UK Public Sector Contracts & Tenders

Cheshire & Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership (The LEP) is looking to appoint consultants to work with the LEP, local authorities and other subregional partners to refresh, consolidate and reframe our economic strategy to ensure it meets our new sustainable and inclusive growth vision, is effective, compelling, will maximise investment, and deliver our wider economic priorities for people, businesses and places. The subregion has a significant local evidence base developed over several years and recently refreshed in 2022. It has built on our Strategic Economic Plan (SEP), Local Industrial Strategy (LIS), the LEP Recovery Plan (2021-22) and the Plans of our three local authorities. We have recently refreshed our evidence base in 2022 to take account of the recent changes to the external environment such as Covid, EU exit, Net Zero, Levelling Up and other government policies, and our new vision for healthy, sustainable and inclusive growth. Under the commission the Consultants will: • Review the recently completed evidence base update. • Review/evaluate progress to date against existing subregional strategic plans (mainly SEP, LIS, Recovery Plan) • Engage with our three local authority partners to undertake a desktop review of local economic and associated strategies (each area's key strategies as a minimum) regarding alignment on the subregional sustainable and inclusive economic priorities; • Develop an initial think piece for the LEP on potential approaches to developing a more proactive, innovative, sustainable and inclusive economic plan for Cheshire and Warrington, with a review of the levers and powers at the area's collective disposal (existing and potential); • Work with the LEP, local authorities and key stakeholders to translate headline priorities into areas where intervention might be required to build on successes or address weaknesses, and improve resilience, aligned to local and national priorities; • Development of supporting presentation material related to key economic, growth and sectoral messages, within the lens of sustainable and inclusive growth, and inclusion of any additional meta data/technical annexes, maps/databases where relevant; • Advice/proposal on targets/KPI's that could be used to monitor progress on the delivery of the sustainable and inclusive economic plan. The closing date and time for the receipt of submissions and all requested documentation relating to this stage is 16:00 hours (4pm) on 1st December 2022. Late submissions will not be accepted. Submissions will only be accepted if they are returned via email to tenders@cheshireandwarrington.com Bidders should not send their completed submissions to/copy in any other email address.

On behalf of the NP11 (Northern Powerhouse 11) group of Local Enterprise Partnerships, and the Northern Place & Culture Partnership which the NP11 convenes, the Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership ("The LEP") is seeking to procure capacity to support the development and delivery of the Place & Culture Partnership's programme; which seeks to convene partners in the delivery of improved nature, cultural, and heritage assets that deliver stronger, more inclusive growth. Initial thinking is for a senior individual contracted for 32 hours per week, embedded within the NP11 team and reporting into the Partnership Steering Group, with additional support aligned with the project objectives (see below) as required; however, we are open to alternative arrangements that add value. The contract is expected to complete by 22nd December 2023. Working closely with members of the Partnership, activity will be focused on the actions identified in the recently agreed Delivery Framework (attached), coordinating supporting activity, and providing ad hoc support to the Partnership in delivery of the programme. The contract is expected to commence w/c 20th February 2023, with the exact dates to be agreed depending on the agreement between the successful provider and The LEP, on behalf of NP11. The principal benefits include; - Ability to maximise opportunities for best value and efficient services. - To allow bidders to explore efficiencies, which may be possible by suggesting innovative and cost-effective solutions. - Presentation of cost savings to The LEP in order to maximise economical operational efficiency and value for money. - A resultant contract that meets the tender requirements and supports NP11 with their ambition. The Contract will be awarded for an initial period of 12 months, with an option to extend for another 12 months. During the contract life, the successful bidder will need to achieve continuous improvement. Failure to do so may result in the contract being terminated. Bidders are required to submit tenders in an electronic format (i.e. MS Word/PDF) of no more than four pages A4 detailing how you would approach this commission, including: - Your understanding of the brief and your ability to address key challenges, including provision of adequate capacity - Your understanding of NP11 and the specific political environment in which it operates. - Your experience of delivering work of similar focus, scale and budget - Names, job titles and short role descriptions of the people who would work on this commission, noting their technical capabilities - A breakdown of costs, including details of your day rate and estimated days/ hours Submissions should be sent via email FAO David Levene to: tenders@cheshireandwarrington.com The closing date and time for the receipt of submissions and all requested documentation relating to this stage is 1700 1st February 2023. Late submissions will not be accepted.

