Evaluation of Scottish Enterprise’s Textile Team’s impact on the textile sector’s growth agenda, 2006/7-2008/9

The aim of the Scottish Enterprise (SE) Textiles Team is to ‘assist the sustainable development of the Scottish Textiles Industry, and enhance the growth of a dynamic, flexible, market led and internationally competitive industry’. The role of the Textiles Team is not to provide one-to-one business support, but instead to provide generic support to the industry through workshops, conferences, industry foresight research, and industry profile raising. The evaluation aimed to assess the impact and effectiveness of activities delivered by the SE Textiles Team over the period from 2006/7 to 2008/9.

The methodology consisted of: a review of relevant background and policy documentation; consultation with key stakeholders; a telephone survey of 120 businesses in the Scottish textiles industry; and a series of follow-up interviews with ten businesses who had taken part in the survey.

The evaluation has demonstrated that the Textiles Team plays a respected and valued role at the heart of the industry. The market failures that were identified at the start of the 2006/7 to 2008/9 period remain prevalent – the sector continues to make the transition to a high value, niche industry, and is constrained in doing so because of the scale of the industry, its diverse and dispersed nature, and the ambition of some of its traditional businesses. There continues therefore to be a clear role for the Textiles Team going forward, specifically around addressing industry wide issues that limit the sector’s long term growth prospects. Survey results show that the vast majority of the businesses who have engaged with the Textiles Team are satisfied (or very satisfied) with the support received and plan to continue to take advantage of the Team’s services. Feedback indicates that businesses value the networking opportunities and industry information that the Team gives them access to. There is however evidence of some uncertainty as to what activities businesses have been involved in and how useful those activities have been. In terms of impact on business performance, eight out of 60 businesses said that the Textiles Team had had an impact on their employment, while 18 out of 60 businesses (almost one third) said that the Textiles Team had had an impact on turnover. The net impact of support was good. When account was taken of impacts to date, predicted impacts and persistence, then to 2016 it was estimated that turnover in supported companies had increased by £60 million, creating additional GVA of £19 million in the Scottish economy and 67 additional jobs. The impact ratio (net GVA created per £1 of SE spend) is 7:1. These impacts were considered to be relatively significant, particularly as they have been achieved at a time of industry contraction more generally.

A number of recommendations, focusing on marginal changes, were made. These related to: developing an indicator framework; improved client management systems and monitoring of activity uptake; broadening the engagement profile; continuing to support the transition to a high-value industry; clarifying the link and complementarity with account management; promoting the skills agenda; and promoting industry image.