A study carried out by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills found that 13% of all projects funded by the government’s Manufacturing Advisory Service between (2012 - 2016) were located in the West Midlands, however the service was closed in (March) 2016. However, figures are not broken down to specific areas or towns.

We do not expect the winding down of the Manufacturing Advisory Service will have an impact on businesses receiving services as contractual commitments to existing customers will be honoured, providing all support and related activity is completed by 31 March 2016. Going forward, manufacturers will continue to be able to access expert advice from the private sector from their local Growth Hub.

As part of the Spending Review settlement, we decided to wind down the national delivery of the Business Growth Service (BGS) including the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS).

The BGS used substantial taxpayer resources, £85 million a year, which was distributed through a network of contractors and subcontractors. When it did eventually reach businesses, businesses would have to provide half the cost of advice themselves, despite the substantial taxpayer funding being provided.

The Spending Review protected our economic security by taking the difficult decisions to live within our means and bring down our debt. The most important way we can help manufacturers is to continue to secure a strong, growing economy.

Where we do use taxpayers money, we have targeted it where it will help businesses the most.

We have extended the doubling of Small Business Rate Relief by another year, meaning 405,000 small businesses will pay no rates at all while another 200,000 small businesses will pay reduced rates. Next year we’ll be extending the Employment Allowance from £2,000 to £3,000, meaning thousands of small businesses will pay no jobs tax.

We’re providing further funding to Growth Hubs to help businesses at the local level and away from Whitehall.

We continue supporting our world leading research-led and advanced manufacturing sectors such as life sciences, defence, aerospace, automotive and chemicals to grow, export, and attract and retain inward investment. We are supporting industry with an extra £1 billion in aerospace and automotive R&D and investing £6.9 billion in the UK’s research infrastructure.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills did not consult specifically on the decision to close the Manufacturing Advisory Service as this was a commercially sensitive decision. However, through our ongoing discussions with manufacturers and their representatives, there has been wide recognition that the best way for Government to support manufacturers is by getting the fundamentals of the economy right. We are creating a highly competitive business environment to make the UK an attractive location for manufacturing investment, supporting export success, boosting skills and protecting spending on innovation and the cutting edge smart digital manufacturing technologies which will drive the strong UK productivity growth in the future.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills did not consult specifically on the decision to close the Manufacturing Advisory Service as this was a commercially sensitive decision. However, through our ongoing discussions with manufacturers and their representatives, there has been wide recognition that the best way for Government to support manufacturers is by getting the fundamentals of the economy right. We are creating a highly competitive business environment to make the UK an attractive location for manufacturing investment, supporting export success, boosting skills and protecting spending on innovation and the cutting edge smart digital manufacturing technologies which will drive the strong UK productivity growth in the future.

An interim impact evaluation of the Growth Accelerator programme was published in November 2014. This was followed by a formative evaluation in January 2015, which looked at the delivery of the programme and informed the design of the Business Growth Service. A policy response to the formative evaluation was published in March 2015, in line with a commitment to the National Audit Office

A review of the Manufacturing Advisory Service was completed in December 2010 and published the following year. An Impact Analysis Methodology study of the Manufacturing Advisory Service is being published in early 2016.

A full economic evaluation of the Business Growth Service will continue beyond the closure of the service in March. All documents will continue to be available on www.gov.uk.

The Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) has assisted 22 companies in Stafford since 1 January 2012 when the new national MAS service was launched. Businesses have forecast this could help create 65 jobs and over £2.75 million Gross Value Added. Figures are not available for the regional MAS delivered by the former Regional Development Agencies prior to January 2012.

An independent survey is undertaken quarterly to evaluate customer satisfaction and perceived value of the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) interventions, including the initial diagnostic of needs in the Manufacturing Review (Level 2) and the in-depth support to implement business improvements (Level 4). The latest survey covering the period January to March 2013 found that:

At Level 2, 95% of clients surveyed (319 out of 337) think "MAS is good value for money/time investment" the highest score since the surveys began in Q4 2011/12.

At level 4, 99% of clients surveyed (267 out of 269) think "MAS is good value for money/time investment" at Level 4.

As set out in “Building the Business Bank” published in March 2012, work is under way to improve the effectiveness, raise awareness and increase the use of the Government's business advice services, including those provided through MAS.

The Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) is contractually delivered through five different

levels of interaction with manufacturers. These are defined in the following table, showing the number of interventions the service provider expects to deliver during the period 2012 to 2015 as forecast at the start of the new national contract in January 2012. Delivery of the total volumes of level 2 and level 4 interventions are contractual targets whereas levels 1, 3 and 5 are demand-led. Both the in-year and total number of interventions at all levels are subject to possible adjustment by BIS to enable changing priorities or economic conditions to be reflected in service delivery.

The Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) aims to help improve the competitiveness of manufacturing. This is reflected in the assessment of the programmes set out in the following table, namely gross value added (GVA), jobs created and jobs safeguarded. Rather than have a target for the total cost per job created or safeguarded, MAS is targeting Return on Investment (ie total GVA outputs/total BIS funding for the programme) which can be compared with the former regionally delivered MAS. The target for Return on Investment at the end of the MAS programme in March 2015 is 20:1 which is more than three times greater than that achieved under regional MAS.

The Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) aims to help improve the competitiveness of manufacturing. This is reflected in the assessment of the programmes set out in the following table, namely gross value added (GVA), jobs created and jobs safeguarded. Rather than have a target for the total cost per job created or safeguarded, MAS is targeting Return on Investment (ie total GVA outputs/total BIS funding for the programme) which can be compared with the former regionally delivered MAS. The target for Return on Investment at the end of the MAS programme in March 2015 is 20:1 which is more than three times greater than that achieved under regional MAS.

The amount of public resource invested in the Manufacturing Advisory Service since its launch in January 2012 is £15,836,341 to date (1 November 2012).

The Government launched a new Manufacturing Advisory Service in January 2012, replacing a number of separate offerings with a single service. Up to November 2012 the contract to deliver the new service has cost £15.8 million (to 1 November 2012).

755 business improvement consultancy projects have been completed between the launch of the new national Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) in January and 30 September 2012. The businesses receiving this support have forecast that up to 2,571 jobs could be created 7,270 safeguarded and £234.19 million generated in economic growth (Gross Value Added) within 12 months following the intervention. The job creation figures will be verified by MAS next year and an evaluation will be undertaken to assess the additionality of MAS support.

Since its launch on 3 January 2012, just under 7,500 businesses have contacted the new national Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS). Of these:

Around 5,200 have received a free Manufacturing Review to identify ways to improve productivity and grow

Over 1,500 have been offered a grant towards the cost of implementing productivity and other improvements in their businesses

Just under 800 have attended best practice or training workshops.

Around 1,500 businesses have contacted MAS but have not yet had a Manufacturing Review or attended a MAS workshop. In some cases, this will be because MAS will have been able to help the business by providing immediate advice on manufacturing queries such as sourcing UK suppliers or for non-manufacturing queries referring them to other sources of expertise such as UKTI for support on exporting. In other cases, the businesses will be in the process of arranging a manufacturing review or attending a suitable MAS best practice visit or workshop.