This commission is for a research partner to undertake the research and production of a policy report for innovation cluster development. We would expect the research to lead to policy insight addressing questions such as: • How might we join up different policy initiatives such as Investment Zones, Enterprise Zones, freeports • How we maximise the value of local interventions across boundaries • How we maximise the value of the North's leading position on devolution and harnessing public-private-academic partnerships • How areas with emerging strengths are supported to grow, aligned with a national priority of levelling up We envisage the commission outputs to comprise of: 1. A review of existing literature on innovation clusters, focused on existing typologies for describing clusters and on policy lessons to ensure this research builds on this existing work 2. Up to eleven short case studies in the North, chosen with NP11, designed to highlight the diversity in type of cluster and pulling out insights on how these were supported to grow 3. A policy report drawing out lessons learnt from the case studies and making positively focused recommendations for future policy development and delivery. We also envisage that the project will be delivered in close collaboration with NP11's Innovation Programme Lead, who will also convene a small Advisory Board consisting of Local Enterprise Partnership and other stakeholder representatives at key stages along the project plan. Milestones for delivery will be agreed at the inception meeting. Submissions should be sent via email FAO Jen Rae to: tenders@cheshireandwarrington.com The closing date and time for the receipt of submissions and all requested documentation relating to this stage is 1700 30th May 2023. Late submissions will not be accepted.

The Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership (the LEP) leads the growth of the Cheshire and Warrington economy through a powerful partnership between the private, public, and voluntary sectors to make the sub-region the UK's healthiest, most sustainable, inclusive and growing economy. As part of the LEP, Marketing Cheshire (MC) is the sub-region's Destination Management Organisation/emerging Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP), responsible for positioning Cheshire as a great place to live, work, study, invest and visit, working in partnership with the sub-region's three local authorities and tourism and hospitality businesses. Marketing Cheshire is looking to assess the potential to develop a new way of promoting and selling short breaks in Cheshire West and Chester. Working with a number of rurally based attractions and accommodation providers (led by the Ice Cream Farm), there is an appetite for businesses to work together to create new packages for visitors, combining attractions with accommodation to provide good value packages for families looking to do something fun. We are looking to appoint a provider to develop a feasibility study to include a commercial case, potential suppliers and clear recommendations. The output from this feasibility study, should the conclusion be that an online packaging solution is viable, will then form the basis for a request for additional funding, to procure and implement the solution. We would like to explore the feasibility of developing a new platform which brings together experiences, attractions and accommodation as bookable packages. This could be either as recommended packages (similar to secretescapes.com) or as a pick and mix type option allowing the customer to create their own packages. If you have any specific questions concerning this document or the process for submission of your proposal, then please email through to: tenders@cheshireandwarrington.com no later than noon on the 29th September. Only questions submitted to this email address will be answered. Queries received after this date will not be accepted and will not be responded to. It would be most helpful if queries could be submitted in one email rather than piecemeal. If any question or request for clarification is considered to be of material significance, both the question and the response may be issued for review by all potential providers in a suitably anonymous form. All communication received from potential providers will be treated in strict confidence but are subject to this paragraph. The closing date and time for the receipt of submissions is 15:00 hours (3pm) on Friday 6th October 2023. Late submissions will not be accepted. Submissions will only be accepted if they are returned via email to tenders@cheshireandwarrington.com stating in the email subject which tender the submission relates to. Submissions sent by other means may not be accepted at the discretion of the Local Enterprise Partnership.

The Local Enterprise Partnership (The LEP) leads the growth of the Cheshire and Warrington economy through a powerful partnership between the private, public, and voluntary sectors. Our ambition is to be the UK's healthiest, most sustainable, inclusive and growing economy. Working in collaboration with local government, businesses, educational institutes and other public, private and community sector organisations, we keep Cheshire and Warrington firmly on the map. The LEP, on behalf of the North West Net Zero Hub, and the Net Zero North West industrial decarbonisation consortium, is looking to procure consultancy services from an individual or small team to put operational plans in place to set up a new industry body to co-ordinate and facilitate the delivery of the £30 billion North West Industrial Cluster Decarbonisation Plan. The successful bidder will be required to deliver services in accordance with all tender documents and the contract to be placed with the successful bidder. Tenderers are requested to study the specification in detail and ensure that the specified requirements can be met and thus your understanding of our requirements is reflected in your Pricing Schedule return. The contract is expected to commence in February 2024 and take approximately 9 months to complete. Following commission, the contractor will produce a project tracker for this piece of work, including key reporting milestones and expected activities and regularly update this to facilitate monitoring. An interim report is expected in July 2024 to support project reporting requirements.

