Building for the future – the £14m Jade
Business Park is a new 55-acre development
set next to the A19 at Dalton Park.
“We offer the right environment to
stimulate sustainable economic growth."
In fact the first DBOP strand was
childcare, delivering help to 48 businesses
with workshops and one-on-one support
sessions, delivered by industry experts. It
also ensured they took advantage of the
opportunity of the government initiative
introduced in September 2017 offering up
Leadership – Sarah Slaven,
operations director at Business
to 30 hours free childcare for children aged
Durham, the economic development
three to four years old.
arm of Durham County Council.
As a lasting legacy of the programme’s
success, Durham County Council Early Years
team included business training in their
annual training directory which has enabled
nurseries to upskill their workforce and
start-ups and established businesses alike to
provide support to help them become more
consider growth in the area.
resilient and profitable.
In addition to providing the right
Nursery owner Laura Leigh Davies set up
infrastructure, to help businesses to succeed,
Child’s Play Private Nursery at the Ferryhill
the team at Business Durham provide a
wealth of support to help companies find new Sport and Education Centre after she was
made redundant as a childcare practitioner
opportunities, access finance and overcome
six years ago.
barriers to growth.
Thanks to support from Business
The Durham Business Opportunities
Durham's DBOP team, she has now
Programme (DBOP) is a business support
expanded Child’s Play to open new branches
initiative, funded through the European
in Seaham and Chester-le-Street, employing
Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and
53 staff and looking after more than 350
delivered by Business Durham.
children.
A dedicated team of three business
As her business has developed, Laura has
engagement and project monitoring officers
are tasked with facilitating business growth by used the full range of services provided.
Laura said: “I was introduced to Business
linking companies with tangible opportunities,
Durham through my Prince’s Trust mentor.
like a new contract, finding new premises, a
Since day one they have been on hand
new supplier or perhaps some investment.
to provide me with expert mentoring,
The programme also includes a number of
delivering the support needed at every stage
sector-specific areas of business support
of my journey so far, from advising me of
aimed at making the most of potential
potential funding sources to connecting
growth opportunities in sectors identified as
other support organisations to help my
experiencing or reporting high growth.
business to grow.
One of those sector-specific support
“My management team has benefited from
programmes focused on the childcare
the Red Kite Training provided by DBOP.
industry.
It’s upskilled my workforce enabling them
to take a more proactive role in the running
of the business which has benefited our
children and the successful delivery of the
business.”
Business Durham operations director
Sarah Slaven said: “Many people who start
businesses in the sector don’t connect with
the support network. They see themselves
as professional childcare providers who love
their jobs and not necessarily as businesses.
"When the government introduced the
increased childcare entitlement, we helped
the businesses prepare for it. The change led
to an increase in demand so the DBOP team
sourced training from early years training
providers Red Kite Innovations to offer
intensive support for the sector to help them
take advantage of the opportunity.
“Childcare providers really excel at
looking after children, though some need a
little extra support. The DBOP team are on
hand to provide that robust business model,
delivering ongoing support and guidance
during each exciting step of their journey.
“Many in the county, like Laura, have now
grown, taken over nurseries, taken on extra
staff and acquired new premises.”
Sarah concluded: “We offer the right
environment to stimulate sustainable
economic growth. Business Durham has
an experienced and talented team that is
committed to providing the right mix of
infrastructure, business support and access
to finance to enable growth, create jobs and
improve lives in County Durham.”
Find out more businessdurham.co.uk
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