[C]umbria Chamber of Commerce achieved a perfect score of 100% for supply chain design in its recent Merlin Standard reaccreditation.
Merlin aims to encourage and support excellence in supply chain management and ensure fair treatment of partners and subcontractors by prime contractors to support healthy, high-performing supply chains.
The Chamber acts as a prime contractor for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), delivering the New Enterprise Allowance scheme that helps unemployed people become self-employed.
While the DWP requires prime contractors to attain Merlin, the Chamber has gone further by voluntarily extending the assessment to cover all its business support activities through Cumbria Business Growth Hub.
Assessors awarded a 100% score for the way the Chamber puts together its supply chains and designs contract delivery – working proactively and constructively with current and potential partners to design and deliver supply chains that deliver effectively for funders and end users, including drawing on wider networks.
The Chamber’s overall score was 80%, and it was also marked ‘excellent’ for commitment. This covers collaboration, co-operation and communication, developing supply chain partners and contracting and funding arrangements.
Rob Johnston, Chamber Chief Executive of Cumbria Chamber of Commerce, said: “I am immensely proud of the team’s achievement which reflects the tremendous effort and investment the Chamber puts into the robust management, systems and processes that underpin effective business support delivery, and it reflects our genuinely strong and collaborative partnerships – both formal and informal.
“It’s a real challenge to balance this robustness with the flexibility and responsiveness that’s such an important part of our DNA and our success in delivering for Cumbria business.
“But clearly the team has achieved that.”
He added: “When we were first awarded Merlin accreditation in 2015 we were the smallest organisation ever to be accredited and it was an interesting challenge for the assessors to review an organisation of this size and flexibility. So they were particularly delighted to come back and see our progress and achievements.”
The Chamber delivers the New Enterprise Allowance in Cumbria, Lancashire and Merseyside, and has helped more than 8,500 unemployed people to explore enterprise and more than 5,500 businesses to start. The scheme offers mentoring from advisers, and financial support.
