Entities and projects | 2014 Support Materials MS

In order to decide which output and result indicators are relevant, the objective of each operation should be taken into account. If the objective of the operation is to help unemployed people start their own business, then the following common indicators are relevant:

• Common output indicator: unemployed, including long-term unemployed (all people participating in the operation should be counted);
• Common immediate result indicator: participants in employment, including self-employment upon leaving (all participants who are effectively working in their start-ups upon leaving the operation should be counted);
• Common longer-term result indicator: participants in employment, including self-employment, six months after leaving (people whose business is still running 6 months after leaving should be counted).

If the objective of the operation is to support the creation of SMEs, additional programme-specific indicators should be established. Below are some examples of output and result indicators for an operation aiming to help unemployed persons to move into employment by setting-up their own business

• Output indicator: “unemployed wishing to start their own business”
• Result indicators (immediate): “unemployed who benefitted from start-up counselling and are self-employed upon leaving”
• Result indicator (longer-term): “unemployed who benefitted from start-up counselling and are self-employed 6m after leaving”.

Usually, beneficiaries initiate or initiate and implement an operation that supports a number of individuals or entities fulfilling certain criteria (target group).

Note that there is a difference between a “beneficiary” and an entity “benefitting from support”:

• A beneficiary is defined as a “Public or private body (…) responsible for initiating or both initiating and implementing operations …” (Article 2(10) of the Common Provision Regulation (1303/2013)).
• An entity benefitting from support is one that receives services or other support paid for (in full or in part) by the ESF which is designed to fulfil the objectives of an operation that targets entities rather than individuals. This is equivalent to the requirement for participants to be persons who benefit directly from ESF support that incurs expenditure.

In order to be counted under the indicator “Number of micro, small and medium sized enterprises supported”, SMEs should, in the same way as for participants, benefit directly from ESF support that incurs expenditure. This does not mean that enterprises have to receive money directly, as they may also benefit from services paid for by the ESF without any money passing through the enterprise. See below some examples:

a) SMEs implementing an operation (fully or partially) without being supported by it:

• The PES, acting as a beneficiary, contracts an SME to provide management training courses to women aimed at helping them confront barriers to promotion in a male-dominated industry.
• The SME is delivering the services offered by the operation and is paid for this out of ESF funds. It is involved in implementing the operation and is not benefitting from support. It should not be recorded under the indicator “Number of micro, small and medium sized enterprises supported”.
• Women benefitting from training should be counted as participants.
• The project should be recorded as a…

No. The support is provided to the individual and not to the SME.

Yes, provided that specific SMEs benefit directly from the support. For example, a programme that supports the development of guidance material for SMEs wanting to implement organisational change does not target individual SMEs and those that subsequently access and use the material produced benefit only indirectly from the support. On the other hand, if the programme finances the costs of providing expert advice to specific SMEs that apply for assistance then they benefit directly from the support and should be counted.

All common output indicators refer to the situation of participants or entities before the ESF support starts. If the SME has been legally founded before the start of the support and the support is used to somehow help the business through the start-up phase then it may be counted in the indicator on “number of supported micro, small and medium-sized enterprises”. Individuals benefitting from business counselling, mentoring, training or similar support would also be counted as participants. However, if the SME is legally founded during the support period or afterwards as a result of the support provided then it should not be counted in the output indicator and only the individuals benefitting from support would be counted as participants.

In the case of programmes designed to support the creation of SMEs, programme-specific indicators might be established. Here, a result indicator that aims to count the number of SMEs created through ESF support must be linked to a relevant output indicator based on an equivalent observation unit, for example the number of business plans treated and not the number of persons supported.

The indicator on number of supported SMEs refers only to enterprises that benefit directly from support financed by the ESF (which typically excludes SMEs being beneficiaries in the sense of Art. 2 of the CPR (Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013)). Thus, only SMEs that benefit from the training/consultancy services are to be counted under the indicator. Service providers (external consultants or training providers) should not be counted, as they are receiving payment for services as a routine part of their business and not benefiting from ESF support.

No. Enterprises to be counted have to benefit directly from support but do not necessarily have to receive money directly; they may also benefit from services paid for by ESF but without any money passing through the enterprise. For example, ESF funds may be used to support the training of employees in an enterprise but the payment could go directly to the training company.

The common output indicator on the “number of supported micro, small and medium-sized enterprises” asks only for the total number of SMEs supported.  No breakdown by size of enterprise is required and it is therefore not necessary to distinguish between micro, small and medium-sized companies. Enterprises should not be counted more than once for the same indicator.

However, in the case that programme-specific indicator(s) related to enterprises are planned some breakdown by size might be relevant and in this case it is recommended that mutually exclusive categories are applied. A possible breakdown could be defined as follows:

• Micro: enterprises which employ fewer than 10 persons and whose annual turnover and/or annual balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 2 million.
• Small: Enterprises which employ fewer than 50 persons and whose annual turnover and/or annual balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 10 million, excluding enterprises that qualify as micro-enterprises.
• Medium-sized: enterprises which employ fewer than 250 persons and which have an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million, and/or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 43 million, excluding enterprises that qualify as micro-enterprises and small enterprises.

Further guidance on definitions of SMEs is offered by DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs at:

http://ec.europa.eu/growth/smes/business-friendly-environment/sme-definition/index_en.htm

The only formal requirement is to store information on characteristics needed to complete the common output and any programme-specific indicators for all individual entities supported. However, it should always be possible to demonstrate that reported numbers of supported entities correspond to identifiable organisations that have received support and (if necessary) follow-up entities. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain some basic identifying information about each entity (e.g. organisation name/address or company number). Entities record should have as a minimum: entity identifier, start and leaving dates, data for indicators, operation identifier. 

No. In the same way as for participants, monitoring data should cover only entities that benefit directly from ESF support.  In the EC guidance it is noted that “Outputs are measured at the level of supported people, supported entities …” and “Result indicators capture the expected effects on participants or entities brought about by an operation”. As a guiding principle the selection of the most appropriate programme-specific indicator(s) depends on the specific intervention logic, on the nature of the actions and on who concretely benefits from the actions.

For example, ESF support funds the development (but not the implementation) of new guidelines aimed at improving the functioning of third sector organisations. A government department gets ESF funding and subcontracts the development to a specialist organisation. The government department is supported directly and should be counted.  However, the subcontracted company is simply being paid to provide a service and is not supported (thus, not to be counted).

After completion of the project, the guidelines are implemented by a number of organisations; this occurs later as a result of the standard being required by law, and is not a direct result of the ESF support but of the legislation. Therefore has no relevance to monitoring and the organisations that will implement the guidelines benefit indirectly and are not counted as supported entity.

In the case that the ESF also contributed to the cost of implementation of the new guidelines, these organisations would be directly supported and they should be counted accordingly.