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Q: Why does Croydon need the CEDC?
A: Croydon needs the CEDC to lead the borough’s regeneration and the fight back against the recession. Call the business hotline on 020 8680 6161 for more information.
Q: I am looking at export markets, can the CEDC help me?
A: Yes, free help and advice is available for local businesses through the Croydon Enterprise programme.
Q: What is the CEDC doing to attract businesses?
A: The CEDC will be promoting Croydon through a wide range of activities including marketing and lobbying to attract investment, as well as new businesses and jobs.
Q: What support is there from business rate-payers for the CEDC?
A: There is considerable support from Croydon businesses that see the urgency of its work in an economic slow-down. Town Centre businesses are also involved through their support for the Croydon Business Improvement District (BID).
Q: What is the CEDC doing now for individuals and businesses affected by the recession?
A: The CEDC is heavily involved in a number of initiatives, including a new information portal website, negotiations with local banks to encourage them to support businesses and town centre activities, including the Fashion Festival to attract shoppers. See www.croydoncrunch.org
Q: What are you doing to ensure that businesses have access to a workforce with the right skills?
A: One key project is the Croydon Retail Skills Centre being delivered with partners including Croydon College, JobCentre Plus and the council.
Q: What support is available to smaller, or ‘one man band’ businesses?
A: The Croydon Enterprise programme is well established in this area, offering a full portfolio of free support including advice, mentoring and affordable loans. See here: www.croydonenterprise.com
Q: Smaller businesses need access to up to date marketing contacts and other data, but are put off by the cost. How can the CEDC help?
A: Much useful data is provided free through the Croydon Enterprise programme. Call the business hotline on 020 8680 6161 for more information.
Q: What changes will be made to the Croydon Enterprise programme as a result of setting up of the CEDC?
A: The CE programme is already changing to help businesses fight the recession. It is also targeting skills training and other measures to fight unemployment. Monitoring ensures that the programme is heading in the right direction, with the right priorities.
Q: What are the major challenges to do with Croydon’s image?
A: Croydon has an undeserved reputation – the new CEDC is investing in promotional activity that encourages people to look at the facts about Croydon.
Q: How independent is the CEDC?
A: Independence is critical to its success and all partners involved are committed to this structure. The CEDC has a private sector majority board, and a private sector chair in Tony Rourke. The Council holds two out of 9 seats on the board. More information here:
Q: How many projects is CE planning to fund?
A: All projects under the Croydon Enterprise programme are currently being commissioned through a combination of preferred delivery partners and open tender. The programme for outreach will be commissioned through open tender.
Q: Can the winning project be based in the premises of the successful organisation or only somewhere provided by CE?
A: I’m sorry I didn’t understand this question.
Q: In one part of the online literature provided there is mention of match funding. Is the successful organisation also expected to come up with funding for the project?
A: Match funding demonstrates the commitment of the contracting body to the project and represents greater value, in terms of what could be achieved with a larger pot of funding. Bidders that provide significant match funding are afforded a degree of flexibility in terms of the scope of project activities. Although match funding is desirable, the success of the proposal depends on how well the project criteria has been met.
Q: Can one person in an organisation commissioned to run a project combine co-ordinating delivery with actual delivery of one or two of the programmes within the project?
A: We are expecting the contracting body to subcontract to community and voluntary organisations representing target groups. If the contracting body can demonstrate that they have specialist skills in outreach and are representative of a particular target group and furthermore, are able to demonstrate that they are can co-ordinate the programme, then yes, it is possible to combine coordination of the programme with delivery,
Q: Will at least one or two people be required to manage the project full time?
A: This depends on the scale of project activities. However, core salary costs i.e. for project manager should directly relate to the delivery of project activities, rather than for a general duties relating to the “management” of the programme
Q: I have a strong proposal for a youth project inspired by my track record of overseeing successful youth projects. Can you tell me what other youth projects have been successsful in previous years? Can the project be targetted at young people in pupil referral units and those who frequent youth clubs, Croydon Connexions and/or sign on at the job centre?
A: We currently fund the Council’s Children and Young People’s Department to deliver enterprise education in schools.
Types of outreach activities may be part of an overall outreach programme but delivered by a specialist organisation. For example, Connexions may be subcontracted to deliver outreach to young people.
Q: Can those delivering projects be skilled individuals commissioned by the winning organisation or individual? Or is it important that the projects are delivered by individuals based in community or voluntary organisations in Croydon?
A: No, it is imperative that the outreach is subcontracted to community and voluntary organisations that are indigenous to communities to deliver the outreach
Q: The outcomes seem to be very high in comparison to the budget for it. Particularly since you are wanting capacity building outcomes as well – although that is unclear because you don’t list capacity building within your outcome areas. Can you please clarify if that is what you are looking to contract
A: Your proposal should relate to the LAA outcomes listed in the specification. There may be additional spin off outcomes which will support the main LAA outcomes, however, the main work should relate to the LAA outcomes indicated in the project specification.
