Plunkett Foundation
The Plunkett Foundation specialises in rural social enterprise, particularly community owned village shops. Plunkett is part of the national govt stakeholder arena on social enterprise. It has had individual delivery arrangements with some RCAN members (NW in particular).The Plunkett Foundation supports rural communities wanting to set up and run a community-owned shop. It provides practical assistance through the Rural Community Shops website, a network of community retail advisers, a national office and various publications.
Community Shops Network (supported by the Plunkett Foundation)
Community Shops Network enables opportunities to learn about setting up and running a community-owned shop. You can explore the shop directory to learn more about the communities already running their own shop. Stay up to date on new shop openings and all the latest news.
The Campaign for Community Banking Services
The Campaign for Community Banking Services pressure group is a co-coordinating body for national organisations representing sectoral interests adversely affected by the closure of local bank branches, particularly of the last or only bank in a rural or urban community.
National Association of Small Schools
The National Association of Small Schools (NASS) is a campaigning organisation. It advises and supports small schools at risk of closure, lobby on behalf of small schools and humanity of scale in education and promote the virtues of small schools and known best practice.
National Association of Community Run Shops
The National Association of Community Run Shops has been in existence since early 2009 and are a collection of Community Shops around the country who have banded together to create an email forum where shops having questions can receive answers from those who have already "done it." We have over 175 shops in touch with each other.
Rural Shops Alliance
The Rural Shops Alliance is a national trade association working to support the owners of independent rural shops. We represent about 8,000 such businesses throughout England.
Post Office (Network pages including information on Outreach Services)
Post Office Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Mail Group. With a nationwide network of Post Office® branches across the country the Post Office® network is the UK’s biggest retailer. Our history dates back to 1635 when Charles 1 opened up his private mail service to the general public.
