These two delivery themes will be contracted and commissioned jointly as they involve a number of similar activities.
By 2009:
High quality business support services in Croydon will be delivering to an increasing number of start ups, social enterprises and existing businesses.
Business support will be operating so that it appears seamless to the client, and there will be effective cross referral between different providers. A range of new and innovative services and non-traditional providers of business support will have been brought into the network
By 2016:
The business base in our target areas will have grown. Start up survival rates will be as high as the London average, and there will be increased numbers of businesses reporting growth and high growth. Clearly identifiable sector concentrations and business clusters will be well established.
The business support network in Croydon will be a rich mix of public, voluntary and private sector providers, working well together and able to innovate and respond quickly to business needs. |
Delivery of these themes will be by:
- An overarching framework for coordination and generic services
- Foundation building contracts to support the business organisation network
- Specialist services
Overall framework
There will be one overall framework contract to coordinate all business contact activities, from pre-start to work with growing businesses. This will also include delivery of generic advice and support.
It will include:
- Orchestration of business support services through Croydon Business Support Network
- Generic start up services
- Consultancy and mentoring
- Marketing support
- Generic finance advice
- Market intelligence service
- Networking and workshops
- Cluster/sector action teams and initiatives
- Business support capacity building
- Customer information and client management across all services delivered to businesses under the programme.
This will be procured by a grant to Croydon Business Ltd because:
- We wish to purchase additional volumes of an existing service that has already been subject of a competitive tendering process by another funding body – LDA start up and micro business support programme
- It is imperative that we do not set up a parallel service that will duplicate and conflict with a similar or complementary service aimed at the same client group
The grant method allows us to restrict funding to just those costs incurred in delivery of the services. Croydon Business Ltd will use a mixture of in-house and external delivery. Much of the external delivery will utilise a number of call-off contracts which procured through an open application process, and which will aim to bring in a wide range of potential deliverers.
Foundation Builders
- There will be a number of Foundation Building contracts in 2006/07 to build capacity for delivery among Croydon organisations.
Specialist services
There will be a number of specialist services that may be contracted for separately, but which will operate within the framework contract under the guidance and direction of the organisation delivering the overall framework contract. These include:
Specialist service |
Procurement method |
Start up training |
Commissioned from Continuing Education and Training Service (CETS) – purchasing more of an existing service |
Construction Skills Centre |
Grant to Croydon College – have the CoVE for construction |
Bespoke business training |
Open tendering |
Skills for Trade (Beauty and hairdressing) |
Open tendering |
Finance Ladder (loan fund) |
Special vehicle to be set up |
Finance - CDFI/Credit Union |
Development project |
Innovation support for high growth businesses |
Procurement to be confirmed – will need to align with the London development Agency (LDA) services |
International trade and developing new markets |
Open tendering |
Procurement and supply chain |
Possible grant to Supply London – additional volumes of an existing service which is being market tested by the London development Agency (LDA) in 2006 |
Franchising support service |
Open process – will need to align with the LDA services |
Skills for growth – bespoke training |
Open process – will need to link to ‘Train to Gain’ |
E -commerce support |
Open process |
A contract condition for specialist services is that they must operate within the overall coordination of Croydon Business Ltd who will be delivering the over-arching framework. Delivery organisations must collect, record and provide customer information in compliance with the method and systems set out by Croydon Business Ltd.
Within the package of services, there will be an emphasis on building the skills of people and businesses in the target areas to allow them to start and grow a successful business. There will be three elements:
- Skills for start – giving people the necessary skills for a successful business start up
- Skills for trade – vocational training in areas where there is the highest potential for self employment and business creation. This will be based in the target areas where possible, and there will be some specialist centres created in target wards.
- Skills for growth – bespoke training for owner/managers to help them grow their business, and also for critical skills in their workforce. This will be linked closely to Train to Gain.
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