Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2020-02-13
Buyer: Growth Platform
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 79410000
Estimated value: 1050000 GBP
Submission deadline: 2020-03-15
Award criteria: The most economic tender
EU fund: ERDF

Technical requirements: Growth Platform wishes to engage Brokerage Partners covering each of the 6 local authority areas of Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral. In addition, we are seeking a specialist brokers to engage harder to reach groups including women, BAME groups and social economy businesses across the City Region. Therefore, there are a total of 7 ‘Lots’ that suppliers can bid for:
Local Growth Hub Brokerage Partners are a primary access point for signposting and brokerage to a wide range of local and national business support. The Local Growth Hub Service website is kept up to date with these programmes and should be used as a resource by Local Growth Hub Broker Partners.
Growth Platform wishes to engage Brokerage Partners covering each of the 6 Local Authority areas of Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral. In addition, we are seeking a specialist brokers to engage harder to reach groups including women, BAME groups and social economy businesses across the City Region. Therefore, there are a total of 7 ‘Lots’ that suppliers can bid for.
Local Growth Hub Brokerage Partners are a primary access point for signposting and brokerage to a wide range of local and national business support. The Local Growth Hub Service website is kept up to date with these programmes and should be used as a resource by Local Growth Hub Broker Partners.
A major focus for Growth Platform going forward will be the engagement of businesses that have not been engaged with the Local Growth Hub Service or its services previously in order to increase the reach of Growth Platform. In addition, Local Growth Hub Brokerage Partners will be expected as a minimum to undertake the following;
• Promotion of Growth Platform services, in particular, ERDF funded projects and the Metro Mayor’s £75m Growth Package
• Provide weekly reports on activities including business numbers engaged, events delivered, issues raised, issues resolved and issues to be escalated
• Report the specific issues that businesses report as barriers to being ready for EU exit, identify emerging issues/trends in respect of potential economic shock
Light touch – transactional interactions with Growth Hub Brokerage Partners which do not consume significant dedicated resource. Examples:
• web-based interactions (e.g. contact form, user registration to members area, use of live chat, online diagnostic tools, message through social media) Only interactive actions should be counted – not passive actions like web page views.
• Attendance at Growth Platform organised events, festivals, conferences or pop-ups etc. (NB these are large events that deliver high-level information around business support/advice options. They are not more intensive workshops.)
Medium intensity – interactions which use moderate resource (approximately 1-hour plus) and which broadly aligns with the point in the customer journey at which Growth Platform start collecting basic firm-level data. Examples:
• business diagnostic with a broker; business attendance at a support workshop (diagnostic will be provided by Growth Platform. Suppliers wishing to use their own will need prior authorisation from Growth Platform).
Growth Platform is developing a high intensity Growth Service to support larger and High Growth SMEs* who would benefit from more intensive business support. Once this provision is in place suppliers will be expected to broker such businesses into Growth Platform for more high intensity business support. This is a required output that will be applied pro-rata to reflect the implementation of the function.
* High Growth SMEs are those businesses with the potential, expectation or ambition to grow by 20%+ year on year for the next 3 years.


Award value: 1050000