Public Sector Procurement News

We take a look at a few current issues in the procurement world, and discuss how these may affect your industry, your organisation, and your bidding process for public sector services.

Care contracts returned to councils

Research carried out by the BBC found that half the councils that responded to a survey had care contracts handed back to them because the contractors were not paid enough to deliver the services. With the increased National Living Wage coming into play last year, care companies are struggling to pay carers’ wages with the money they receive from council health and social care contracts, and as a result of this, staff retention and recruitment is also a major issue.

With life expectancy increasing in the UK, health and social care services are always in high demand and dozens of contracts are released nationwide on a daily basis. Even though many contracts are being handed back, it is vital for care companies to continue to bid for contracts, to maintain their guaranteed level of work and survive in the market place, so competition in the bidding process is still high.

The “bid/no bid” decision for care companies is a crucial part in the process. Organisations should be aware of the costs involved and how much a contract is worth to them before they enter into the time consuming bidding process for a contract they may well have to hand back to the authority.

Crown Commercial Services failed to deliver quality services

It has recently been announced that the Crown Commercial Services (CCS) failed to deliver quality services. The CCS was set up to centralise procurement services, but it has been reported the service overpromised what could be achieved, and it is actually only managing £2.5bn of the promised £13bn worth of spend.

The poor performance was claimed to come down to lack of a robust management information system, and the CCS has now invested in new systems to overcome this issue.

The CCS manages many national frameworks, covering facilities like IT and legal services. If they are able to increase the quality of their management, and the performance of the frameworks, the tendering process could become more stringent and the frameworks regain their value and worth within the market.

Current challenges for innovative procurement

Innovation is a prevalent topic in tender documents across the board, irrespective of contract value or industry sector. On a wider scale, local government is under pressure to drive innovation across the public sector and put it at the heart of strategic decisions.

Greater innovation will lead to better supply chains and a better bidding process for public sector services. A lot of smaller, innovative companies do not view the public sector as being a natural customer for them, which may result in needs and requirements not fully being met by the existing supply chain. Public authorities need to address the challenges and implement innovative strategies in order to encourage more organisations to work with them and continue value for money within procurement.

In terms of your tender submissions, the topic of innovation is likely to continue as a core area and is one that you should be prepared to answer, and answer well, as it could attract a large weighting of your bid.

Your bid submission could cover aspects such as:

• How your company does more for less
• Added value
• Applying new technologies to enhance service delivery

To find out more about our bid and tender writing services contact us today on 020 3507 0314 to speak to a member of our bid team.