Social enterprises are an important element of the social economy. To obtain such status, an enterprise should employ socially excluded people, act for the benefit of the local community and allocate all profits generated for statutory purposes. The article presents legal status of social enterprises, their legal structure and methods of supervision over their activities. Most of its elements should be assessed positively. In the author's opinion, changes should be introduced in the scope of granting the status of a social enterprise and the scope of monitoring the employment activities of people at risk of exclusion so that the enterprise can carry out its task more effectively.

Social cooperatives are important element which reduce social exclusion in the local market. In the last few months legislator introduced radical changes in social cooperative act. It imposed the possibility to create cooperative consortium between social cooperatives and organizations which support then in built stable working places for barred persons. This solution helps to improve its economic potential and solve problems witch government procurement agreement. A cooperative consortium can also impose limitations. One of them is additional acts of administration and financial responsibility impose on cooperative consortium members. In the article reader can also find information about future development of social cooperatives in Poland.