South East England Development Agency (SEEDA)

National Recognition for South East Organisations Supporting Women's Enterprise

09 February 2007

Four organisations from the South East have been awarded national 'Flagship' status at the Prowess Annual International Conference held in Brighton on 7th & 8th February.

Newhaven Enterprise Gateway, Reading Enterprise Gateway, Slough Businesswomen's Network Group and South East Women's Wisdom, joined Faringdon Enterprise Gateway and Slough Enterprise Gateway in attaining the rank of Prowess Flagship - a quality standard for supporting women in enterprise.

An organisation is awarded Flagship status when it has met a standard for providing support for women (either through business support or through a network).

The Flagship Award has been developed by Prowess, the national women's enterprise support organisation to help drive significant growth in female business ownership. This nationally recognised quality mark is proven to help organisations develop higher quality services for women and to increase their client base.

Chief Executive of the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), Pam Alexander, and Co-Chair of the Government's new Women's Enterprise Task Force, said: "The new Regional Economic Strategy (RES) for the South East aims to create an additional 10,000 new businesses run by women by 2010. We are therefore delighted that organisations from the South East have been recognised nationally for their support of women in business".

To find out more about the Women's Enterprise Task Force, please visit www.womensenter prise.co.uk.

For further details on Prowess visit www.prowess.org.uk.