Operational development and consortium documents

This is stage covers the key policies and procedures that will support the operational running of the consortium.

A new consortium requires the same degree of business and operational planning as any new business. In fact, these processes are extremely important for new consortia to go through since they help to shape a common vision and ensure buy-in from all partners.

We recommend using our business planning template and bringing in someone who has done this before to help facilitate your business planning process, or bring in a consultant.

• A shared vision of how the consortium will work and its purpose.
• The principal challenges and decisions facing a new consortium are openly discussed and recorded.
• Business plan produced.

At this point in the consortium’s development, these are the core documents that are needed. These will define your goals and plans as a new business, how you will recruit and develop member organisations and how you will collaborate as a group of organisations working together. Once the consortium is ready to bid for contracts, a much wider range of policy documents and procedures will need to be produced.

A facilitated business planning workshop that should cover:

• consortium vision, mission and values
• business principles (see example below)
• defining the consortium’s target markets, geographical scope etc.
• SWOT and PESTLE analysis
• a decision on how the hub function will work
• key governance principles (covered in detail in our guidance on incorporating and establishing an interim board). 

From this workshop, a named individual or small task-and-finish group should be responsible for sourcing template documents and adapting them according to the decisions made at the workshop. These can be formally adopted at either a follow-up workshop day or an interim board meeting.

• Sample and template policy documents, and guidance on developing policies