The business-led, Open North Foundation, has signed a strategic
partnership with Northumbria University, Newcastle, that will allow
pandemic-hit businesses access to tens of thousands of pounds of support.
Under the agreement, Open North Foundation has received a
£10,000 cash donation from Northumbria, which it will use to fund grants for
small businesses. These businesses will also be offered access to a range of
resources, expertise and free consultancy services from the University.
It is the largest support package the not-for-profit, Open
North Foundation, has received since it launched in July 2020, as a direct
response to the devastating impact COVID-19 was having on small to medium sized
businesses in the North East, many of whom do not qualify for direct government
grants.
To date, significant funds have been raised by the business
community together with offers of in-kind support such as marketing, HR, legal
and accountancy. Support packages are now being received by successful
applicants, the earliest recipients being businesses in health and fitness and
creative branding and marketing.
The partnership with Northumbria provides a comprehensive offer to businesses
including the Open North Foundation grant and a range of SME support from the
University.
Northumbria’s Newcastle Business School, the only
North East business school accredited by the Small Business Charter, will also offer
places to those qualifying grant applicants on the Small Business Leadership
Programme (SBLP) – a free 10-week strategic training programme for
senior leaders in SMEs (those employing between 5-249 employees). Funded by The
Dept. for Business Energy Industrial Strategy, the programme covers a range of
practical topics and is hosted online by SME experts, including entrepreneurs,
business leaders and academics from Newcastle Business School.
Richard Swart, chair, Open
North Foundation, said: “Northumbria University has an enviable reputation as a
national and international provider of business support. However, when the
pandemic struck, it was acutely aware of the impact this would have on local
businesses and like so many organisations in our great region, wanted to help.
It has done so in the most generous of ways, with the single largest support
package we have received.
“We are entering a wider
strategic partnership with the University, driven by the fact we both respect
and embrace each other’s visions, roles, achievements and ambitions to help
strengthen the North East business community, particularly in these challenging
times.
“We both identify the need
to support, in particular, the small to medium sized businesses, including sole
proprietors, in their recovery from Covid-19 impact.
“The North East has, for
decades, had the highest rate of SME start-up failure rates in the country and we
share the objective to help address this, particularly through evidence-based interventions
of advice and mentoring, building management and entrepreneurial capacity and
knowledge transfer.”
Professor John Wilson, Pro Vice-Chancellor
for the Faculty of Business and Law at Northumbria, said: “The SBLP is helping small
businesses develop their strategic leadership skills in these incredibly
testing times and is a crucial part of the wider regional recovery. Our
partnership with Open North Foundation means we can help drive this recovery
faster and further.”
Dr Hannah Hesselgreaves, who is co-leading
the SBLP alongside Dr Matthew Sutherland at Newcastle Business School, added: “The programme is attended
by business leaders from a really diverse mix of sectors, from manufacturing, engineering and
bio science to events, IT and dentistry. However, they all have a shared interest
in improving the sustainability and resilience of their organisations so they
can respond effectively to the challenges of Covid-19. There is a real desire to
listen and learn from each other and to share experiences and challenges along
the way. We would encourage anyone managing a small business during this
difficult period to sign up.”
