Facilitating a Business Case Masterclass for Lancashire LEP

As part of the Lancashire Local Enterprise Partnership's commitment to developing the capacity and competence of its partners, Steer Economic Development was commissioned to deliver a series of three masterclasses, focused on ‘Excellence in Business Case Development’.

Building on Steer Economic Development’s very wide-ranging experience of HM Treasury's Green and Magenta Books, ‘What Works’ advice, and European Commission guidance, the three 2-hour courses delivered online focused on the basics in business case development - Context, Rationale, Objectives, Options, Inputs, Activities, Outputs, Outcomes and Impacts.  The courses explained the role of theories of change and logic models, the importance of market and other failures in intervention arguments, the centrality of options assessment in arriving at optimal preferred option, and how arguments and evidence are best presented using HM Treasury's Five Case template.

Using Steer Economic Development's past experience and that of attendees, training theory was augmented extensively with practical business case development experience, with a frank and open discussion on the key ‘must dos’ and ‘how tos’ in assembling coherent, competitive, and communicable business cases.

On the back of this work, Steer Economic Development was retained subsequently as a ‘critical friend’ to review the emerging business case for Lancashire's submission for an Institute of Technology in response to the Department of Education’s national call.