Sandwell Council has won two awards at the Federation of Small Businesses’ Staffordshire and West Midlands Local Authority ‘Small Business Friendly Awards’ 2018.

For the third year the awards have been held they have recognised our commitment to supporting small businesses and nurturing them to grow.

This year we won the Best in Class for Procurement category, thanks to our pioneering work in helping local businesses to work collaboratively, and our innovative work in helping SME supply chains to improve their work-winning skills.

One of our initiatives to help small businesses is to aid them in forming cluster groups at the pre-tender stage of projects. We hold procurement workshops to improve their buying skills, and arrange design meetings with architects and site visits with contractors so SMEs know exactly what is expected at the tendering stage.

We also give buyers the opportunity to view SMEs’ product designs and discuss methods of manufacture and value-added reverse engineering options. We find buyers working on cross-regional projects are keen on this approach and that it works well for all parties. Our motto is ‘We are stronger when we work together’.

Karen Woolley, Development Manager for FSB, said: “We were delighted to award Sandwell Council with our ‘Best in Class for Procurement’.  Its work on levelling the playing field for small firms to enter the supply chain is exemplary and the council has demonstrated a consistent approach to supporting SMEs to bid for and successfully win government contracts. The cluster group initiative is a great example of the innovative steps the council takes in supporting SMEs across the patch.”

But that wasn’t all. Thanks to our groundbreaking work we also received the top award of the day from the FSB: Overall Winner of Best in Class. This was no small achievement. At the start of the ceremony Karen acknowledged the difficult conditions under which local authorities are operating, with challenges that include budget cuts and diminishing resources. Regardless of this, she said, the standard of entries had been extremely high: “We have once again had an incredibly difficult time reaching decisions on the winning entries – such was the outstanding nature of the projects and campaigns put forward”.

“We were so impressed with the myriad of other support offered to small firms across a range of issues aimed at helping small businesses to survive and thrive that we awarded Sandwell Council our ‘Overall Winner of Best in Class’!” said Karen. “They have demonstrated and evidenced that the council has the small business community front and centre of its priorities across the whole range of our criteria for these awards.  We would like to offer Sandwell Council our sincere thanks for everything it does for our members and other small businesses across the area.”

 

 

 

 

Left to right: David Caro, FSB Area Lead for the West Midlands; Councillor Mohammad Rouf, Business Ambassador for Sandwell; Anita Gosain, Business Investment and Relocation Officer, Think Sandwell Business Growth Team; Ian Preston, FSB Area Lead for the West Midlands.

Councillor Mohammad Rouf said: “As the newly appointed Elected Member Business Ambassador for Sandwell I think it’s fantastic to see the hard work of the council and its Business Growth Team recognised and rewarded, especially during such challenging times for local government. I am looking forward to working closely with the team to find out more about the business landscape within the borough and how I can support local companies through my role.”

The awards lunch recently took place at the Eaton Hotel in Edgbaston. Sandwell Council was represented by Anita Gosain from Think Sandwell’s Business Growth Team and Councillor Mohammad Rouf.

For ideas on how Think Sandwell could help you and your business to prosper, take a look at our business services landing page: https://archive.sandwellbusinessgrowth.com/business-services/.