Craig McAteer, managing director at Link4Life, said: "We are at the heart of the community we serve and The Social Enterprise Mark demonstrates that Link4Life is well placed to respond to the government's Big Society agenda and I for one am extremely proud that we have been awarded the mark.

"We have successfully introduced a new way of delivering crucial public services throughout the borough of Rochdale, and obviously Rochdale is deeply rooted in the co-operative movement and social enterprise model and this is something as a company we want to promote to our staff and customers."