Working in Partnership

I think many of us have felt for a long time that navigating the world of business support needs to be made simpler.

Making business support easy to understand and accessible is a key priority for Business Link North East.

Not just through improving our own services, but through working with a wide range of partners to simplify the business support network and the environment in which it operates.

Over the last couple of weeks, we have agreed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The Association of North East Councils (ANEC), the representative body for local government in the North East.

This memorandum is a great example of the way in which we are approaching the simplification of business support to make it easier and more rewarding to use.

Both BLNE and ANEC share a commitment to generating a more enterprising culture and increasing business start-ups, business survival and growth.

So, together we’re committed to exploring ways in which service levels can be improved, efficiency can be enhanced and duplication avoided.

Working with local authorities across the region to integrate business support services and provision. We’re kicking off four pilots across the region early next year, designed to:

• provide better and more immediate access to a wider range of business support services, targeted at supporting growth in each local authority area;
• build on what works; and
• increase awareness of those services, widening participation and impact and simplifying the processes that underpin business support.

In practical terms, that means:

• sharing information and aligning business support policy and best practice;
• using and developing shared resources; and
• joining up our approaches to established activities, based around LEGI initiatives.

This is the first of many initiatives designed to make business support more effective, easier to understand and easier to access. So, watch this space…

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