Greater Manchester Social Enterprise Action Plan - Introduction

Key Documents

Greater Manchester Social Enterprise Action Plan Ph3 - Tender Specification

Greater Manchester Social Enterprise Action Plan Ph3 - Application Form Guidance Notes

Greater Manchester Social Enterprise Action Plan Ph3 - Terms and Conditions

Greater Manchester Social Enterprise Action Plan Ph3 - Contract Notice

Introduction

The Programme is reliant on Manchester Enterprises securing funding from the NWDA. Manchester Enterprises expressly reserves the right not to award any contract as a result of this procurement process and it shall not be liable for any costs incurred by applicants.

Manchester Enterprises is commissioning on behalf of the NWDA for GM Social Enterprise Support, therefore both Manchester Enterprises & NWDA requirements must be met.

This initial project is to deliver specific start up services to social enterprise organisations in Greater Manchester. The project will start in 1st April 2007(by this it means that eligible activity & costs where applicable can be back dated only if they are project relevant) and will run till 30th September 2007.

There is a potential for the contract to be extended after this date for two and a half years to look at capacity building for social enterprises in Greater Manchester. This is not confirmed or guaranteed.

In order to comply with the tender requirements the applicant must be in a position to fulfil both parts of the project.

The first part of the project should be to continue to assist pre start & start up Social Enterprises in the Greater Manchester area. This activity should show clear links to RES Action 3 and should include business-related and skills outputs. (Please see attached guidance). The project must also utilise a Client Management System similar to that utilised by the Business Link operators and it must align sector activities with the Regional IDB service which is set to be in operation by April 2007.

The capacity building activity should it be extended, will be based on the needs of social enterprises in Greater Manchester and should represent the finding from a piece of research which has been commissioned by the NWDA which will then help to form a Social Enterprise Strategy. This part of the project should take in to account the Business Support Simplification agenda and all other research that has been produced for Greater Manchester on behalf of social enterprises (established). It is envisaged that this programme will be flexible enough to incorporate the activity that is highlighted from the strategy.

The types of activity that may be considered are workshop/master classes for high growth social enterprises, procurement needs, franchising opportunities, mentoring. (These are just examples of the work that may come out of the research, it is not a definitive list- your tender should be based on research findings but should have an element of flexibility in order to adapt if necessary to the finding from the NWDA research).