Enterprising People Partnership

The South West regional winner of Enterprising Britain 2006 was the Enterprising People Partnership.

The Enterprising People project focuses on inner city Bristol, which despite Bristol's reputation as a university town and one of the South West's main economic centres, suffers from real economic problems. In the area of Ashley, the economically inactive account for 9 per cent of the working population, compared to 3 per cent for Bristol as a whole; in the Lawrence Hill area, the figure rises to 14 per cent. Across Bristol, 12 per cent of the population live in areas that are classified as being amongst the 10 per cent most deprived areas in the country, with two areas amongst the bottom 1 per cent.

The city is also home to a wide range of communities, some well established, such as the Afro-Caribbean, Asian and Chinese communities, and others much newer, including the Somali and Ethiopian communities, which have grown significantly in recent years and include many refugees.

The Enterprising People project partnership had already achieved considerable success with their previous enterprise project - Bristol Means Business (BMB). BMB ran from January 2002 to September 2005 and made a significant contribution to the city's economy, in terms of new jobs and new business created, as well as survival rates. However, proactive intervention in enterprise was still required, both to maintain the momentum created by the BMB project and to continue to contribute to the regeneration of Bristol's deprived areas.

The Enterprising People project specifically addresses two key challenges - the fragmented business support across Bristol and the need to widen access and participation in enterprise.

The approach aimed to take the progress achieved through inter-agency co-operation over the past three years in the Bristol Means Business' project (BMB) a significant step forward. The Enterprising People partnership comprised of Business West (including Business Link), Bristol Area Community Enterprise Network (BACEN), BRAVE Enterprise Agency, incorporating Avon Co-operative Development Agency (AVON CDA) and Bristol East Side Traders (BEST), bringing mainstream, enterprise agency and social enterprise support together. The project has a partnership board comprising senior staff from each organisation, with a rotating Chair from the Partnership, which sets policy and monitors progress against targets, and an observer from Bristol City Council.

Thanks to this co-operative structure, Enterprising People is able to offer fully joined up services and marketing and share client information through their databases. A key and innovative part of this has been the creation of two inner city Bristol Enterprise Teams (Local Area Teams) for Ashley and for Easton and Lawrence Hill, combining business advisers from the five organisations.

The benefits of this approach have been wide-ranging. For potential entrepreneurs from these communities, there is no 'wrong door'. They can approach any of the partners and know that they will receive high quality business support from across the partnership, reducing confusion and time wasted, and improving the overall support they receive, including specialist social enterprise support. There is also single marketing of defined services and locally consistent service offerings, with an increased emphasis on services targeted at under-represented groups bringing greater visibility of enterprise support and increased ease of access.

For the partners involved in delivering the service, it has been an ideal opportunity to develop the integrated approach to adviser teams and enterprise support delivery as a best practice model for future use across Bristol. It has also significantly increased inter-organisational co-operation in senior management, adviser and back office areas, as platform for further joint working and development, and improved adviser capabilities and services, as well as increasing awareness across key groups of the individual organisations, the partnership and enterprise opportunities.

For those people involved in the economy of the area in a wider sense, such as Bristol City Council and the South West Regional Development Agency, the findings and successes of the approach have also helped with planning future business support funding, and enabled the link up of mainstream Business Link support with specialist agencies, underpinning the Information, Diagnosis and Brokerage operating model of Business Link.

The project has also provided a forum for partners to meet regularly and a platform from which other cooperative ventures have been discussed and initiated. In order to focus on the specific business needs of areas covered, two Local Area Teams have been formed. The Local Area Plans include outreach work and joint working with clients (partners agree between them which advisor takes the lead co-ordinating role). The databases from each agency are now able to communicate with each other, enabling sharing of client information, and a single 'one-stop' phone number is imminent. The project also draws partners together to offer a substantial package of assistance to established businesses under the Bristol 4ward programme, and other joint-working initiatives include environmental awareness-raising and training, reviews of ICT effectiveness and the promotion of e-trading.

Under this structure, the partners have worked together to generate activities aimed at specific disadvantaged groups. A women's business network has been established (which will be self-sustaining when this project ceases). There has also been significant activity in the Somali community with support to existing and potential cooperatives and an event is planned to bring members of Somali-led cooperatives from Leicester to Bristol in order to share their experiences. Partners are also cooperating on the planning of a programme targeted at encouraging people on incapacity benefits to consider self-employment.

Enterprising People has a broad range of aims and target outputs. During the first six months of operation it has made substantial progress in building cooperation at both management and advisor levels. This has led to the delivery of results "on the ground" in the inner city areas. Many of the challenging outcomes will be delivered at the end of the project as a result of joint-working which started in the first few months. Already business start-up advice to residents considering becoming micro-businesses, self-employment, cooperatives, social enterprises and support to recent starters is exceeding projections, as is advice to existing (more than 18 months trading) SMEs. Challenging targets on encouraging environmental awareness and activity are also on target.

The wider Bristol Means Business partnership has also continued and expanded to include organisations from other disadvantaged areas, and has formed a key consultation group for the Bristol City Council Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI).

Finally, the Enterprising People Partnership has also recently agreed a further partnership with CSV Avon and will deliver the coordination role for employment and enterprise projects for East and Central Bristol Neighbourhood Renewal funding. This will maximise the knowledge gained through the existing networking and partnership working that these agencies are already undertaking in the area and is a further example of the Enterprising People partnership working collectively to improve enterprise support in Bristol.