North Tyneside Council recognised in Public Services Excellence (APSE) Awards

North Tyneside Council is celebrating after being announced winners of a prestigious award for public service.

North Tyneside Council has picked up the accolade for Best Community and Neighbourhood Initiative at the Association for Public Services Excellence (APSE) Awards in Edinburgh on Thursday 13 September.

To win an award councils had to show they were actively implementing innovative ideas, supporting continuous improvement, and developing new strategies to deliver local services while also highlighting their commitment to innovation and adaptation in local services.

The local authority’s Business and Enterprise team was delighted to receive the award for its Made in North Tyneside project, funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which supports start-up businesses in the borough.

Launched by North Tyneside Council’s Business Factory in 2012 to address the historic low levels of self-employed residents within the area, the project provides bespoke advice, mentoring and workshops for start-up businesses. It also helps to develop innovative approaches, such as a Business Start App, which has made it quicker and easier for entrepreneurs to access support and information.

In addition to working with start-ups, the project also supports SMEs with high growth potential through its Aspire Programme by linking scale-up companies with successful business leaders based in the region to share best practice.

Made in North Tyneside has been hugely successful, supporting over 5,000 potential entrepreneurs in the community and increasing the number of self-employed residents by over 70 per cent in the last five years.

In addition to winning the Best Community and Neighbourhood category, the council was also shortlisted for Best Commercialisation and Entrepreneurship Initiative for the same project.

Last year, Made in North Tyneside was presented with an Enterprising Britain Award by the Department for Business, Energy, Innovation and Skills. The project then represented the UK at the European Enterprise Promotion Awards in Talinn in November where it picked up the National Winner award.

Commenting on being announced winners of this prestigious Award, Norma Redfearn CBE, Elected Mayor of North Tyneside, said: “We’re incredibly proud to deliver such a fantastic programme of support for start-up businesses in North Tyneside and I’d like to thank everyone involved in the success of Made in Britain and the Business Factory.  We look forward to developing this programme further to help more North Tyneside residents achieve their ambition of running their own business in the region.”

To find out more about support available for start-up business in North Tyneside, please visit http://www.businessfactorynt.co.uk/