Purposeful Collaboration Programme

You must be based in Oxfordshire and have completed Enterprise Oxfordshire’s Business Support Tool since the 1st of November 2025 to attend this event. If you purchase a ticket without completing this, your ticket will be cancelled. Business Support Tool - Enterprise Oxfordshire Business

Purposeful Collaboration is a co-created support programme between Enterprise Oxfordshire, OSEP and Co-operative Futures. The programme is designed for small businesses and impact-economy organisations that want to secure larger contracts, strengthen their resilience and collaborate more effectively with others to increase their reach and impact and in turn improve their sustainability.

Small organisations can struggle to access larger opportunities because of limited scale, capacity, back-office infrastructure or visibility. The programme would help participants identify collaboration opportunities, build trusted relationships, design stronger joint offers and become more contract ready. It would also explore practical collaboration models, including partnership working, consortia approaches and co-operative models.

By partnering with social enterprises, SMEs can enhance the social value of their bids and contracts, while social enterprises gain access to larger commercial opportunities, creating mutual benefit and stronger outcomes for local communities.

There are two potential routes for collaborations:

1) Reactive – preparing responses to active tenders / bids / procurement opportunities

2) Proactive – forming joint offers / packages of services collaboratively to approach potential purchasers.

Target Outcomes

The programme will support participating organisations to focus on the following outcomes:

• Launch new collaborative products or services

• Engage with new markets and opportunities.

• Improve productivity or efficiency.

• Create and safeguard jobs

Is your Organisation eligible?

The programme is aimed at micro and small organisations employing fewer than 50 people that have been trading for at least two years, have an established service offer and are looking to grow through collaboration.

The programme is open to social enterprises, enterprising charities, CICs, co-operatives and mutuals with an established trading model and services that could be delivered collaboratively.

For private-sector SMEs, we are particularly looking for service-based businesses whose expertise could form part of a wider collaborative offer or contract. This could include consultancies, training providers, HR and people specialists, wellbeing providers, marketing, creative and digital agencies, environmental and sustainability specialists, construction and property services, transport providers and other professional services.

We particularly welcome businesses already working in, or interested in accessing, public-sector and anchor-institution supply chains.

This programme is unlikely to be suitable for businesses whose primary activity is retailing products directly to consumers, hospitality, or other businesses without a service offer that could realistically form part of a collaborative contract or joint proposition.

By registering for this event, you are registering your interest in the programme. A member of the team will contact you to discuss suitability and confirm your place.

Format

The programme is built around 4 in-person half-day workshops and follow-up 1-1 clinics. This would be complemented by light-touch support, curated introductions and practical tools. All workshops will be delivered in person at The Old Fire Station, Oxford, with a maximum of 20 attendees. All workshops will be 10am to 1pm. Eligible participants must commit to attending all 4 workshops and only 1 attendee per organisation.

Session dates:

1st October: Collaboration Readiness and Connection - Getting to know one another, exploring the benefits of collaboration and identifying opportunities for partnership.

8th October: Social Value, Procurement & Opportunity Development - Understanding the external environment that is creating new opportunities for collaboration.

15th October: From Collaboration to Partnership - Exploring the practical considerations involved in developing successful collaborative partnerships.

21st October: From Partnership to Delivery - Ensuring collaborative opportunities are both operationally and financially viable.

More details on each session will be provided after registration and your place has been confirmed.

Minimal Financial Assistance (MFA) scheme

The Growth Hub programme operates a Minimal Financial Assistance (MFA) scheme. All SMEs which receive support under this programme are being aided under the UK Subsidy Control Act (2022) and The Subsidy Control (Gross Cash Amount and Gross Cash Equivalent) Regulations (2022 No. 1186).

MFA allows a beneficiary to receive up to £315,000 of Subsidy over a three-fiscal year period (i.e. the current and previous two fiscal years). The value of MFA given is the gross cash amount or the gross cash equivalent of the subsidy. The MFA value of this webinar is £6247.50.

At the end of each financial year, we are required to tell you the total amount of support you have received from Enterprise Oxfordshire. By signing up to the event you are consenting to us holding your data in line with our Enterprise Oxfordshire Privacy policy to allow us to do this. We will only send promotional emails about new products, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting if you opt in to marketing. By signing up to the event you are consenting to us holding your data in line with our Enterprise Oxfordshire Privacy policy. You may receive text messages with information about emergencies under our business resilience scheme however you can opt out of these at any time by replying to any text”