The Manchester based Diane Modahl Sports Foundation (DMSF) has announced the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) will support its activity for the next three years through a generous financial injection.

The support that will span three-years, is a fundamental step forward for the social enterprise, which aims to unlock the potential of young people and help them achieve or excel in sport, school and everyday life.

Co-found in 2010 by Commonwealth and Olympic Champion, Diane Modahl MBE, the charity works with children across Greater Manchester, instilling key life skills into them such as confidence, integrity and integration to ensure they have the means to achieve anything they desire.

As part of the partnership, DMSF and the PFA will work harmony to deliver the mentioned intensive skills, as well as a leadership development programme with a key focus on self-esteem and self-confidence to bolster the children’s abilities.

Speaking of the partnership, Diane Modahl MBE, Said: “We’re beyond joyed to announce the partnership with the PFA. The support they are offering will enable us to hit some key milestones, such as generating over 30,000 new visits to community sport activities and 225 new sports leadership qualifications. We’re excited to watch the results unfold before our eyes.”

John Hudson, Director of CSR for the PFA, said: “We’re honoured to be supporting DMSF. It’s the only organisation outside of football we have decided to support to date, as we feel the charity embodies many of the values we stand for as a union. We’re looking forward to seeing what DMSF create with the support, which no doubt will be inspiring.”

National law firm Shoosmiths is celebrating 10 years of legal excellence in Manchester this month.

The milestone anniversary was marked with a special event at the firm’s XYZ office in Spinningfields to celebrate its first decade in the city, which has seen the office’s income grow from circa £1 million in 2009/10 to circa £20 million in the last financial year.

Over the last 10 years Shoosmiths has advised on some of the most high-profile real estate deals that have transformed Manchester’s skyline, including the £200 million sale of Allied London’s No 1 Spinningfields development in 2017 (one of the largest single-asset trades ever recorded in the city), the £300 million funding partnership between Allied London and Aviva Investors to create Enterprise City and several high profile acquisitions for Select Property Group including Circle Square at the former BBC site on Oxford Road and Vita Student on First Street. Shoosmiths has also advised Renaker on key developments including the sale of Exchange Court, Greengate and the next phase of Great Jackson Street, the huge development set to change the skyline of Manchester.

The firm’s active corporate team has advised on major deals, such as advising Altrincham based Matillion, a fast-growing provider of disruptive cloud-based integration software, on its Series B fundraise of $20m from Silicon Valley, the £60m sale of North West-based specialist motorbike insurer Carole Nash and AIM-listed financial services provider ThinkSmart’s sale of 90% of ClearPay Finance in Old Trafford to Australian giant Afterpay Touch Group. Commercial team highlights include advising four of the big mobile phone telecoms providers on the roll out of revolutionary new handset propositions, positioning Shoosmiths as market leaders in the space.

The firm first opened office in Manchester in 2009 with a team of 27 employees, moving into Allied London’s 3 Hardman Street development and taking 10,000 sq. ft of space.

The office expanded rapidly during this time, meaning that new and larger premises were necessary to support the firm’s growth over the next few years. After a series of temporary moves, in 2017, the Manchester team moved into its current home at The XYZ Building in Spinningfields.

Shoosmiths’ award-winning Manchester office occupies 32,000 sq. ft. of workspace at XYZ and is designed to promote an agile working environment and workstyle for employees.

Head of office at Shoosmiths Manchester, Wayne Nash, believes the firm’s success over the last ten years can largely be attributed to the firm’s people-centred culture. He said: “It comes down to our core values. Our business is about working with people and it always will be, and building strong relationships that place people first has been instilled in the foundations of our Manchester team since the very beginning.

“When we moved to XYZ in 2017, we really broke the mould in terms of law firms. It gave us the opportunity to do something that hadn’t been seen before in the legal sector, where the building itself positively contributes to our business and way of working. The environment that we’ve created brings out the best in people and makes people want to be here. If people are happy in work and they feel engaged, motivated and energised, then they’re going to want to do well.  And if they do well, the clients are happy, so it’s a virtuous circle and it all comes back to the people-first culture.”

Shoosmiths Manchester now employs 212 people, including 32 partners – 14 of whom are women (44%). The office is home to the largest legal real estate team in Manchester and operates leading corporate and commercial practices.

The office has been widely recognised for its achievements over the last decade, winning ‘Law Firm of the Year’ at the Manchester Legal Awards in 2017 and more recently being crowned the ‘Legal Team of the Year’ at the Estate Gazette awards.

Wayne added: “We’re incredibly proud to be celebrating 10 years in business in Manchester. The pace of development taking place across the city is astonishing and we’re honoured to have played a role in securing some of the major deals that acted as a catalyst for this transformation. It’s been an incredibly exciting journey so far and looking ahead to the next decade we will continue our ambitious growth plans, particularly in our corporate and commercial divisions, delivering a superb client experience until we are the No.1 law firm across every division in Manchester.”

Communications agency Higginson Strategy is set to expand its Northern operations.

The move follows shortly after Higginson was named Boutique Agency of the Year at the 2019 PR Moment Awards.

