Issue details

At its meeting on 24th January 2020 Cabinet approved a number of interventions detailed in its report Tendring4Growth. This included proposals to procure a third party organisation to provide a District-Wide Business Support Service.
The procurement (which commenced in December 2020) sought to secure a contractor to provide a comprehensive range of business support and outreach services (Information, Advice and Guidance) to be made available to emerging and established businesses across the district for a period of three years from the date of appointment.
As part of the Council's specification the services to be made available by contractors under this scheme were required to respond to, and align with the aims and objectives of the Council’s Economic Development Strategy and with the ambitions of the North Essex Economic Strategy.
Services and interventions to be included:
•Generic business support (Information, Advice and Guidance);
•Proactive outreach services, embracing new and established
businesses;
•Sector specific support linked to the district’s growth sectors
(Clean Energy, Blue Tech, Assisted Living, Tourism
•Business planning;
•Cash-flow management;
•Marketing and communications;
•Assisting businesses with funding applications;
•B2B networking;
•Events and conferencing;
•COVID safe working and COVID recovery support;
•New ways of working; and
•Sign-posting businesses to IAG provided by other local, regional
and national agencies (e.g. BEST Growth Hub, South East Local
Enterprise Agency, Government).