemployed person who so wishes, a permanent job on a voluntary basis, by developing and financing useful and non-competitive activities to meet the needs of the various actors in the territory: inhabitants, businesses, institutions.

Several départements have supported the 10 territories selected in the first phase of experimentation since 2016, alongside the State and other willing territorial authorities.

By the law of December 2020, the national experimentation is extended to allow 50 additional territories to create EBEs.

The Départements can support the EBEs in several ways, ranging from engineering support to job creation via the contribution to employment development (CDE). Since the second experimentation law, this contribution is compulsory, and the application decree of the law will specify the amount of this participation.

The Nièvre department’s support for EBE 58 in Prémery

The Nièvre department has supported the establishment of the Entreprise à But d’Emploi (EBE) 58 in Prémery, through engineering assistance within the framework of the local employment committee.

Since the creation of the EBE in 2017, the department has provided, via the CDE, flat-rate funding for salaries of 1690 euros per FTE created. EBE 58, which currently has 92 employees for 66 FTEs, develops a wide range of activities: motorbike farming, afforestation, market gardening, recycling, etc.

A new experimental area, supported by the Pays Nivernais Morvan, could emerge in the Nièvre as part of the second phase of experimentation. In May 2020, the department adopted an intervention regulation specifying the methods of support for the TZC project, particularly in the identification of beneficiaries and their support before and during their integration into the EBE.

To go further

  • Pacte d’ambition pour l’insertion par l’activité économique, Conseil de l’inclusion dans l’emploi, 2019

  • Website of the association Territoires zéro chômeur de longue durée

  • Coorace’s plea « #Départementales2021 : With territorial social utility companies, commit to solidarity and inclusive territories ».