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ACCA is pleased to comment on the Consultation Paper on the above. ACCA is the largest and fastest global professional accountancy body, with over 105,000 members and 240,000 students in 160 countries. ACCA’s headquarters are in London and the organisation has an extensive network of over 70 staffed offices and other centres around the world. In the UK, we have 50,000 members (ACCA qualified accountants) and over 60,000 students.

Before setting out our substantive comments on this issue, we would like to register our disappointment that the deadline given for comment has been so short. This may have prevented many interested parties from taking part in this exercise. It may also be seen by some as revealing a lack of importance given to the issue in question by the Government.

Female entrepreneurship is becoming a key issue on the small business agenda and ACCA takes an active interest in it. We contribute to Government initiatives and policy development activities. We held a seminar on ‘Women in self-employment’ in December 2002 and contributed to a draft of the DTI’s Strategic Framework for Women’s Enterprise. In October this year, we will publish the findings of our research on access to finance – this will examine why women receive one third of the funding which is achieved by men when setting up in business and will also review the accountant’s role in the process of accessing finance.

ACCA’s interest in female entrepreneurship is, in part, associated with our membership profile and history. We have one of the highest proportions of female members among professional accountancy bodies and, in 1909, we became the first professional body to open our doors to female accountants. In 1980, we were also the first accountancy body to elect a female President and our rapid expansion in the 1990s was underpinned by the growth in our female membership, which has increased by four times in the last eighteen years. Today, over 40,000 of our members worldwide – almost 40% of the total – are female. And these figures will grow – 51% of our registered students are female. UK figures show that women comprise one-fifth of ACCA’s self-employed accountants servicing small businesses.

In the following paragraphs we comment on the specific options presented by the Department.

Option A: Establishment of a Women’s Business Council

ACCA supports the establishment of a Women’s Business Council. We believe that the remit, structure and composition of the proposed Council would best give women’s enterprise both the status and support required to achieve real change. It is well documented that the National Women’s Business Council, established in 1988 in the USA, has had significant success in identifying the barriers to success for women-owned businesses and now promotes initiatives and policies to support women’s enterprise and serves as an independent source of advice to the President, Congress and the US Small Business Administration. This public policy advisory body comprised of women business owners and women’s business association representatives has been credited with pushing the agenda forward to such an extent that the US enjoys high levels of female entrepreneurship .

The consultation document states that a key feature of the Council would be high-level access to Government and the regions and that the membership of the Council should be a combination of entrepreneurs, policy makers and business support practitioners. A well informed voice which has the ear of government are the two key features of the Council which differentiate this model from other proposals within the consultation document and, taking note from the US model, therefore has the best chance of success.

Purpose of the Women’s Business Council

ACCA supports the objectives of the Women’s Business Council as stated in the consultation document. There should, however, be further qualification of the status and reporting line of the Council, as is explicitly stated in the case of the Small Business Council and the National Women’s Business Council in the USA. The Small Business Council states that it is an advisory non-departmental public body that reports to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on the needs of existing and potential small businesses and advises the Chief Executive of the Small Business Service . ACCA proposes that the new Women’s Business Council should report to the Prime Minister and advise the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, the Chief Executive of the Small Business Service and the Regional Development Agencies on the development of women’s enterprise. Reporting to the highest level and the provision of advice to government at national and regional level will give the Council’s policies and initiatives the best chance of success.

Remit of the Women’s Business Council

ACCA agrees with the remit of the Women’s Business Council as proposed in the consultation document. The remit is comprehensive insofar as actions and responsibilities mirror the commitments made by the successful National Women’s Business Council in the USA. Other provisions take into account the structure of business support in the UK and so recognise the ‘regional agenda’. ACCA proposes an additional remit which has not been outlined in the consultation document – the Council should work with existing stakeholder groups to promote enterprise development. It could be argued that working with existing stakeholder organisations is implicit in order to achieve any actions proposed by the Council. There are, however, a number of organisations who are key to the promotion of female enterprise and the Council should not only seek to bring these organisations into the Council as formal members but, as a Council, seek to work with these organisations on a strategic, operational basis.

