Strategy Development and Project Management

The Hub: Support for Social Enterprise in West Cumbria

CMS managed The Hub programme from June 2005 to March 2009 supplying specialist advice to new and emerging social enterprises in West Cumbria, encouraging them to acquire business skills and supporting them towards a healthy future by providing financial, legal and mentoring help.

The Challenge

While West Cumbria had a great deal of voluntary and community activity and there were a few successful social enterprises, there had been no support tailored to their needs. Many organisations seeking to become social enterprises remained dependent on grants and failed to attain viability.

The Solution

A group of partner agencies established the Hub as a single point of contact for social enterprises in the sub-region. Recognising that the expertise did not exist within the agencies themselves, the work was put out to tender and Co-operative and Mutual Solutions Ltd (CMS) won the contract.

‘Our work covered it all: until the Hub came along there wasn’t any cohesive support and people weren’t getting the right advice,’ said CMS director Gareth Nash.

A key success factor was that a local project manager was recruited who could broker advice and support from a wide range of organisations. The aim was to build relationships of trust with client social enterprises, being available over an extended period (2005-2008) and working with them to provide appropriate advice.

The social enterprises that have been helped include community gyms, a group of community centres and a recycling business, as well as an organisation working with young people who have been involved in car crime.

A ‘venture planning’ scheme supported new enterprises and tested the feasibility of their ideas, and social enterprises were well represented on the project’s steering group.

The Outcome

Fledgling social enterprises needed a great deal of support, and it took time to help them towards becoming effective businesses. There was a significant drop-out rate from the first venture planning course. In many cases it had taken up to 12 months for a social enterprise to begin trading.

From this network social enterprises have now started to flourish, and more experienced enterprises are able to mentor those who are starting up. This has been a great achievement.

‘We have gone out of our way to establish relationships between social enterprises’ says Gareth Nash.

Learning Points

• It is important to distinguish between voluntary or community groups and social enterprises: not all charities can or should adopt a business approach. Close relationships with community development workers and the local Council for Voluntary Service are needed to ensure appropriate support is offered.
• Setting up a social enterprise is a time-consuming process. Specialist advice, including legal advice, is needed and business skills need to be built up.
• It is effective to begin with a ‘process facilitator’ who can offer generic business advice and then direct social enterprises to more specialist help.

The Hub was funded by North West Develpment Agency, West Lakes Renaissance,Cumbria County Council and ERDF. The partners were Allerdale Borough Council ,Copeland Borough Council , Buisness link, West Cumbria Development Agency, Cumbria County Council, Inbiz and West Lakes Renaissance.

North West Develpment Agency(£450,000), Cumbria County Council(£250,000) and ERDF(£264.819)

Budget

£964,819

www.thehub.coop

Documentation

The start of The Hub

The Hub Outputs

Please download the Final Evaluation of The Hub

The Hub Quotes – What people have said.

Funded by The Co-operative Group, the Co-operative Enterprise Hub runs a programme to provide business support to new and existing co-operatives across the UK. The Advice and Training programme enables new and growing co-operative enterprises to access expert support to develop a sustainable and successful co-operative business.

Co-operative enterprises can apply for up to four days support which includes business planning, financial, staffing, legal and governance advice. It may also be sector specific in such fields as housing, retail or care services for example. In addition the programme will pay any registration fees for a new co-operative enterprise.

In the North West of England, Co-operative and Mutual Solutions Limited mansges the programme in conjunction with Social Enterprise and Co-operative Development, Co-operative Business Consultants, Mutual Business Advice andNorth West Housing Services, Adrian Ashton Consultants, Andrew Jessop Consultants, England Farming and Food Partnership.

CMS also manages the Advice and Training Programme in Yorkshire and Humberside.

An on-line application form is available through the following weblink:

http://www.co-operative.coop/Enterprisehub/Advice-and-training/

Sarah Deas, Chief Executive of Co-op Scotland talked about CSD and the future development for co-ops in Scotland.

Supporting & developing co-operative enterprise in Scotland

From start-ups to employee buyouts, our job is to enable co-operative enterprise to flourish in Scotland.

Sarah Deas, Chief Executive, Co-operative Development Scotland

Co-operative Development Scotland was set up in 2006 to increase the contribution of co-operative enterprise to the Scottish economy.

We are a subsidiary of Scottish Enterprise and have a Scotland-wide remit to ‘promote and facilitate the development of co-operative enterprises’.

If you are:

• looking to start a business;
• interested in transferring ownership of your business to your employees; or
• an established co-owned business,

CDS can offer support.

Co-operative models are relevant to all sectors but have particular growth potential in Scotland’s food and drink, tourism, forestry, renewable energy and creative industries.

To find out about co-operatives and the benefits of co-operation, Contact us or call 0141 951 3055.

