Agenda item

A paper was submitted to request the Board’s approval to accept the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Grant, approval to waiver the Contract Procedure Rules (CPR’s) to award a contract totalling £104,500 to Sheffield Chamber of Commerce and seeks delegated authority to be given to the S73 officer in conjunction with the Head of Paid Service and Monitoring Officer to enter into legal agreements for the schemes. 

The Board noted that, on 5th November 2020 the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) announced £6.4m EU Transition Business Readiness Funding for Local Enterprise Partnerships and their respective Growth Hubs nationally:

-  Up to £2.4m for advisors to provide outreach and advice on EU Transition for businesses ;

-  Up to £4m for improving business readiness and resilience for the end of the EU Transition period.

The Board noted that funding must be spent before 31st March 2021. 

The Growth Hub of the MCA had been awarded £136,050 of grant funding based on its business population:

- £54,000 for advisors to provide outreach and advice;

- £82,050 for improving business readiness and resilience. 

Of the £136,050 grant offered, £54,000 is ringfenced for the provision of EU Transition Advisors for Outreach and Advice.  The remaining £82,050 is for EU Transition Business Readiness more generally, activity and would include:

- Specialist and General advisors

- Intelligence, Analysis and Metrics and Evaluation

- Regional Co-ordination and Targeting including event support

The Board noted that the timescales associated with the date of grant award and period of funding (November 2020 – March 2021) prevented the MCA completing competitive recruitment and / or procurement processes to deliver this activity directly.

Delivery support had been sought from the 3 Chambers of Commerce representing the SCR local authority areas based on their established links to the business communities and ability to mobilise additional support quickly.  Sheffield Chamber of Commerce would act as the lead party on behalf of the 3 Chambers.

The Board noted that the proposed grant would be used to provide support through award of contracts to the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, with additional wrap around activity to be funded by the MCA directly:

- £27,000 of BEIS grant to be contracted to the West Yorkshire Combined Authority for recruitment of 1 Specialist advisor for South Yorkshire;

- £104,050 of BEIS grant to be contracted to the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce; for recruitment of 2 outreach and advice advisors, and provision of further specialist and general advice, and intelligence;

- £5,000 to renew the licence fees on the existing UK transition resilience online tool for a further 6 months to cover the period following completion of the transition period.

RESOLVED – That the Business Recovery and Growth Board:-

1)      Approved the acceptance of the BEIS grant allocation of £136,050 for EU Transition Business Readiness Funding for Growth Hubs. 

2)      Approved a Waiver Request for award of contract totalling £104,050 to Sheffield Chamber of Commerce.

Approved delegated authority be given to the S73 officer in consultation with the Head of Paid Service and Monitoring Officer to accept the grant of £136,050 and enter into legal agreements for the schemes covered above.