You’ve heard of the business dragons, now meet the social enterprise CATS!

25th November 2009

Social enterprises in the north west are being encouraged to form consortia in a bid to win major contracts. And, to help them form successful partnerships, a team of experts is on hand to offer advice on a wide range of subjects.

 

The Consortia Advice Team, or CATs, sees five experienced practitioners in social enterprise guiding other social entrepreneurs through the benefits and pitfalls of working together to give them the best chance of success.

 

The initiative is fully-funded through the Capacitybuilders programme called Catalyzing Consortia which is being delivered by Selnet, the Social Enterprise Lancashire Network.

 

The Consortia Advice Team is on hand to help:

 

• social enterprises which are tender ready, but you don’t have a tender opportunity or a consortium

 

• an established consortium looking for tender opportunities

 

• social enterprises which have identified a tender opportunity but need assistance in putting a consortium together

 

The CATs can offer specialist advice in legal issues, social enterprise, environmental issues, sales & marketing and procurement.

 

One key aid for these emerging consortia is the development of a new website www.opportunities-northwest.org which is updated regularly with tenders, opportunities to join an existing partnership and case studies on successful bids.

 

Liz Tapner, Network Manager at Selnet, said: “The formation of the Consortia Advice Team underpins our Catalyzing Consortia programme and will prove crucial as we see more public sector work put out to tender.

 

“By strengthening the offer that social enterprises can made in their tender documents and stressing value for money and social return on investment, our aim is that social firms will have the competitive edge over private companies.”

 

The CATs team of Becky Toal, Elaine Bowes, Rosemary Kay, Matt Finnegan and Matt McDonald were selected because of their specialist knowledge that will benefit social enterprises.

 

The North West received Capacitybuilders funding to deliver three programmes that will help social enterprises to work together, work smarter and work sustainably.

 

For more information on the CATs, contact Selnet on 01772 521020 or email admin@selnet-uk.com

 

Alistair Clarke – Tick The Publicity Box – 24 November 2009