Cheshire and Warrington Growth Hub Business Support Services

This ITT sets out the information which is required in order to assess the suitability of bidders in terms of their capacity to deliver flexible, responsive business support, quality assurance processes, relationship management, service levels and innovative solutions to meet the requirements of ECW for Cheshire and Warrington Growth Hub Support Services

Across Cheshire and Warrington, businesses have had access to a wide range of support offers. However, this provision is often time limited, programme specific, or fragmented across organisations, which can make navigation difficult for SMEs. Businesses frequently report uncertainty about who does what, leading to disengagement after initial enquiry. The available services have been curtailed recently due to funding reductions.

ECW is commissioning a service to address this gap on an interim basis via an embedded service within the existing Cheshire and Warrington Growth Hub. The service should be designed to also add resource to the National Business Growth Service by ensuring businesses receive timely, proportionate, hands on support that helps them take action and progress.

The additional service will operate as part of the Growth Hub and is intended to complement, existing provision at a national, regional and local level. The interim provision will include practical delivery, hands on adviser support, follow up, and business readiness -ensuring clear referral pathways, feedback loops, and effective navigation across the ecosystem.

ECW wish to secure efficiencies and economies of scale by means of a procurement exercise for meeting the requirements detailed within this documentation. The principle benefits anticipated by ECW in this procurement include;

• Ability to maximise opportunities for best value and efficient services
• To allow bidders to explore efficiencies, which may be possible by suggesting innovative and cost-effective solutions
• Presentation of cost savings to ECW in order to maximise economical operational efficiency and value for money
• A resultant contract that meets the tender requirements and supports ECW with their ambition

This service would be commissioned on an interim basis for 12 months, with quarterly reviews. This is intended to maintain continuity of business support during the transition to a Cheshire and Warrington Combined Authority-led service, while also establishing a scalable model capable of adapting to future devolved arrangements.

During the contract life, the successful bidder will need to achieve continuous improvement against KPIs, customer satisfaction and other contract measures. Failure to do so may result in the contract being terminated.