BUPA Healthy Communities Award 2006 supported by the Department of Health

Newlands Local Enterprise Limited is part of a 7 year government funded programme of regeneration for deprived communities covering 6 council social housing estates in the city of Bradford. A community business club had been the vision of Newlands Local Enterprise to assist social enterprises capable of becoming sustainable beyond the life of grant funding.

Processes

Yorkshire Water provides 1.7 million households and 140,000 businesses with water and sewerage services. They employ 2,200 employees and are responsible for an investment programme of £1.5 billion over the next five years. The Newlands Community Business Club was formed as a result of dialogue with Bradford Vision's Business Broker whose role is to forge new partnerships between the world of business and the local communities. Yorkshire Water provides Senior Managers to participate in the club where community enterprise and private business can encourage each other and aid business development by sharing best practices, skills and experiences. By September 2005 14 social enterprises had been matched with one of Yorkshire Water's senior management team. The programme involves structured interactive workshops focussing on a variety of topics such as human resources, business planning, finance, accreditation and funding streams, providing much needed leadership support for 128 social enterprises. The programme was initially managed to launch by the company's Diversity Leadership Team – a group of senior managers led at Director level. The Community Affairs Manager was tasked with managing the programme on a day to day basis. The original aspiration target of 10 mentors has been reviewed on a bi-monthly basis and exceeded due to the popularity of the programme. Fourteen mentors are now in place and over 25 social enterprises receive the benefit. A review of the mentor partnerships is undertaken every 6 months through evaluation questionnaires and one to one consultations. These help the company to change the programme and identify additional training requirements, keeping events relevant. Clear objectives are documented in individual performance reviews whilst progress and activity is reported at Director level on a quarterly basis. In-kind investment of time amounts to in excess of £60,000 per annum.

Impact

Business benefits include:

• excellent personal development tool for senior managers;
• Propelled the company into the diversity agenda speaking at engagements locally and nationally;
• Given managers a greater understanding of communities and how they might reduce the impact that their improvement works have on their customers’ lives;
• Society benefits include: the partnership is enabling Newlands Local Enterprise to obtain additional funding to expand the business club format across Bradford during 2006;
• Community representatives have a greater understanding of the business world and budgetary planning;
• A social enterprise providing day-care facilities and activities for 40 disabled adults and children was saved from closure through the advice and support of the mentor;
• Mentor sponsorship of two mentees from a community transport social enterprise to attend a Community Transport Association exhibition in Manchester was tremendously motivational and beneficial to this social enterprise.