The Wales Co-operative Centre is a national agency supporting community regeneration, economic development and social justice through co-operative solutions. CMS is a delivery partner in their Social Enterprise Support Project.

The Centre was set up in 1982 by the Wales TUC to help redundant workers from heavy industry. It has evolved into an organisation helping businesses and local communities across Wales.

The Centre aims to influence, inform and respond to Welsh public policy. It is publicly supported and funded and is a leading support and training organisation for co-operatives and social enterprises in Wales.

Wales Co-operative Centre, Llandaff Court, Fairwater Road, Cardiff, CF5 2XP Tel: 029 2055 4955

Support programme in Wales for Social Enterprise and Co-operatives

The Social Enterprise Support project provides advice and training to co-operatives, social enterprises and social entrepreneurs in Convergence areas of Wales, so that they can become successful and sustainable businesses

Co-operative Enterprise Hub boosts co-operative support across Wales

The Wales Co-operative Centre has won a contract to deliver a new programme of support for co-operative businesses which will be targeted in the non Convergence areas of Wales (Cardiff, Newport, Vale of Glamorgan, Powys, Monmouthshire, Wrexham and Flintshire). The Co-operative Enterprise Hub is part of a £5 million UK-wide programme of support for new and existing co-operatives funded by The Co-operative Group.

The official launch of the Welsh Co-operative Enterprise Hub (which will take place in June during Co-operatives Fortnight) follows a series of successful pilot-schemes across the UK which has led to the creation of more than 150 new co-operative businesses.

The Welsh Co-operative Enterprise hub delivered by the Wales Co-operative Centre will provide a package of advice, training and finance to help new and existing co-operatives become more sustainable businesses. Advice, training and consultancy will be provided free of charge. Support will be provided by co?operative development professionals and loans will be available without security or personal guarantees. The Hub will complement the service delivery in Convergence areas.

For further information about The Co-operative Enterprise Hub and the advice, training and consultancy available in Wales, visit www.co-operative.coop/enterprisehub or, telephone Angela Davies, The Co-operative Group’s co-operative development manager, on 0161 246 3020.

Over the last four years CMS has had a strong working relationship with WCDA and now we are running an Intensive Start Up Support programme (ISUS) across the Borough of Allerdale in West Cumbria. This is funded by Allerdale Borough Council, Cumbria County Council, ERDF and North West Development Agency.

As part of the programme we are supporting Social Enterprise and Coop development and any other business enquires as per WCDA directorate.

Other support they offer – Backing Business

This comprehensive new initiative is available across Allerdale and Copeland and aims to provide support to businesses with fewer than 250 employees.

The assistance will focus upon well proven methods of helping businesses to identify their needs and helping them to work towards future stability and hopefully growth.

We will be very much aiming to help businesses to;

• “Survive the Downturn”
• Maximise the potential within the business
• Increase sales and profitability
• Identify areas for growth

The Backing Business Programme consists of a range of support including free and confidential one to one business advice in the form of;

• A Fresh Look Review – a structured report containing recommendations to help you take the business forward.
• In-depth advice on matters such as financial management, human resources, IT and marketing to address issues raised in the Freshlook review.
• Grant funding to help meet business objectives. Primarily to assist with all or part of the costs of:
• Equipment
• Marketing
• Training

Background

In May 2003 the North West Development Agency completed a survey of social enterprises in Cumbria. The objectives of this survey were to:

• complete a practical survey of social enterprises within Cumbria
• identify gaps and barriers in the provision of support to social enterprises in Cumbria
• inform a full co-ordinated programme of proposals with partners and social enterprise support agencies for overcoming barriers or filling gaps in support provision

The North West Development Agency announced that funding would be made available to support the social enterprise section in the four sub-regions of Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cumbria and Cheshire. Social enterprises and community businesses were seen by the North West Development Agency as offering “an alternative model for expanding economic activity whilst securing social gains and building community capacity” and recognised the sub-regional Social Enterprise Partnerships as key organisations in delivering those aims.

The Cumbria Social Enterprise Partnership

This strategy for the Partnership was developed by the Cumbria Social Enterprise Steering Group, a partnership of Cumbrian social enterprises, development trusts, support agencies, local government, urban and rural regeneration companies to other stakeholders. The strategy is aimed at growing and strengthening a dynamic and sustainable social enterprise sector and to help to create an inclusive and growing Cumbrian economy.

The Action Plan was developed over an eighteen month period by the Cumbria Social Enterprise Partnership and set out to co-ordinate the efforts of all partners in Cumbria supporting Social enterprises and to allocate the available resources to maximum effect. This is implemented and managed by the Cumbria Social Enterprise Steering Group with the North Pennines Heritage Trust acting as the accountable body.

To join contact: [email protected]

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