The Local Enterprise Partnership (The LEP) leads the growth of the Cheshire and Warrington economy through a powerful partnership between the private, public, and voluntary sectors. Our ambition is to be the UK's healthiest, most sustainable, inclusive and growing economy. Working in collaboration with local government, businesses, educational institutes and other public, private and community sector organisations, we keep Cheshire and Warrington firmly on the map. The LEP, on behalf of the North West Net Zero Hub, and the Net Zero North West industrial decarbonisation consortium, is looking to procure consultancy services from an individual or small team to put operational plans in place to set up a new industry body to co-ordinate and facilitate the delivery of the £30 billion North West Industrial Cluster Decarbonisation Plan. The successful bidder will be required to deliver services in accordance with all tender documents and the contract to be placed with the successful bidder. Tenderers are requested to study the specification in detail and ensure that the specified requirements can be met and thus your understanding of our requirements is reflected in your Pricing Schedule return. The contract is expected to commence in February 2024 and take approximately 9 months to complete. Following commission, the contractor will produce a project tracker for this piece of work, including key reporting milestones and expected activities and regularly update this to facilitate monitoring. An interim report is expected in July 2024 to support project reporting requirements.

On 8 April 2024, ownership of the Cheshire and Warrington (C&W) Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) transferred to the three C&W local authorities and it changed its name to Enterprise Cheshire and Warrington. This followed the announcement made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his Spring Budget in 2023 that LEP responsibilities would be transferred to LAs from April 2024. Enterprise Cheshire and Warrington (ECW) will support Cheshire and Warrington's elected members to deliver their vision to make C&W the healthiest, most sustainable inclusive and growing place in the country by • providing strategic economic planning; • delivering key government programmes; and • ensure that a strong, independent business voice is reflected in the advice ECW provides to elected members. The formation of a Business Advisory Board (BAB) for C&W will play an important role in delivering the third of these objectives. Each Combined Authority and sub-region has been asked to establish a BAB to be made up of local business leaders and relevant representative bodies to provide the view of local businesses and to work with local leaders to create a broad economic strategy for their areas. The Chair of the BAB in C&W will be a non-voting member of the Joint Committee of the three local authorities that has been formed to deliver the sub-region's vision and to oversee the work of ECW. Following the agreement from the local authorities, Enterprise Cheshire and Warrington wishes to commission a recruitment and executive search consultancy to: i. Help it recruit members of the BAB; ii. Help it identify candidates suitable to fill the role of Chair of the BAB. This commission therefore comprises two parts. Consultancies may bid for one or both parts. ECW is also happy to accept bids from consortia covering both parts. ECW is seeking a recruitment and executive search agency or agencies, with experience that will enable them to successfully help recruit the Chair and members of the sub-region's Business Advisory Board. Final membership of the BAB will be fully representative of the C&W with-profit and not-for-profit sectors, including by geography, sector and protected characteristics. The BAB will comprise around 15 - 20 members, of which around 10 will be ex-officio roles comprising former members of the Board of the LEP, representatives of C&W's business representative organisations and the Chair of Marketing Cheshire. They will be appointed through an administrative process run by ECW. The remainder will be appointed via open applications on which the successful consultancy will be expected to take the lead. Submissions should be sent via email, to tenders@cheshireandwarrington.com stating in the email subject which tender the submission relates to. Completed submissions should be sent to the tender contact stated above only and must be submitted by the deadline for submissions.