The agency hopes its new Manchester bureau will see it capitalise on the wealth of opportunities created by the Northern Powerhouse agenda.

Founded in February 2017, Higginson has also been appointed to manage communications for Wirral-based manufacturer Heap & Partners. Heaps is one of the UK’s leading manufacturers and distributors of fluid control equipment. Higginson will work with Heaps to develop its global profile in the UK and international press.

Higginson Strategy Managing Director John Higginson, said: “Manchester is one of Europe’s most exciting and fastest-growing cities, we’d be mad not to be a part of it. It is where the magic happens.

“In Heap & Partners we are working with one of the great success stories of the Northern Powerhouse. The firm is exporting hi-tech goods around the world and is exactly the kind of forward-thinking business that will thrive into the 2020s and beyond.”

Heap & Partners Managing Director, David Millar, added: “Higginson are a perfect fit for us. They know how to get the right press at the right time.

“In a world where you are bombarded with messages 24/7 the firm knows how to communicate in a way that truly resonates with the people you want to speak to.”

A couple from Bolton has received support from GC Business Growth Hub’s start-up programme to set up a catering business to better serve the dietary desires of the region.

Worried about the dramatic increase in the UK’s obesity levels, NHS diabetes prevention specialists Ishfaq and Farah Vaja set up their business, Eat with Farah, after Farah felt the range of healthy food options available in Greater Manchester only catered for extreme ends of the dietary spectrum. 

Eat with Farahaims to change the way people of Greater Manchester eat by providing a new, healthy, fast food range for workers, along with pre-prepared meals to eat at home and event catering.

The couple initially attended a self-employment awareness session provided by GC Business Growth Hub’s Start Smart programme, funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and delivered in partnership with PeoplePlus. Business advisor Martyn Walsh then helped Ishfaq and Farah to develop a solid

business plan, allowing them to access a start-up grant via Manchester Youth Market. This helped them to set up a market stall and pay for equipment and merchandising.

Martyn also helped to develop a marketing strategy to build awareness among the business community in Manchester, and point of sale initiatives to drive customer awareness and generating cross-sales opportunities for the company’s product range.

Finally, the Start Smart programme introduced the couple to the National Market Traders Federation. As a member, Eat With Farah was shortlisted both regionally and nationally for a youth market competition, which helped to build awareness of the business and increase its customer base.

Farah Vaja, co-founder of Eat With Farah, said: “I recognised that there was a gap in the market to change perceptions on healthy eating and therefore created an exciting healthy fast food range which caters for all dietary requirements.

“Martyn from the Hub has been fantastic in helping Ishfaq and I to make our business idea a reality, and we really appreciate the continuous support he has given us.”

Janine Richardson, self-employment project manager from GC Business Growth Hub, said: “One of the aims of the Hub is to help start-up and young businesses to get off the ground and thrive.

“Farah had the foresight to see that there was a customer base around Manchester that wasn’t being served, and the will to fill this gap in the market. Importantly, she and her husband realised there were aspects of setting up a business that they needed support with, and that’s where we were able to support them. We wish them all the best as they now start to build the business.”

Coding bootcamp Northcoders is partnering with global technology consultancy ThoughtWorks to offer four fully funded scholarships to help underrepresented women and gender minorities, people who identify as non-binary, transgender or intersex find a career in the tech industry.

This is the second time they have worked together on a scholarship programme.

The successful applicants will have the option of studying for the full time 12-week coding course at one of Northcoders’ campuses – either in Manchester (Federation House) or in Leeds (Platform). The scholarships will be awarded in July and the course will begin in August or September.  Each one will be fully-funded by ThoughtWorks, covering the £6,000 course costs plus an extra £2,000 bursary is available to help with living costs.

The courses aims to give graduates the opportunity to learn coding to an industry-standard level and to ensure they have skills, initiative and attitude well beyond what is usually expected for an entry-level software developer.  After graduating, Northcoders will support each scholar in finding a job as a software developer.

To date, 35 cohorts – with a total of 350 students – have graduated from Northcoders. The team offers an industry-led curriculum which is constantly in review against its hiring partners’ needs.

ThoughtWorks is a global software company and community of passionate, purpose-led individuals. It thinks disruptively to deliver software, products and consultancy services to address its clients’ toughest challenges, all while seeking to revolutionise the IT industry and create positive social change.

Amul Batra, Director of Northcoders, said: “Diversity and inclusion are close to our hearts at Northcoders. It’s fantastic that ThoughtWorks shares our commitment to creating routes into tech for people from diverse walks of life and for those who are underrepresented in the industry. These four scholarships will be a springboard to a fulfilling career and will, I’m sure, help the recipients reach their full potential.”

Amy Lynch, Head of Diversity & Inclusion at Thoughtworks, added: “Technology plays a huge part in our world – it underpins how we learn, how we live and how we interact with one another. We believe it’s crucial that the people creating this technology reflect the whole of society.

“That’s why ThoughtWorks is offering four fully-funded scholarships to women and gender minority people who want to kick-start their careers in tech. The scholarships will offer financial and mentoring support, as well as the opportunity to progress into a role at ThoughtWorks.”