Project: Social Business Knowledge Hubs

Grant: £38,000

CERT will produce a series of knowledge hub resources that infrastructure organisations can refer to and use to support organisations exploring new service delivery models. These resources will be similar to business factsheets available to mainstream business advisors and give infrastructure organisations researched and worked up business models that will enable them to provide high-quality guidance and support to organisations.

CERT will research and produce ten resources that will help infrastructure organisations to navigate new enterprise opportunities. The resources will cover current market conditions, availability of funding and investment, commercial and legal issues, statutory regulations and national standards, qualification and skill requirements, income generation models, and tendering and contracting guidance. CERT has already identified a number of opportunities which it will focus on including domiciliary care services, befriending services, community learning hubs and supported housing. Producing a single set of resources that can be used England-wide will save individual infrastructure organisations from needing to research and develop their own guidance, avoiding duplication and enabling CERT to assist a large number of organisations in a cost-effective way while ensuring consistent quality.