On 8 April 2024, ownership of the Cheshire and Warrington (C&W) Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) transferred to the three C&W local authorities and it changed its name to Enterprise Cheshire and Warrington. This followed the announcement made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his Spring Budget in 2023 that LEP responsibilities would be transferred to LAs from April 2024. Enterprise Cheshire and Warrington (ECW) will support Cheshire and Warrington's elected members to deliver their vision to make C&W the healthiest, most sustainable inclusive and growing place in the country by • providing strategic economic planning; • delivering key government programmes; and • ensure that a strong, independent business voice is reflected in the advice ECW provides to elected members. The formation of a Business Advisory Board (BAB) for C&W will play an important role in delivering the third of these objectives. Each Combined Authority and sub-region has been asked to establish a BAB to be made up of local business leaders and relevant representative bodies to provide the view of local businesses and to work with local leaders to create a broad economic strategy for their areas. The Chair of the BAB in C&W will be a non-voting member of the Joint Committee of the three local authorities that has been formed to deliver the sub-region's vision and to oversee the work of ECW. Following the agreement from the local authorities, Enterprise Cheshire and Warrington wishes to commission a recruitment and executive search consultancy to: i. Help it recruit members of the BAB; ii. Help it identify candidates suitable to fill the role of Chair of the BAB. This commission therefore comprises two parts. Consultancies may bid for one or both parts. ECW is also happy to accept bids from consortia covering both parts. ECW is seeking a recruitment and executive search agency or agencies, with experience that will enable them to successfully help recruit the Chair and members of the sub-region's Business Advisory Board. Final membership of the BAB will be fully representative of the C&W with-profit and not-for-profit sectors, including by geography, sector and protected characteristics. The BAB will comprise around 15 - 20 members, of which around 10 will be ex-officio roles comprising former members of the Board of the LEP, representatives of C&W's business representative organisations and the Chair of Marketing Cheshire. They will be appointed through an administrative process run by ECW. The remainder will be appointed via open applications on which the successful consultancy will be expected to take the lead. Submissions should be sent via email, to tenders@cheshireandwarrington.com stating in the email subject which tender the submission relates to. Completed submissions should be sent to the tender contact stated above only and must be submitted by the deadline for submissions.

On 8 April 2024, ownership of the Cheshire and Warrington (C&W) Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) transferred to the three C&W local authorities and it changed its name to Enterprise Cheshire and Warrington. This followed the announcement made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his Spring Budget in 2023 that LEP responsibilities would be transferred to LAs from April 2024. Enterprise Cheshire and Warrington (ECW) will support Cheshire and Warrington's elected members to deliver their vision to make C&W the healthiest, most sustainable inclusive and growing place in the country by • providing strategic economic planning; • delivering key government programmes; and • ensure that a strong, independent business voice is reflected in the advice ECW provides to elected members. The formation of a Business Advisory Board (BAB) for C&W will play an important role in delivering the third of these objectives. Each Combined Authority and sub-region has been asked to establish a BAB to be made up of local business leaders and relevant representative bodies to provide the view of local businesses and to work with local leaders to create a broad economic strategy for their areas. The Chair of the BAB in C&W will be a non-voting member of the Joint Committee of the three local authorities that has been formed to deliver the sub-region's vision and to oversee the work of ECW. Following the agreement from the local authorities, Enterprise Cheshire and Warrington wishes to commission a recruitment and executive search consultancy to: i. Help it recruit members of the BAB; ii. Help it identify candidates suitable to fill the role of Chair of the BAB. This commission therefore comprises two parts. Consultancies may bid for one or both parts. ECW is also happy to accept bids from consortia covering both parts. ECW is seeking a recruitment and executive search agency or agencies, with experience that will enable them to successfully help recruit the Chair and members of the sub-region's Business Advisory Board. Final membership of the BAB will be fully representative of the C&W with-profit and not-for-profit sectors, including by geography, sector and protected characteristics. The BAB will comprise around 15 - 20 members, of which around 10 will be ex-officio roles comprising former members of the Board of the LEP, representatives of C&W's business representative organisations and the Chair of Marketing Cheshire. They will be appointed through an administrative process run by ECW. The remainder will be appointed via open applications on which the successful consultancy will be expected to take the lead. Submissions should be sent via email, to tenders@cheshireandwarrington.com stating in the email subject which tender the submission relates to. Completed submissions should be sent to the tender contact stated above only and must be submitted by the deadline for submissions.