The Council should, for example, seek to work with ACCA and the accountancy profession in general on a strategic basis to promote women’s enterprise development given the fact that research demonstrates consistently that accountants are the primary source of advice for small businesses . Recent research by Warwick Business School has revealed that female owned businesses are more likely to use an accountant than majority male owned firms and less likely to use no external advice than majority male-owned businesses . ACCA is well placed to deliver a number of the Council’s objectives and therefore is a key stakeholder which can work with the Council to develop women’s enterprise.

ACCA is concerned about the role the new Women’s Business Council will play alongside Prowess - the well established UK association of organisations supporting women to start and grow businesses. Prowess’ work encompasses raising awareness, sharing best practice, advocacy and the provision of information. We are concerned that there may be scope for duplication between the Council and Prowess. Prowess is well established to drive forward many of the potential executive roles of the Women’s Business Council and given its unique role as a strategic representative of the sector, it is important that Prowess has a clear formal relationship with the National Women’s Business Council. The remit of the Council should not only state that it aims to work with existing stakeholder organisations to promote women’s enterprise development, but in the case of Prowess, state the nature of the formal relationship.

Structure of the Women’s Business Council

ACCA agrees with the proposed structure of the Women’s Business Council. In particular, we support the proposal to have strong links to a range of stakeholders and partners for consultative and/or executive purposes. This recognises the roles that differing organisations will play in contributing to women’s enterprise through the new Council.

Composition of the Women’s Business Council

ACCA supports the proposed composition of the Women’s Business Council. We are pleased that the proposal to include government departments and academics as part of the Council has been included in the consultation. The proposed composition of the Council goes a stage further than the composition of the National Women’s Business Council in the USA which comprises business owners and women’s business organisation representatives only, without the input from government and academia.

The Council must also comprise representatives from accountancy and the banking sector in order to be a representative group which is capable of taking women’s enterprise forward. As previously stated within this consultation, accountants are a small business’ first choice adviser and provide businesses with a range of services, from business start-up, to taxation and sources of finance. Because of the level of trust between accountants and their clients, they are also in an ideal position to direct businesses to other reliable sources of advice. It is vital that the Council includes representatives from accountancy at board level so that the views of this sector can be reflected in the Council’s initiatives and proposals. Likewise, representation and input into the Council from at least one of the high street banks would ensure that any proposals relating to access to finance produced by the Council are robust.

We propose that there should be two places reserved for Prowess on the Women’s Business Council, which reflects Prowess’ unique role as a strategic representative of the sector. One place should be reserved for Prowess at advocacy level and another for a Prowess membership body in order that their important contribution can be fully represented on the Council.

Relationships between the Women’s Business Council and representative organisations

ACCA agrees with the proposed partnership approach to the Council’s operations. In particular, we support the proposal to forge consultative and/or executive links which recognises the differing role organisations will play. It would make sense if these partnerships were formalised in some way to ensure that there is ‘buy in’ from the participating organisations and ensure that rhetoric is turned into action.

Option B: Women’s Enterprise sub-group as part of the Small Business Council

The establishment of a Women’s Enterprise sub-group as part of the Small Business Council would be sensible insofar as the promotion of women’s enterprise through the Small Business Council would ensure high-level government access through an established and well respected advisory body; there are a plethora of groups and, therefore, establishing a sub group as part of an existing group avoids duplication. Despite these factors, ACCA believes that a new Women’s Business Council should be established given the proposed composition and remit of the Council, as discussed in the main body of the response above.

Conclusion

The National Women’s Business Council in the USA has its own secretariat and staff. ACCA is concerned that the Women’s Enterprise Policy Team in the Small Business Service will be required to provide secretarial support to the new women’s Council in the UK, in addition to their current responsibilities. Government must ensure that a new women’s Council in the UK is independently and fully resourced so that it can operate effectively.

A new Women’s Business Council based on the proposals suggested in the consultation would maximise connectivity, provide advice, leadership and strategic direction; champion and promote women’s enterprise and related gender issues and monitor and influence the strategic direction of women’s enterprise. An adaptation of an existing model, whether that be by establishing a sub-group of the Small Business Council or adapting an existing organisation such as Prowess would not give the Women’s Business Council the status or membership required to take women’s enterprise forward with the force and energy it deserves.

We hope that these comments are useful and would be happy to discuss any of them in greater depth.

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