Commissioning a Study
If you don’t have internal capacity to conduct this work, you may wish to commission a consultant or consultancy. Sunderland City Council took this approach commissioning the North East Business Innovation Centre (BIC) to conduct a baseline study and give recommendations on “Reimagining Sunderland as a Cooperative City”.
Useful resources:
- Presentation from North East BIC at CCIN Annual Conference 2023
- Template specification for commissioning a local cooperative study.
Cooperative Commissions
Taking understanding context to another level, some places have pursued cooperative commissions. The purpose of such commissions is to understand the local operating context for cooperatives, the barriers to the development, particularly important opportunities and recommendations to move things forward. They can be thought of as a particularly robust way of working through Doing Your Homework.
