Issue details

CEOs asked to approve grant funding for 30 successful applicants on Cohort 1 of the Create Growth Programme for the West of.England. Each business would receive £2,500 grant for mentoring, at a total cost of £75,000. Approval of the businesses selected to join the programme was made in April 2023. This decision is recommending that businesses on the programme are grant funded as outlined in the report.

The West of England & Cornwall and Isles of Scilly are one of 6 successful Local Area Partnerships that have been awarded £1.275m from DCMS to support local creative businesses to unlock economic growth. The Create Growth Programme will build on the success of the Creative Scale Up Pilot (2019-2022) and aims to support high-growth creative businesses to scale and become investment ready through a targeted business support package.

Theprogramme willsupport 60business over2 cohorts,the firstcohort startedin May2023. The support offerforbusinessesis12 monthsofsector specifictraining,workshops, facilitatedpeerto peer support,mentoring (grantsubject tofurther application process),founder talksand networkingopportunities.