Thanks, I’ll check them out!
We used consortia to deliver the Co-operative Enterprise Hub support programme for many years. South East Co-op Support also delivered on several European programmes preceding that which were managed by (then) Government Office for South East, so essentially a public sector contract. SECS no longer exists. What I will say from my experience of working on consortia is that they are great for bringing different co-ops together to take on larger contracts BUT when bidding for public sector contracts they often use the balance sheet and track record of delivery as a measure of fitness to deliver. A consortium with no trading track record can have this held against them so working wit the commissioners to explore how the track record of members can be recognised within the tendering framework is time worth investing. This tendering approach is the reason why so many public sector building contracts are awarded to large companies like SERCO and Capita who deliver nothing but take a hefty top slice and sub-contract the actual work.
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Hi to all Bike co-op members! Picking up this thread to see if there will be representation from this sector at Worker Co-op Weekend 2026 and whether there is a desire for a networking session - or appetite to deliver a peer learning session of some sort? You can see the draft programme shaping up here. Submit your ideas for sessions if you have them.
If costs are prohibitive, SolidFund have agreed funding for bursaries to support attendance, details in the event link above.