Evaluation of Help to Grow: Management
End of year one evaluation report
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has commissioned Ipsos, working in partnership with Institute for Employment Studies (IES), to undertake an independent evaluation of the Help to Grow: Management (HtGM) programme. This summary presents headline findings from an early process evaluation of the programme carried out between October 2021 and March 2022. It is based on analysis of available data and evidence on the first 200 cohorts of the programme, 3,328 SMEs who registered for the programme; 50 consultations with programme completers, HtGM mentors and Business Schools, and 171 responses to an online survey administered to participants after completing the programme.
Help to Grow: Management was announced in the March 2021 Spring Budget and delivery started in June 2021. It is a 12-week training programme delivered by a network of business schools across the UK. It comprises four parts of three modules each and wraparound support for SME leaders in the form of 1:1 business mentoring, peer-learning and access to an alumni network. The programme aims to upskill SME leaders across a range of leadership and management practices. Participants are supported to use this learning to develop and implement a plan to drive change within their business aimed at improving firm-level productivity.
The findings presented in this report are based on evidence collected through:
- Analysis of programme monitoring data – including data collected on programme participants and their firms through registration forms and diagnostic surveys.
- Post-completion survey – issued by Ipsos to the first 647 SME leaders to have completed the HtGM programme and received 171 responses (a 26% response rate).
- 30 depth interviews – with SME leaders who had completed HtGM.
- 10 depth interviews – with mentors involved in delivery of HtGM.
- 10 depth interviews – with Business Schools involved in the design and delivery of HtGM.
This page also includes two quarterly summary interim evaluations, April - June and July - September 2022.