EAST MIDLANDS CHAMBER (DERBYSHIRE, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, LEICESTERSHIRE)

New Enterprise Allowance II

INFORMATION, SPECIFICATION & EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

2016

NEW ENTERPRISE ALLOWANCE II BUSINESS ADVISORING PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITY

East Midlands Chamber (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire)is an existing NEA sub-contractor and intends to bid for the New Enterprise Allowance II ProgrammeacrossCPAs 2 and 3 as a Prime Contractor. We are interested in developing relationships with potential partners from the specified areas who would be interested in working with us in any capacity to support the delivery of the NEA II contract. At this stage the new specification has not been released however, we expect this to be similar to the existing service.

OVERVIEW

The New Enterprise Allowance (NEA)programme is designed to support the move into self-employment for those people who want to start their own business. The NEA can provide business training support and financial assistance through the NEA allowance to participants who satisfy eligibility and are referred to the programme by Jobcentre plus Advisers. Participants will also have access to ‘Start-Up Loans’ should they need additional start-up financial support.

The commercial requirement is to provide business advice and support, particularly business training and advice, to unemployed participants who want to move into self-employment, develop their business plans.

This phase of provision is for new referrals to the programme from March 2017 to March 2019 with a potential two year extension.

PARTICIPANT GROUP

Eligibility for the current NEA programme is:

  • Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) claimants;
  • Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimants;
  • Income support claimants (lone parents or people claiming as sick);
  • Some Universal Credit customers. Eligibility of Universal Credit claimants to be specified but this is likely to include some claimants who fall within the following conditionality groups:
  • all work related requirement
  • the ‘work preparation’
  • the work focussed interview only
  • In addition, the new NEA II Programme islikely to be open to existing businesses on Universal Credit in the early stages of trading. A detailed understanding of the Universal Credit for the self-employed is also required.

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

The success of NEA II is likely to be judged on the following:

  • The number of Participants or workshops delivered for initial engagements
  • The number of Participants who receive an initial assessment / screen (within tendays of referral)
  • The number of Participants who complete the business mentoring phase and have business plans assessed
  • The number of Participants who commence trading
  • The number of Participants who complete 26 weeks of trading
  • The number of Participants who complete 52 weeks of trading

THE SERVICE REQUIREMENTS

The high level requirement is likely to be as follows:

  • The Provider must conduct an initial awareness session to participants interested in NEA II and self-employment. The provider will be responsible for helping engagement in the JCP’s and gaining referrals to these sessions. The Link up,Start up awareness sessions will act as a pre-entry awareness programme process to gauge suitability and viability for the NEA II programme.
  • The Provider must conduct an initial assessment to test participant’s suitability for the programme (within ten-working days of the referral). If accepted onto the programme – this assessment/sift date will also be considered as the participant’s start date.
  • The Provider must provide guidance and business mentoring and training to support the participant in preparing for self-employment and developing their business plan. The Provider may use a range of business training support and business advice through the duration of the participant’s time on the programme. For example, through the use of group sessions and business planning workshops. The minimum requirement is:
  • Providers must match the participant with a suitable Business Adviser/Mentor. The Business Adviser/Mentoris responsible for supporting the participant in developing their business idea and business plan. Business Adviser’s should be paid Advisers/Mentors, but DWP also expects providers to utilise some volunteer Business Advisers/Mentors.
  • Providers are expected to provide advice support and guidance for the duration of the participant’s time on the programme. This must include at least three face-to-face meetings (in addition to the initial sift) between the Business Adviser/Mentor and the participant.
  • The Provider must review the business plan submitted by the participant and consider whether it is at a suitable standard for the participant to move into self-employment (expected to be within 12 weeks).
  • The Provider must review then help the participant through the 12 week business development phase and offer at least one face-to-face meeting before the participant starts trading and activates the NEA allowance.
  • For those participants who successfully submit their business plan and start trading, providers must continue to offer access to Business Advisers/Mentors support for the first 26weeks from the commencement of trading. The minimum requirement is for the Provider to offer two meetings during this period.

