Business Support Simplification Programme

The Business Support Simplification Programme (BSSP) - if implemented – will have a radical impact on the provision of enterprise support across England. It’s based on the premise that there currently more than 3000 business support products being delivered across the country – and Gordon Brown wants that number down to 100 or less. As prowessblog readers may already know, the DTI team responsible for BSSP have identified nine separate themes for the new ‘in-development’ suite of business support products. They are: innovation; environment; enterprise; globalisation; skills; business collaboration; finance; regulation; and, economic inclusion. And, to date, the actual number of proposed products across these nine areas is around 40.

There has been justified criticism of this approach, potentially creating silos and artificial ‘walls’ which, instead of creating a simpler process for the client, may actually restrict their ability to find the right kind of support. This could be particularly detrimental for women entrepreneurs who, we know, tend to seek a more holistic type of support, combining more than one service. There is a also a big question mark re the delivery of these services – with new Business Link providers in many regions, and a lack of clarity on how the Information, Diagnostic and Brokerage (IDB) approach will actually work in some areas. To be fair to the DTI implementation team - with its unenviable role – they recognise there will be major implementation issues. But the timescales are worrying – the planned transition to the new ‘portfolio’ is planned by the end of 2007. Consultation to date has been patchy and a formal consultation document is not planned until July, by which time many key decisions will have been taken.

An introductory document on progress to date will be published in the next week or two – and Prowess will make this available on its website (www.prowess.org.uk).

In the meantime, prowessblog welcomes any insights on how the BSSP is being communicated and/or implemented in different parts of the country.

Funding & the Task Force

prowessblog raised the issue of funding for the new Women’s Enterprise Task Force, i.e. that is has no funding. The following comment was sent by Dawn: 

I’ve just read the Prowess Blog and was taken aback to learn that the Women’s Enterprise Task Force (WETF) has ZERO funding from the Government or the Regional Development Agencies.

This must be unprecedented – surely all other Government Task Forces have had some sort of funding, however meagre?

How come the WETF has no funding at all?

I read Bill Kennedy’s comments on Prowess Blog (5th March) asking how serious the government is in promoting the women in business agenda given there’s no funding, and I agree – the message seems loud and clear.

Does anyone out there know what amounts of funding or in-kind support other current or recent Government Task Forces have/had?

It’s time the Government looked into this and explained it.

Can a formal question be tabled in the House of Commons?’

So – what do others think?

Task Force Update

Prowessblog met with the co-chairs of the Women’s Enterprise Task Force on Monday – Pam Alexander and Glenda Stone. They confirmed its priorities to be: finance (particularly technical education & financial literacy);  improved data; business support & RDA delivery; supplier diversity/procurement (in partnership with Prowess’s new pilot – further information in future blog post); and PR & awareness-raising.

However, apparently the Task Force will have to apply to the DTI for funding if it wants to resource any of this work – with no guarantee it will be successful. Prowessblog is concerned that a Task Force, appointed by Government, has been launched without initial funding to do its work – and asks whether any other task force has been expected to operate in this way? What do blog readers think?

International Women’s Day – Prowessblog at No 10

Prowessblog was at 10 Downing Street – very early yesterday morning – for an International Women’s Day event. Attended by almost all the female Cabinet Ministers, and hosted by Ruth Kelly, Minister for Women as well as the Dept for Communities and Local Government, it was an interesting way to start IWD.  Around 40 women, many playing leading roles in community-based organisations as well as national bodies, were invited. Tony Blair made a brief appearance and emphasised the importance of women & equality issues and that despite progress to date, much more had to be achieved. As someone pointed out, he kinda had to say that given the audience…….. He then disappeared before having to answer any challenging questions. Prowessblog managed to speak to Ruth Kelly and raised the issue of (real) Treasury engagement in women’s enterprise and also concerns re the funding of the Women’s Enterprise Task Force.

On a lighter note, having been invited to a ‘breakfast’ event, there were no bacon butties on offer - just fresh fresh fruit on skewers, a few (very small) pastries and chocolate biscuits. Even TB had to admit that we’d been a bit conned by the ‘breakfast’ reference on the invites!

Launch of new Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report

The new UK Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report was launched yesterday (6th March) at the London Business School. It’s got more information on women’s entrepreneurship than ever before and well worth a read. Rebecca Harding, author & exec director of GEM, highlighted that, on the face of it, little had changed from 2005 data – however, the additional analysis she’s done on gender highlights some interesting issues. Although men are still twice as likely to set up businesses as women, women in the youngest and oldest age groups (18-24 & 54-64) are more than three times less likely to start an enterprise – so, in fact, if you look at the figures for 35-54 year old women, the gap is significantly more marginal. This highlights important policy issues around where enterprise support is needed most. You can find the full report at www.gemconsortium.com