UKSPF Business Advisory Services Tender

Basildon Borough Council (BBC) are looking to procure a business support provider to deliver additional business support advisory services across two years - 2023/24 & 2024/25 for businesses and residents based within the Borough.

This is a one-off project estimated to last two years (subject to the Council's sole option to terminate in whole or part at the end of Year 1 on at least one months' notice if the Council is not in receipt of or only partially receive the final year of UKSPF where there is a failure to meet outcomes and targets and no realistic plan to address underperformance).

The allocated revenue funding is intended to cover the costs of additional Business Advisory Support Capacity, any lead generation activities and travel expenses over the lifetime of the project and the capital funding is intended to support the cost of any equipment needed, together with a number of capital grants to businesses etc.

Basildon Council would envisage working with the nominated supplier to agree the precise nature and structure of the grant award programme once supplier is appointed.

The provider will be expected to generate sufficient leads to achieve the contractual targets set out within the service specification, although the Council may also be able to support with some marketing and promotion.

For example, in response to the situation described above, Basildon Council has been undertaking a pilot project to explore whether we could offer additional support to companies that we have identified as being 'In Distress' and those with 'Scaleup Potential', and we would envisage these companies being particularly good beneficiaries to target with the additional business advisory support capacity we put in place through this contract.

This project is funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

The contractor will need to have regard to the UKSPF Prospectus and Additional Guidance https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-additional-information when delivering this project to ensure that Basildon Borough Council can comply with the reporting and performance management, monitoring and evaluation, assurance and risk and branding and publicity guidelines.

Basildon Borough's UKSPF Investment Plans can be found at https://basildon.gov.uk/article/9154/Basildon-for-Business-The-UK-Shared-Prosperity-Fund-UKSPF.

Basildon Council requires a specialist organisation to deliver free business support across Basildon Borough for a period of up to two years for the purpose of increasing the number of businesses accessing support services from within the Borough.

This will include a series of targeted interventions to raise the profile of the available support, such as (as a minimum) workshops, webinars, targeted marketing campaigns and drop-in sessions.

Interested bidders please read the ITT attached to this notice.

Suppliers must submit their bids on: https://www.delta-esourcing.com/delta and use the Access Code: RM6SJ99M29