MINIMUM PERFORMANCE LEVELS

  • In the current contract DWP expects at least 50% of participant starts will produce a business plan and start trading. .
  • DWP expect that, of the 50% of participants who start trading, 75% will reach 26 weeks trading. (This means we expect at least 37.5% of participants, who start trading and the allowance stage,will reach 26 weeks trading).

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI)

This EOI document is to be completed in full by all organisations interested in working with East Midlands Chamber(Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire) as a partner for the NEAII programme and submitted via email 5pm on Friday, 14 October 2016.

Please note that the completion of this EOI does not infer any contractual agreement between the Chamberand your organisation, but will enable us to assess your organisation’s ability to work with us as a potential subcontractor or partner for this opportunity (should the Chamber be successful in its application to deliver this contract).

SECTION 1: ORGANISATION DETAILS

Organisation Name and address
Main contact name
Main contact email and telephone number
Please indicate your organisations preferred CPAs which you would be interested in partnering on / CPA 2 East Anglia, Leicester & Northampton, Lincoln, Nottingham & Rutland / ☐ /
CPA 3 Mercia (Coventry, Warwickshire, Hereford and Worcestershire)
Midland shires (Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire) / ☐ /

SECTION 2: DELIVERY LOCATIONS

2.1 Delivery Locations
Please provide details about your current delivery locations for each CPA areas that you are expressing an interest ( complete both if interested in both CPA’s ):
Full address of each delivery/outreach centre
Including postcode / Public Transport Links / Facilities available / Confirmation that
premises comply with the Equality Act 2010
Yes/No / Number of staff in centre / Capacity
please detail the minimum volume of starts per month per centre

SECTION 3: NEA SERVICE PROPOSAL

3.1 STAFF RESOURCE
How many Business Advisers do you already employ in the CPA who you propose to deploy on NEA delivery?Please provide both Full Time and Part Time figures and please also state the maximum caseload capacity for a F/T Advisor.
3.2 STAFF RESOURCE
How many additional Business Advisers do you anticipate recruiting (Full Time and Part Time)? Note – this may be contingent on indicative volumes.
.3 STAFF RESOURCE
Please detail your experience and/or strategy for working with, recruiting and training Business Advisers
Please limit this response to no more than 500 words
3.4 CUSTOMER JOURNEY
Please provide details of your proposed customer journey, or the part of the customer journey that applies to your organisation
Please limit this response to no more than 750 words
3.5 ADDITIONAL SUPPORT
Please detail any additional support / added value/ Innovation your organisation can offer to NEA participants within the CPA (e.g. access to other services and innovative products)
Please limit this response to no more than 500 words
3.6 LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
Please describe any local labour market conditions within the CPA which you are aware of which you perceive may specifically influence the delivery of NEA services
Please limit this response to no more than 500 words

SECTION 4: TRACK RECORD

4.1: TRACK RECORD
Please provide details of your most recent performance for past or current contracted services over the last 3 years in the same sector:
Funding body/ prime contractor / CPA/Region / Customer target groups / Contracted start and end dates / Customer volume (p/a) / Targets (e.g. job entry rate, sustainment) / Outcomes achieved / Sustained targets / Sustained achieved

Next steps- Once received the Chamber will review all partner responses, look at proposal submissions and advise of successful and unsuccessful partners. We aim to do this by 31October, subject to change. The contractis due to be awarded in December.

The Chamber would like to make it clear that we are making no commitment to work with any partner at this time by you undertaking the Expression of Interest Process. The final selection of partners will depend on a number of factors including the completion of this Expression of Interest Process, the contracts the Chamber wins, the final contract agreed with the DWP, past partner performance, partner capability and the completion of the Chamber due diligence process. We reserve the right to revisit this process in the event that the DWP amend their procurement process.

Please note: The information you provide will be treated as confidential.

Please ensure you return this form via email toby 5pm Friday 14 October2016. If you have any questions please contact Diane on 07887 988 790.

Thank you for your interest in working with East Midlands Chamber (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire)