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Published - September 2024

Performance Improvement Self-Assessment Report

Objective 3: Our economy

Achievement of improvement objective

Improvement objective 

Our economy: Help small businesses, including social enterprises and co-operatives, to develop and grow, and by doing so, help create opportunities for local jobs and employment. 

Self-assessment

Achieved – we helped small businesses, including social enterprises and co-operatives, to develop and grow, and by doing so, helped create opportunities for local jobs and employment. 

Aspect of improvement 

Aspect of improvement Achievement status

 General duty and continuous improvement

Achieved

 Strategic effectiveness

Achieved

 Service quality and availability

Achieved

 Fairness

Achieved

 Sustainability

Achieved

 Efficiency

Achieved

 Innovation

Achieved

 Performance improvement summary 

3 Milestones

  • 3 (100 per cent) milestones were achieved.

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3 Performance Indicators (target)

  • 2 (67 per cent) were on target or exceeded target (within 1 per cent or better).
  • 1 (33 per cent) was adrift of target (5 per cent or more).

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3 Performance Indicators (trend)

  • 3 (100 per cent) performance indicators showed no significant change or maintained a similar level of performance as previous years.

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Achievement of improvement objective 3 milestones 

Supported local businesses, social enterprises, and co-operatives

  • Achieved - Received the funding agreement/ MoU by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and finalised procurement contracts.
  • Achieved - Successfully launched the new enterprise support service ‘Go Succeed’, which was delayed until 13 November 2023.   
  • Achieved - Received 573 enquiries from individuals wishing to start a business in Belfast, with 278 diagnostics completed leading directly to business plan development, and 1-1 mentoring.

Improvement objective 3 indicators and performance measures

Performance indicators

2020-21

2021-22

2022-23

2023-24 Target [Footnote 5]

2023-24 Actual

Trend

Commentary if target not met

Number of jobs promoted through the ‘Go For It’ programme [statutory performance indicator]

210

308

283

156

158

On target or exceeded target (within 1% or better)

No significant change

The ‘Go For It’ programme finished in Q3 of 2023-24. Hence the target and actual figures are lower than in previous years.

Business start-up and growth activity [statutory performance indicator]:

  • Number of business plans developed

342

514

472

260

263

On target or exceeded target (within 1% or better)

No significant change

See ‘Go for it’ above.

Number of participants or businesses supported

698

731

503

658

572

Adrift of target (5% or more)

No significant change

Delay to the start of the new service (planned for September but delayed until November).


How we compared – performance benchmarking

The ‘Go For It’ programme has been delivered in collaboration by all 11 councils since September 2017. Together we have supported 15,546 entrepreneurs to produce business plans and in doing so created 9,446 jobs [Footnote 6]. Six councils met their jobs promotion target for every year of the programme whilst Belfast met their target once in the final year of the programme (2023-24). However, we have delivered the greatest number of business plans and jobs, representing 16 per cent of all programme business plans and promoted the same proportion of programme jobs. Our performance in relation to our fellow councils is as follows:

Business start-up and growth activity [statutory performance indicator]: Number of business plans developed [Footnote 7]

Council area

2018-19

2019-20

2020-21

2021-22

2022-23

2023-24

Total

Antrim and Newtownabbey

171

173

137

162

172

91

906

Ards and North Down

181

171

165

211

166

106

1,000

Armagh Banbridge and Craigavon

360

373

309

386

353

173

1,954

Belfast

430

419

342

514

472

263

2,440

Causeway Coast and Glens

231

195

216

256

213

110

1,221

Derry and Strabane

226

217

184

238

240

118

1,223

Fermanagh and Omagh

276

279

165

309

308

147

1,484

Lisburn and Castlereagh

228

182

173

213

187

103

1,086

Mid and East Antrim

201

199

153

181

206

110

1,050

Mid Ulster

332

301

214

269

278

134

1,528

Newry Mourne and Down

300

298

267

356

305

128

1,654

Total

2936

2807

2325

3095

2900

1,483

15,546

Number of jobs promoted through the ‘Go For It’ programme [statutory performance indicator] [Footnote 8]

Council area

2018-19

2019-20

2020-21

2021-22

2022-23

2023-24

Total

Antrim and Newtownabbey

105

106

84

97

103

55

551

Ards and North Down

111

105

101

127

100

64

608

Armagh Banbridge and Craigavon

221

229

190

232

212

104

1,188

Belfast

264

258

210

308

283

158

1,482

Causeway Coast and Glens

142

120

133

154

128

66

742

Derry and Strabane

139

133

113

143

144

71

743

Fermanagh and Omagh

170

172

101

185

185

88

901

Lisburn and Castlereagh

140

112

106

128

112

62

660

Mid and East Antrim

124

122

94

109

124

66

638

Mid Ulster

204

185

132

161

167

80

929

Newry Mourne and Down

184

183

164

214

183

77

1,005

Total

1805

1725

1429

1857

1740

890

9,446


Additional evidence of performance improvement aligned to objective 3

Evidence that we helped small businesses, including social enterprises and co-operatives, to develop and grow, and by doing so, helped create opportunities for local jobs and employment.

In addition to the ‘Go For It’ programme above, we delivered a range of key initiatives through our dedicated Economic Development Unit – for example, the Belfast Labour Market Partnership and the Belfast Employment Academies

Further evidence to demonstrate that we helped small businesses, including social enterprises and co-operatives, to develop and grow, and by doing so, helped create opportunities for local jobs and employment is set out in our Belfast Agenda Progress Reports (link opens in new window)

Progress against our City Growth and Regeneration Committee Plan is monitored and reported to the City Growth and Regeneration Committee. 


Next Steps

As a result of extensive consultation and engagement, ‘our economy’ is a strategic theme within the refreshed Belfast Agenda and a key priority in the 2024-28 Corporate Plan (currently in draft). This improvement objective will also feature in the Performance Improvement Plan 2024-25 as:

  • We will stimulate inclusive growth and innovation, help businesses to start-up and grow and create opportunities for more and better jobs and employment.

Footnotes

[Footnote 5] The statutory target for jobs promoted in legislation is 325. During 2023-24 ‘Go For It’ ran for only 6 months as the scheme was coming to an end and Belfast City Council targets were reduced accordingly.

[Footnote 6] Job creation figures are calculated by applying a conversion rate to the number of business plans developed. For example, number of business plans developed X 0.6 = number of jobs created. This conversion rate is determined by Invest NI: 2018-19 to 2020-21 jobs promoted = business plans developed x 0.61471 and 2021-22 to 2023-24 jobs promoted = business plans developed x 0.6

[Footnote 7] Data supplied by Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council, who manage the contract to deliver the ‘Go For It’ Programme. The ‘Go For It’ programme finished in Q3 of 2023-24. Hence the target and actual figures are lower than in previous years.  

[Footnote 8] Data supplied by Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council, who manage the contract to deliver the Go For It Programme. The ‘Go For It’ programme finished in Q3 of 2023-24. Hence the target and actual figures are lower than in previous years.

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