CYP Business support guidance
Free business diagnostic tool
The CYP Diagnostic tool, an online business tool for Children and Young People’s organisations that are starting-up, growing or moving to a social enterprise model. This diagnostic covers some of the key business principles and practices you need to put in place to grow your impact and support more children, young people, and their families.
You can receive support in a number of areas; from planning and implementing strategy, financial management, to diversifying your funding, improving operations and understanding the impact you deliver.
When you complete the diagnostic tool, you’ll receive a report - a bit like a health check for your business. This will be helpful when you meet with an advisor to discuss your business needs, or to take to your stakeholders and supporters. It’s also designed to be a great way to check on the progress of your enterprise – come back in 3 or 6 months time to see how you’ve progressed in some of the key areas outlined below.
To go through to the tool and get started, click here.
Free Business Planning Game
‘Can you Plan It’ is a fun, accessible resource to assist Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations, and specifically those working with children and young people, to involve service users, stakeholders and a range of staff members in the business planning process. The complete toolkit is FREE to download - click here to find out more.
The resource can be used in three main ways:
- As a training tool to familiarise a group of VCSE staff, partners or stakeholders with the business planning process
- As a tool to support business planning within your organisation, including the option to customise elements
- As a mechanism to support local networks to explore local opportunities and joint strategic decisions
Free IT Support
As part of the Department for Education’s overarching strategic partnership, i-trust (part of the Cover Group), in association with Children England, are opening a free IT helpdesk for voluntary, community and social enterprise sector organisations that work with children, young people and families. The helpdesk will be able to give advice and guidance on IT/ICT matters as well as 1st Tier IT support.
The IT support can be accessed in two ways. To speak to an adviser, call the helpline on 0800 028 0085. This will be available from 09:00 to 16:00 Mondays to Fridays, excluding Public and Bank Holidays. Any calls outside of the core hours will be dealt with when the helpdesk is next open. Alternatively, you can use the dedicated email address: support@i-trust.org.uk. Support requests by email will be dealt with, where possible, by next working day but within 3 working days.
‘An Enterprising Future’ guide
This guide takes you on a journey through setting up a social enterprise, and gives practical advice on business planning, accessing finance, winning public sector contracts, and evaluating impact. It also profiles four successful social enterprises delivering children and young people’s services across England. Click here to download.
Social franchising manual for youth organisations
Are you a youth organisation looking to replicate your model and your work? This practical manual is for youth organisations looking to grow and strengthen their impact through social franchising. It provides a general introduction to replication, and explains how to decide on a suitable approach for your organisation, as well as taking readers through the practical steps required for putting replication into action. Read it here.
And to read about social enterprise create a future's social replication journey, click here.
