New venture for North Wales entrepreneurs delivering projects and training in sex and relationship education
North Wales-based Cwmni Addysg Rhyw – Sex Education Company was set up in 2019 by Mel Gadd and Corrina Williams to take on the delivery of a significant NHS contract, providing sexual health and relationships education to vulnerable young adults. They benefitted from Business Wales support and successfully started in 2019.
- successful launch of a non-for-profit company
- 2 jobs created and contracts secured
- stakeholder engagement
Introduction to business
Cwmni Addysg Rhyw – Sex Education Company was launched in July 2019 by Mel Gadd and Corrina Williams to undertake a range of developmental programmes and training on sexual health and relationships education in North Wales.
The company also delivers a big NHS project – Jiwsi, working with groups of young vulnerable adults who are at an increased risk of sexual health problems, to deliver innovative sexual education in community settings.
Why did you decide to set up your own business?
Cwmni Addysg Rhyw was set up as a Social Enterprise by Mel and Corrina, along with a small board of volunteer directors. Mel and Corrina had previously been employed by the sexual health charity, FPA, to deliver Jiwsi, a local health board funded project providing sex and relationships education for groups of vulnerable young people and training for professionals within the Betsi Cadwaladr (BCUHB) catchment area.
“In May 2019, FPA sadly went into liquidation and we were both made redundant along with all the other employees. We felt that there was still a clear need for the services of Jiwsi and a conversation with the funding contact in BCUHB indicated that the health board would still be open to funding the project under another provider, thus we made the decision to start a not-for-profit company in order to gain the contract to continue to offer the service and tender for future work.
Mel, having managed Jiwsi for 16 years, had an excellent grasp of service delivery and a wealth of knowledge and experience in the field, while I had extensive experience in working with vulnerable young people and had gained over 12 months experience in the delivery of Jiwsi. However, neither had any experience in the administrative aspects of setting up and running a limited company.
What challenges did you face?
The set-up process was challenging in respect of being somewhat of a backward process: in order to gain agreement and funding from the health board, there needed to be an enterprise in place to negotiate. However, in order to proceed with the process of registering and setting up a company, we needed some assurance that the funding would be awarded! The health board were supportive in this and offered assurances that they would be willing to allocate the funding to the new enterprise and provided some guidance as to the sort of enterprise which would be eligible to tender for the contract.
Business Wales support
Mel and Corrina first approached the Welsh Government’s Business Wales service via a local community group, Partneriaeth Ogwen, when the FPA, their then employer, went into liquidation and they lost their jobs.
With no prior business experience, Mel and Corrina benefitted from the support of a Relationship Manager, Richard Fraser-Williams, who worked alongside partners from the Wales Cooperative, to help them determine the best route to starting up a business, which could undertake the delivery of the NHS contracts.
Richard provided extensive advice and signposted the pair to additional support mechanisms including accountants and Hwb Menter for further collaboration on new products and services.
Outcomes
- a successful launch of a not-for-profit company
- health board contracts secured
- 2 jobs created
- Stakeholder engagement to deliver a successful start-up
Business Wales, and namely Richard, were instrumental in us taking the first steps of working out what needed to be done to get the wheels in motion and make our dream a reality. Richard came to meet us and gave comprehensive advice around what the options were, how different company set-ups worked and what the pros and cons would be to each.
He offered advice and reassurance that this was an achievable concept and broke the process down into realistic steps to take. Richard made various introductions to other agencies and individuals who would be able to help and provide advice, as well as sharing information around relevant Business Wales training events. Throughout the process, he was on hand to answer questions and regularly checked in on our progress, which was something we found extremely valuable, given our relative inexperience. Richard was always approachable, knowledgeable and quick to respond to queries.
In addition to the support offered by Richard, the learning events provided by Business Wales have also been extremely useful in gaining knowledge and skills to run the company – both of us have benefited from attending the Tax and Bookkeeping workshop, Mel attended an Advanced Tendering workshop and I am also booked to attend an Introduction to Tendering course.
Future plans and ambitions
Cwmni Addysg Rhyw – Sex Education Company was registered with Companies House at the end of July 2019 and gained a contract from BCUHB to run Project Jiwsi until December 2019, at which point, the health board are positive about re-contracting. As well as aiming to gain a further contract to deliver the project, we are offering training packages and consultancy for organisations which do not fall within the Jiwsi criteria. There are a number of bookings in the pipeline as well as some opportunities to work with local universities.
We also plan to employ a further person, on a sessional basis in the short term, but may look at employing a contracted member of staff post December if the Jiwsi contract is once again secured. Longer term, the company would like to be able to tender for other training contracts and relevant work as and when such opportunities arise and to go on to employ further staff. We’d also want to use company proceeds to offer sexual health and well-being promotion opportunities to the local community.
If you want to read more success stories of how Business Wales has helped other people like you to start or grow their businesses, visit https://businesswales.gov.wales/case-studies or follow @_businesswales / @_busnescymru on Twitter.