As part of their commitment to encouraging and enabling social enterprises through facilitating their access to social investment, the Key Fund commissioned an independent sector consultant, Adrian Ashton, to undertake an initial literature review into rural social enterprises accessing of social investment, at the start of 2018. The consultant commissioned has a background in social investment from having previously managed and developed local social investment funds for co-operative and social enterprises in the East of England, and also actively working with a number of social investors nationally through their involvement with the now ended Big Potential programme.