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SFEDI
Specialist Standard

S24 Inclusive Engagement with Under-represented Businesses

Business support often reaches some groups of business owners less well than others, even when it is available and free. Depending on the service and the area, these may include ethnic minority entrepreneurs, women, disabled people, older and younger founders, and businesses in deprived or isolated communities. The barriers range from awareness and trust to language, eligibility rules, the way support is designed and people's past experience of other services. This Standard is about understanding who a service reaches and who it misses, building trust with under-represented communities, adapting how support is communicated and delivered, and learning from evidence what works. Its requirements follow a simple cycle: reach, understand, respond and learn.

How to read a Standard

Who it's for

Business support professionals, outreach staff and service managers who want to reach, engage and support business owners and entrepreneurs from communities that are under-represented in business support, including ethnic minority entrepreneurs.

What you need to show

Reach

  • S24.1

    Use data to find out which groups and areas the service reaches and which it misses, by comparing engagement with the business population it serves

  • S24.2

    Build relationships with community organisations, faith and cultural groups, business networks and other trusted intermediaries close to under-represented communities

  • S24.3

    Promote support through the channels, languages, places and voices that under-represented communities use and trust

  • S24.4

    Go to where people are, including community venues and events, rather than relying on people coming to the service

Understand

  • S24.5

    Find out about the experiences, aspirations and priorities of business owners from under-represented communities, including their past experience of support

  • S24.6

    Identify the barriers that stop people engaging, such as awareness, trust, language, eligibility rules, cost, time and the way support is designed

  • S24.7

    Recognise how culture, faith, family and community can shape how people run their businesses and make decisions, without making assumptions about individuals

  • S24.8

    Reflect on your own assumptions and biases, and how they may affect whom you engage and how

Respond

  • S24.9

    Adapt your communication, including language, pace, format and style, to the person you are working with, using interpreters or translated materials where needed

  • S24.10

    Build trust over time through consistent, reliable contact and by following through on what you offer

  • S24.11

    Adapt how support is delivered (for example timing, location, format, and group or one-to-one) to remove barriers to taking part

  • S24.12

    Connect clients with role models, peers, mentors and networks, including those from their own communities, as well as with mainstream support

  • S24.13

    Raise with your organisation the parts of service design, eligibility or process that create barriers, and suggest changes

Learn

  • S24.14

    Collect equality monitoring information lawfully and sensitively, explaining why it is asked for and respecting people's choice not to give it

  • S24.15

    Evaluate whether engagement and outcomes are improving for under-represented groups, and share what works and what does not

  • S24.16

    Use case studies and client feedback, with clients' consent, to improve your own practice and that of your colleagues and service

What you need to know and understand

  • S24.K1

    Which groups are under-represented in business ownership and in the use of business support, the evidence on why, and how to keep up to date with it

  • S24.K2

    The make-up of the business population and communities in the areas you serve, and sources of local and national data on them, including official statistics

  • S24.K3

    How to analyse engagement data by group and by area, including mapping, and the limits of what the data can show

  • S24.K4

    The barriers to taking part in business support, including awareness, trust, language, digital access, eligibility, finance and the design of support

  • S24.K5

    How culture, faith, family, community and migration can shape business practice, finance (for example faith-based approaches to borrowing and interest) and decision making, and the risk of stereotyping

  • S24.K6

    Adaptive communication, including plain language, working with interpreters and communicating across cultures

  • S24.K7

    Community engagement approaches, including working with trusted intermediaries, community leaders and networks

  • S24.K8

    Unconscious bias and cultural humility, and how to reflect on your own practice

  • S24.K9

    Equality legislation as it applies to business support services, including the difference between lawful positive action and unlawful positive discrimination

  • S24.K10

    The data protection requirements for equality monitoring information, including the extra protection for special category data such as racial or ethnic origin

  • S24.K11

    How to develop case studies and evidence of what works, with consent

  • S24.K12

    Sources of specialist support for under-represented entrepreneurs, including community, sector and national organisations

Evolved from

New Standard. Builds on Business Support 1 (Maintain effective business support relationships with clients), Business Support 5 (Develop networks to provide access to information, support and resources) and Business and Enterprise Support (2013) units 1 and 3. The professional behaviours (B10) and the Core Standards (C1, C3 and C7) set out the inclusive practice every practitioner shows; S24 covers inclusive engagement in depth.