S14 Designing and Commissioning Business Support

Use recent and credible evidence about businesses and their needs when developing policies and programmes

Consult business owners, and people with business support expertise, on draft policies, programmes and materials

Make sure policies and programmes address issues that are important to businesses and can be combined flexibly to fit the needs of different businesses

Make support easy to find and access, keeping steps, repeated requests for information and bureaucracy to a minimum

Set costs and eligibility rules that are realistic for businesses and do not discourage them from taking part

Make sure policies, programmes and materials are in plain English and free of jargon

Specify the quality of support required, including the competence of the advisers who deliver it, and how it will be assured

Set aims, measures and evaluation that focus on outcomes for businesses rather than outputs or targets alone

Monitor programmes in ways that keep the focus on businesses' needs as well as audit requirements

Link programmes to the wider support landscape so that businesses can move easily between services

What people running businesses deal with day to day, and what motivates them

How policies, systems and requirements appear to someone running a business

Where to find recent and credible research about businesses and business support

Outcome-focused programme design, including theories of change and logic models

Procurement and grant funding processes, including subsidy control rules

Evaluation methods for public programmes

How to specify and assure the quality of advisers and providers, including the use of recognised standards and qualifications

The local, national and sector networks that programmes can link to

How to gain first-hand understanding of what it is like to run a small business (for example by shadowing or working in one)