A NEW PROGRAMME TO HELP COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL ENTERPRISES ACCESS PUBLIC SECTOR CONTRACTS

The Government office for London has recently approved substantial funding for the Haringey Business Development Agency to implement the Community Enterprises Tender to Win programme (CETTWIN).

The CETTWIN programme which is supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is committed to tackling the barriers that community and social businesses face in tendering for and winning public sector contracts. The programme seeks to reduce the disparities that these businesses face in securing contracts by ensuring equality of opportunity for all.
Download CETTWIN ResearchBrief (.doc)

The programme will promote the business case of the sector as a significant creator of wealth and employment to public sector organizations to embracing supplier diversity, by taking innovative steps to promote greater integration of community/social enterprises in mainstream economic activities.

This will be achieved through the implementation of research and policy development into the current procurement policies of the public sector, notably local authorities.

Capacity building, mentoring and training support will be delivered to enhance and improve the procurement skills of community and social enterprises initially within the London Upper Lee Valley boroughs of Enfield, Haringey and Waltham Forest.

There are 3 phases to the programme.

Phase 1: Research and Analysis
Under this phase, we will look into the tendering capacity requirements of 500 community and social enterprises. This phase will also uncover specific problems encountered by these enterprises in their attempt to do business with the public sector. Effort will be made to identify public sector organisations that would be prepared to engage with community enterprises and their requirement.

The research findings will inform bespoke training, capacity building and mentoring activities to be developed.
Your organisation is invited to participate fully in this research.

Phase 2: Understanding public sector procurement
At the end of the research, we will design tailored learning programme modules based on results of the research. These modules would focus on the workings of the public sector including, the tendering process, tendering documentation and how procurement decisions are made.

Stage 3: Mentoring and Support
This phase would deliver direct mentoring support to enterprises.
For those businesses who have identified tendering opportunities they would be given one to one mentoring and handholding support through their tendering process. During this time, support will also be available to review your organisation’s management systems and help you understand how to present information to tendering organisations to achieve best results.
During the coming months, community enterprises will be contacted for research.

For further information and to register your interest please contact us:
Haringey Business Development Agency
Second Floor
312 High Road
London
N15 4BN

Tel: 020 8376 6262

Download CETTWIN ResearchBrief (.doc)