Q: will the output numbers that are listed be exclusive to this contract (for instance can we achieve employment outcomes from other sources?)
A: Croydon Enterprise felt that the targets set were realistic and achievable as they relate to the numbers of clients accessing services through referral and signposting. The main contracting body is expected to subcontract to a number of voluntary and community organisations that will proactively refer and signpost clients to other services. The outcomes relating to training, employment and worklessness will be counted when the client referred takes up the training or employment service. It is the responsibility of the voluntary / community organisation, using Croydon Enterprises CRM system to track the client referred, provide aftercare and record the outcome. We are anticipating that outcomes will also be counted by the services involved. However, Croydon Enterprise strongly felt that the remit of the outreach project was to act as the gateway in the client’s progression route to employment / business start-up and not intended to provide specialist interventions. This project is intended to support existing services rather than to duplicate the work done by specialist agencies.
Q: you mention SLEMBA in one of your documents. Are they the preferred provider?
A: This is an open tender. There are no preferred partners.
Q: The theme focuses on equipping those from key target groups with appropriate skills and knowledge to become economically active based on an enterprising culture amongst Croydon’s residents.
Would you please expand on this element i.e, appropriate skills and knowledge?
A: Appropriate 'skills and knowledge' refers to the soft and hard skills required to get a job or start up a business. For example, self confidence, employability skills, knowledge about a particular sector or industry etc.etc.
Q: Engagement of target groups – women are missing, is this right?
A: “women” are a key target group under the Croydon Enterprise Programme and all projects, where appropriate, will be expected to engage with women. However, the programme has been successful in engaging with women in the past and therefore it was felt that the priority should be on groups that are currently under represented in the programme. i.e. Lone Parents, disabled etc which will also include a proportion of women. There will be an opportunity to focus on women under the outreach contract if there the contracting body feels there is a specific need to target women.
Q: 50 Start ups in Yr 1 and 100 in Yr 2 are these targets/outcomes realistic? - The responsibility for achieving these outcomes will shift from this project to other delivery partners, how do you envisage this working.
A: The outcome targets in the tender pack are indicative and will be subject to negotiation with the contracting body, depending on what is achievable and realistic. The outcomes themselves are not negotiable.
Individual community organisations may be subcontracted to do the outreach work. The reason for this is because many of these organisations already undertake outreach in their communities. The Croydon Enterprise programme will tap into this wealth of expertise and support the work already being undertaken.
Q: Who else has bid for the project?
A: As this is a competitive tendering exercise, the council’s procurement rules mean that we cannot reveal the details of agencies bidding for the project.
Q: Is the contracting body responsible for delivering the outreach?
A: No – the contracting body is expected to co-ordinate the project and work within a wide network of community and voluntary organisation. The contracting body will be expected to subcontract the outreach work to community and voluntary organisations that represent the key target groups and include:
- Black and Minority Ethnic
- Young people (16-23), including NEETs
- Lone Parents
- Over 50s
- Disabled
- People on long term benefits
Q: What is the Croydon Enterprise programme aiming to achieve?
A: We want to create a thriving local economy in Croydon. We provide a range of services and support to help businesses start and grow. These include business loans, help to combat crime, training … and much more. To see just how much more there is to our programme; see this link: www.croydonenterprise.com
Q: I live in Streatham – can I get support from Croydon Enterprise to start a business?
A: Yes, but only if you can demonstrate that you plan to start up a business in Croydon.
Q: I live in Croydon, but want to start a business in Brixton - am I eligible for free support from Croydon Enterprise?
A: No – the Croydon Enterprise programme is for Croydon people, Croydon businesses and businesses relocating in the borough.
Q: Is support only available to people and businesses in New Addington and Norbury?
A: No. Our services are for all Croydon people, but not unreasonably we do focus a lot of attention on places where we consider there could be more business activity. See our website for more detail on the areas and communities we are focussing on. More information here
Q: I have seen press reports that the Croydon Enterprise is investing £77m over ten years. Is this correct?
A: The original bid for central government funding of £77m over 10 years was successful. However funding was always conditional on the government’s budget process. The latest position is that we have secured funding of £40.3M for the first five years of the programme (2006 – 2011).
Q: Can this money be invested in existing businesses that are struggling to survive in the current economic climate?
A: Croydon Enterprise loans and other services are available to help people start and expand businesses. We do need to ensure that support is given to viable businesses; it is not intended to artificially prop up failing businesses. However, there may be other ways we can help a struggling business from going under. More information here:l
Q: What’s the difference between Croydon Enterprise and Croydon Business Ltd?
