Evaluation of Business Support Services Wales (BSSW): final report

An evaluation of three business support programmes: Entrepreneurship Business Wales, Superfast Broadband Exploitation (SFBE) and SME Support Business Wales funded through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and delivered through the 2014 to 2020 European Structural Funds Programmes.

The operations are part funded by the European Regional Development Fund and aim to deliver business support to Welsh businesses.

Main findings

• The Business Wales (BW)  brand is recognised and trusted, services are viewed as straightforward to access and simple to understand.
• Enterprise Hubs play an important role in engaging entrepreneurs who would not have necessarily engaged with mainstream Business Wales provision.

Context

• Externalities (the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit, and the cost-of-living crisis) created a lower-than-expected demand for Entrepreneurial Support.

Progress

• Operations benefitted from early investment and commencement. Their designation as backbone projects helped embed them in the business support landscape.
• L1–4 Core & Growth required active and sustained promotion, which built a greater level of local community collaboration and engagement over time.
• SFBE relied on the Business Wales brand to boost levels of engagement.
• BW Accelerated Growth Programme (AGP)  has an underrepresentation in rural areas, possibly symptomatic of the nature of businesses operating in those locations.
• BW AGP relied more heavily on Relationship Managers to identify suitable businesses for the programme.
• Entrepreneurship support and SME support illustrated strong performance in relation to employment growth and export sales.
• The COVID-19 pandemic slowed progression for the Entrepreneurship Support and SME Support operations against the majority of indicators.
• Almost two thirds of all participant enterprises contributing to CCT target indicators.

Perceptions of support

• The participant survey illustrated relatively high rates of satisfaction, with the journey towards provision perceived to be straightforward.
• Almost one fifth of those who received SME Support described being dissatisfied with the way in which the support was provided.
• A lack of follow-up communication with clients after receiving support was a primary influence on participants being unsatisfied.

Outcomes and Impact - L1–4 Core & Growth Programme and BW AGP

• 70 per cent of participant enterprises in L1–4 Core & Growth or the BW AGP created employment since receiving support.
• Around half of respondents described increases in productivity, sales and profitability as a direct result of the support.
• Over half of respondents in receipt of Entrepreneurship Support started a business following the receipt of that support.

Outcomes and Impact - SFBE

• The operation surpassed target of enterprises supported to introduce new-to-the firm products.
• Little effect was demonstrated in terms of employment growth however SFBE provision was never intended to deliver job outcomes.

Future provision

• Stakeholders widely welcomed further funding for BW. They see it as a critical element of the business support landscape in Wales.