£1.2m Funding Into England’s Project Innovation, Advice and Guidance

A dedicated business support project is to help over 90 small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) in North East England weather the economic downturn and prepare for recovery over the next two years.

The £1.2m project, ‘Innovation, Advice and Guidance – Developing SME Expertise’, will put in place a matching service and public subsidy to give SMEs and social enterprises access to expert advisors to help develop new products, processes and services.

It will also help regional companies retain their skilled staff with a view to driving forward a new phase of economic growth once the recession is over.

The initiative is being part financed by £600,000 from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) 2007-13, a figure matched by investment from regional development agency One North East’s Single Programme.

The innovative project will help address the current economic conditions affecting businesses in two ways. Companies with people who might be at risk of redundancy or on short time working will be encouraged to release them for an agreed time to work on a secondment basis in other SMEs and social enterprises in the region.

Once there, they will work on specific projects, using their expertise to help develop new products, processes or services involving, for example, marketing, finance, innovation, commercial or technical issues. This will create a positive situation for both the donating and host businesses, helping to keep businesses resilient and retain highly skilled people in the region.

“Our principal aim is to aid business resilience by providing an accessible and affordable resource of highly skilled, experienced workers to at least 90 organisations,” explained One North East Head of Business, Enterprise and Skills, Tim Pain.

“They will work with them for a fixed period of time on specific areas of expertise to help them push on through the current economic climate. In the longer term, it means we will also be able to retain skilled people in the region by providing them with employment opportunities in host companies when their own employers might be struggling in the short term.

“The agency will subsidise secondment costs depending on the kind of job offered and the ability of host and donor organisations to contribute.”

To ensure that businesses gain the maximum benefit from the project, One North East has procured the North East Enterprise Agencies Ltd (NEEAL) to provide the matching service – identifying suitable host and donor companies and linking appropriately skilled individuals with SMEs and ensuring that all the correct HR legislation and best practices are followed.

Chief Executive of Wear Valley and Teesdale Enterprise Agency, Shaun Stuart, who is leading the work on behalf of NEEAL, said: “It’s an exciting prospect for us to be part of this innovative project and to actively support regional businesses in the current climate.

“To ensure its success, we will work closely with the North East England Investment Centre, Business Link, the Federation of Small Businesses, the Chamber of Commerce, the North East Social Enterprise Partnership, large companies and projects such as MAS North East and Talent Challenge.”

All the partners will act as sources of available workers or businesses that require skilled people. The aim is to get businesses to interact with the scheme before they need to reduce hours or announce redundancy plans for staff.

Deputy chief executive of Business & Enterprise North East Nicki Clarke added: “This project constitutes a further example of the comprehensive and sophisticated business support programme that is available to North East businesses.

“It’s imperative that during tough economic times, organisations and businesses work collaboratively to ensure survival and success. That is a hallmark of this region and the project will strengthen companies and workforces alike.”

The Developing SME Expertise project delivers Innovation, Advice and Guidance and is part of Solutions for Business, the Government’s package of publicly funded business support designed to help companies start and grow.

Topics: economic downturn, economic growth, Economy, England, Europe, finance, funding, innovation, marketing, recovery, technical issues

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