Research and Evaluation

This section is dedicated to collating partners research documents effecting Economic Policy in County Durham. If you wish to discuss the reports further, please contact us.

Enterprise

Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI)

The Vision of the Be Enterprising Programme is that by 2016, Derwentside, Easington, Sedgefield and Wear Valley Districts will be the most enterprising communities in the North East and the fastest improving area for enterprise and productivity in England. It represents a planned £31m, ten year strategy with confirmed funding of £10.2m over the period up to March 2009. The programme has been developed on the basis of three themes with nine interlinked programmes as indicated in table below.

Programme Themes	Activities
Increasing Total Entrepreneurial Activity	Enhanced Start up Activity Improving Access to Workspace Enhancing Enterprise Education
Supporting Sustainable Growth and Reducing the Failure Rate of Locally Owned Businesses	Developing Local Clusters Enterprising Centres Fastest 50' Companies Worklessness and Skills Access to Opportunity
Attracting Appropriate Inward Investment and Franchising	Franchising

The majority of activity during year 1 of the programme has been developing programme activities, commissioning research and providing baselines. In order to proceed to the full delivery phase of the programme all research reports and recommendations will be reviewed to inform and outline the project of activity for years 2 and 3. You can download Adobe Acrobat Reader from the Adobe website.

Be Enterprising Stakeholders Progress Report Summary March 07.pdf (6 pages, 43kb)

Listed below is research already carried out.

This report shows a detailed understanding of the business start-up network currently being delivered in the County.
Report on the Business Start-up Study - March 07.pdf (62 pages, 458kb)
Report Appendices - March 07.pdf (46 pages, 476kb)

Enterprise Place was commissioned in January 2007 to conduct a pilot training delivery project with students aged 16-18, in conjunction with on-going research also being conducted by Enterprise Place. Derwentside, Easington and Wear Valley are listed below. The report for Sedgefield is not yet available.
Enterprise Plus Pilot - Derwentside.pdf (9 pages, 30kb)
Enterprise Plus Pilot Evaluation Report - East Durham Partnership.pdf (23 pages, 167kb)
Enterprise Plus Pilot Evaluation Report - Wear Valley.pdf (4 pages, 24kb)

Report by Dickinson Dees.
Report on the Legal Implications of Young People in Business.pdf (17 pages, 86kb)

A detailed assessment of enterprise education activity and delivery within all primary schools in the LEGI area.
Primary Enterprise Education Research.pdf (40 pages, 478kb)

Research carried out by County Durham Enterprise Agency.
Entrepreneurship Simulation Package Report.pdf (72 pages, 329kb)

Report showing the developments of the new website developed to help support and promote the enterprise community in the four LEGI districts.
Design and Provision of the BE Website.pdf (19 pages, 80kb)

Activity report showing the new engineering forum "Sedgefield Engineering Forum Limited".
LEGI - Activitiy Report.pdf (5 pages, 111kb)

Research to look at a variety of models currently highlighted as good practice and identify the the range of practical measures that would enable clustering to succeed in the LEGI areas.
Investigating Models of Clustering.pdf (46 pages, 488kb)

Feasibility study by The Franchising Company on the concept of establishing a network of franchised with the LEGI area.
Franchising into the LEGI Communities.pdf (60 pages, 798kb)

Enterprising Public Sector in County Durham

This is a summary of the study Enterprising Public Sector in County Durham commissioned by Business Link County Durham on behalf of the County Durham Economic Partnership.Enterprising Public Sector in County Durham.pdf (48 pages, 331kb)

Barriers to Enterprise

This is the summary of a study aimed at the identification of Barriers to self-employment for economically active individuals aged 35-44 years old. It was commissioned by Business Link County Durham on behalf of the County Durham Economic Partnership.Barriers to Enterprise.pdf (38 pages, 291kb)