Frequently Asked Questions

What are community benefits?

“Community benefits” are the method by which local communities and good causes are encouraged to receive additional social value from the supply chain of businesses delivering publicly funded contracts and developments.

To find out more, visit What are Community Benefits?

Who can make a community benefit request?

Requests should be made by constituted, not-for-profit organisations. Please consult our Guidance Notes or Eligibility Criteria page for more information.

Can I make a request without being a constituted organisation?

Requests should be made by constituted, not-for-profit organisations. If this is not the case, we’d encourage you to partner with another local organisation whom you may have an existing relationship.

If you are unable to do so, please contact us.

What can I request?

There is no definitive list of what an organisation may request as a community benefit. Whilst traditionally they have focused on local employability and skills, an increasing emphasis is to be placed on expanding these to other avenues of support.

We would direct you to consult our Thematic Priorities which have been established to provide inspiration for those wishing to make community benefit requests. These include:

  1. Education, employability and futures
  2. Community, culture and wellbeing
  3. Environment and place
  4. Innovation and local enterprise

These may include (but not be exclusive to): initiatives supporting community recreation; promoting wellbeing; tackling social isolation; poverty prevention; benefitting those facing disadvantage or barriers to inclusion; as well as local environmental and biodiversity concerns.

This is not an exhaustive list, and we are happy to consider a broad range of requests.

What happens once I submit a request?

Once a request has been submitted it will be sent to our team, who will review the information and may contact you to discuss your requirements in more detail before publishing it to the website.

Should a business or supplier feel they are able to meet your requirements, our team will then put both parties in touch to discuss the matter in more detail.

Will every request be fulfilled?

The ESES Communities website is intended to provide a direct link between the needs of communities to suppliers and businesses within the region.

Whilst we are unable to guarantee that all requests can be fulfilled, or team will conduct periodic reviews of unfulfilled requests – offering guidance and support.

Please visit our Managing Expectations page for more information.

How many live requests can an organisation have at any one time?

Organisations may hold 3 live requests in any one local authority area at one time.

How many times can an organisation successfully benefit?

There is no limit to the amount of successful matches an organisation can receive

However, a short evaluation report must be completed before any further requests can be made.

What happens after a successful community benefit match?

After returning an evaluation form, we will then feature your organisation and the benefit delivered on our website and as a pin entry on our map.

You will also be encouraged to publicly acknowledge and thank the supporting business who has undertaken the community benefit.

We may also ask to use your case study as a feature on our site, or to promote ESES Communities externally. In all instances, we will aim to provide both your organisation and the business concerned with as much positive publicity as possible.

Our organisational activities are of a sensitive nature or require anonymity

From time-to-time we understand that certain requests may cover subject matter which requires a level of discretion.

Examples may include limiting public information pertaining to safe refuges, keeping the locations of wildlife protection projects secret, anonymising case studies, organisation names or premises.

In these instances, we would ask organisations to contact us before submitting a request.

What is the Edinburgh & South East Scotland City Region Deal (ESES CRD)?

The Edinburgh & South East Scotland City Region Deal (ESES CRD) is a £1.3 billion investment from the Scottish and UK governments to accelerate growth, create new economic opportunities, and meaningful new jobs that will help to reduce inequalities. To find out more, visit About or the ESEScityregiondeal.org main website.

Who maintains the ESES Communities website?

This website is administrated by Capital City Partnership – an arms-length external organisation of the City of Edinburgh Council which is leading on the Integrated Employer Engagement strand of the ESES CRD.

How can I complain?

Details of our complaints policy can be found here – and enquiries may be directed by contacting us in the first instance.