A: Croydon Business Ltd is a limited company that is independent of Croydon Council. The Croydon Enterprise programme is delivered by a number of partners although Croydon Business Ltd takes a leading role in delivery and also has a co-ordination role across partners supporting businesses.
Q: How is this money being spent?
A: This investment is being used to provide a range of services, including free business advice and training. We are also building a network of Enterprise Opportunity Centres and have many more enterprising projects running. Full details of the spending is in the programme’s last two annual reports, here
Q: I see you are offering loans to help people start new businesses. Aren’t you just competing with high street banks?
A: No, we offer loans to people who, for all sorts of reasons, may not have been able to obtain a loan from mainstream sources. This might, for example, be down to the fact that they haven’t had a bank account for long enough to get the required number of credit-worthiness points. More information here:
Q: Isn’t offering loans to people who have been refused by High Street banks bad business?
A: Not the way we work, no. We scrutinise each application for a loan. Unlike High Street Banks we can help applicants prepare a good business plan and, if they are successful in obtaining a loan from us, we provide follow-up support to give the new business the best chance of success.
Q: You are helping schools develop enterprise on the curriculum, which is all very well, but are you seriously saying that a school leaver can become an entrepreneur?
A: There are many examples of people who have started successful businesses, or become self employed, immediately after leaving school. We don’t claim that this is an option that is for everyone, but it makes sense to equip students with the right tools to be able to consider entrepreneurial options when they leave school. More information here:
Q: You talk of ‘business mentors’ working for the Croydon Enterprise programme. Who are they?
A: A mentor is an experienced businessperson who helps foster business growth and provide experience and advice. It is not a substitute for professional business support. Mentors are trained and matched to the person being mentored by their skills and businesses. They provide direct, specialised support, face-to-face and over the ‘phone.
Q: Why do you offer security equipment free to businesses?
A: Criminal activity can affect people's livelihood and the economy of a neighbourhood - this is one reason why we support this work. Useful help and advice is also in the Safer Croydon Partnership's 'Community Safety Handbook', it is also on the Croydon Enterprise web here:
Q: Community and voluntary organisations aren’t ‘real businesses’, so why is the Croydon Enterprise programme supporting them?
A: You may not regard them as ‘real businesses’ but there are many voluntary organisations in Croydon which are run just like a commercial business. We are supporting those organisations to be run even more efficiently and make best use of funding. We also help them launch social enterprises, which provide a valuable service and which re-invest profits in community services. Also, this kind of support can help community groups become self-sufficient and less dependent on grants. More information here:
Q: You are building ‘Enterprise Opportunity Centres’ – what are they?
A: Enterprise Opportunity Centres (EOCs) are business launch pads – a local resource for local entrepreneurs. EOCs will provide affordable trading space, support and much more. The first, using redundant space in Park House, central Croydon, is due to open in October 2008. More information here:
Q: What is a ‘District Centre Manager’?
A: Our District Centre Managers (DCMs) are the Croydon Enterprise programme people on the ground. They are all energetic people, who work with local businesses and other Croydon Enterprise service providers to make ‘their’ districts more attractive places to shop and visit. They also run events, help get environmental improvements done, plus a range of other initiatives to bring in shoppers. We have DCMs covering Thornton Heath and Selhurst; Norbury and Crystal Palace, New Addington and Purley Way, South Norwood, Purley and Coulsdon. More information here:
Q: Your annual report says that the programme spent £11.7M in the last two financial years. What did Croydon get for that?
A: There isn’t space here to list all the programme’s achievements in helping regenerate Croydon’s economy. Full information is set out in our Annual Reports, but here are some outcomes for the last two financial years: 227 new businesses started up, a new, dedicated, beauty and complementary therapy training centre opened in Thornton Heath and 38 new retail outlets opened in district centres. All these examples happened because of our help and support. All our achievements are independently monitored and can be found in our annual report. Achievements like these led to Croydon being voted, ‘Most Enterprising Place in London’ in 2007.
Q: Why do you need ‘business friendly’ planning advice?
A: Advice on town planning issues, such as the law on changing the use of business premises can be complex and off-putting. Our Business Friendly Planners – we have two – are professionals who know their way round the system. Bigger companies have specialists like these on retainers, but that’s not an option for small businesses, or sole traders? More information here:
Q: You advertise Online Resources for Business (ORB). What is that?
A: It’s pretty much what it says – on-line, i.e. internet, business information on events, market surveys and more. These are up-to-date reference sources full of information that businesses need to target new customers and win new business. Again, this is a service that you normally have to pay for. We provide it free to local people who are members of the Croydon library service. More information here: |
