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Delivered by Co-operatives UK in partnership with The Co-operative Bank
The Hive application guidance – support for existing co‑ops

Application questions – what support you need

We offer a bespoke support package, which will include some or all of the following:

  • One-to-one direct advice: Delivered by experienced support providers 
  • Peer mentoring: Working with an existing co-op 
  • Bespoke skills training: Delivered to your group by experienced trainers. It will be helpful to indicate what kind of support you require and how these elements will help you to achieve your intended outcomes.

About your support needs

Which of the following support needs do you require? You can select more than one:

  • Business plan / model review

  • Financial review and planning, new systems
  • Community shares
  • Strategy development, change management
  • Succession planning
  • Marketing (new products, new markets, customers)
  • Governance review, membership
  • HR / redundancy
  • Other (please specify)

Briefly explain how this support will help you?

  • Tell us how bespoke skills training will help you. This might involve skills training for your steering group or board around strategic planning, change management, governance, membership, communications, HR or finance etc.
  • Tell us how peer mentoring support will help you. 
    • Are you looking to learn from an existing trading co-op in a similar sector, same type of business and/or ownership model?
    • Are you looking to learn from their experience around their governance arrangements,  member recruitment and engagement, strategic planning

When do you want the support to commence and over what period?

The Hive is open to applications all year round with applications reviewed at monthly panel assessment meetings. We aim to notify applicants of the outcome within two weeks of a monthly panel meeting, which means that the maximum amount of time you will have to wait for a decision following submission is eight weeks.

Please tell us if you require urgent support due to current trading difficulties. In these circumstances we will aim to respond more quickly.

The Hive expects the delivery of the support to be completed within a period of six months, please be sure to let us know if you anticipate requiring a longer duration.

Please provide us with more information.