1. How to Secure Public Sector Contracts

2. Agenda
8:30 Welcome 8:35 Sir Peter Soulsby, City Mayor 8:45 Public Procurement Overview 9:05 Tendering with the NHS 9:25 Tendering with Universities 9:45 Emerging Issues 10:05 Support from the Chamber 10:15 Examples of Best Practice 10:25 Summary and Closing Remarks

3. The Buying Organisations
Leicester City Council – Juan Liu
Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support Unit - Collette Palmer
De Montfort University – Barry Higgins
University of Leicester – James Trotter
Loughborough University – Tim Burton

4. Local Procurement Task Force
1. Increasing the opportunities for Small and Local Suppliers 2. Making selling to the Council easier 3. Changing the approach of our Buyers 4. Encouraging supplier interest 5. Influencing our partners

5. Increasing the opportunities for small local suppliers
outline the rules that we must follow 
explaining where to find details of opportunities to supply and how to tender
explaining what is expected of our suppliers
We are committed to equality of opportunity and seek to influence and develop cohesion and equality with suppliers. We will aim to ensure that:
all enquiries from potential suppliers will be answered speedily and courteously, indicating the route to be taken for consideration in becoming one of our suppliers
suppliers of all sizes are clear about the procedures for dealing with us
our documentation will be clear, unambiguous, and user friendly
full and constructive feedback is available to unsuccessful suppliers
invoices will be paid in accordance with agreed terms

8. Supplier Engagement Programmes 2015
Meet the Buyer events
Tendering Together
Procurement Training
Encouraging supplier interest
Implement procurement communications plan
Making Selling to the Council Easier

9. Simplifying Procurement Procedures
New procurement system Regional PQQ Forward Procurement Plan
Business questionnaire
Tender document keep it under 30 pages, this can be a complicated tender
Regional PQQs, update it when you need to, key words, search engine, sourcing for low value providers,

10. Frequent Procedures Process Description Quotation
Four written quotes with at least
two (where reasonably practicable) shall be from a local supplier.
Open
Single stage process without any restrictions open to all bidders.
Restricted
Two-stage process:
(1) Business questionnaire to select capable bidders
(2) Invitation to Tender (ITT) to award the contract

11. Completing the Paperwork
Business Questionnaire- Evaluation of your organisation
Finances, Insurance, Performance, References, Quality, Equality, Health & Safety and Sustainability
These are selection criteria
2. Invitation to Tender - Evaluation of the bids
State how your proposal meets our current and future requirements
These are award criteria. Buyer will state the criteria and weightings
Suppliers are required to demonstrate their ability to provide the goods and/or services applied for, and recognise their own responsibilities in respect of:
Standards or work – that it will be done well and both supervised and carried out by suitably qualified, competent personnel
Health & Safety – complying with legislation, codes of practice and safe working systems; undertaking risk assessments for specific arrangements, where appropriate
Sustainability – committed to reducing impact on the environment and addressing social and economic issues
Equalities – committed to ensuring that no individual is discriminated because of age, disability, sex, sexuality, race, colour, ethnic origin or religion, and to comply with all statutory UK obligations

12. Price
Vital to understand scoring: is it 100% or mix of quality and price 60% vs 40%?!
- Where in that value chain will you reduce costs?
- What price level will ensure you hit your objectives?
- By what margin do you need to come down?
- What part of their requirements is the most important to reduce costs on?

13. Local suppliers
Being local on its own is not an advantage. But stress the potential benefits:
Less distance to travel (carbon impact?)
Quicker response time (better service offering?)
More flexible (change your order....)
Lower overheads
Understand local issues/communities
Local supply chains

14. Standing Out from the Crowd
Have you articulated ‘Why choose us?’
Have you fully defined the key features, quality and benefits of your approach?
Have you used and made the most of recent and relevant case studies to illustrate your track record?
Have you gone the extra mile in manifesting your understanding of the brief and the design of your solution?
Conduct a mock assessment against the evaluation criteria and relative weighting
Presentation

15. Evaluation
For the guidance you should note that, each question is given a relative ‘importance weighting’, to reflect its significance within the overall evaluation. This weighting is shown alongside each question.
The total score from all officers involved will be averaged or agreed and applied to the weighting given to each question.

16. Common Issues in Tender Submissions
Late submission
Price Errors
Forms not signed
Sent in the blank form

17. Summary Be sure this is the right market for your business!
Know which part and who you want to target!
Understand what you have that they will want and how you can best beat the competition !
Always get feedback and review your position!

18. Any questions?
Opportunities leaflets on the desk Juan Liu Procurement Strategy Manager For general enquiries, please contact

19. Procurement in the NHS Collette Palmer – Senior Procurement Manager
Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support (GEMCSU)

20. Overview: NHS Landscape Procurement
Contracting and common routes of Procurement
Open
Restricted
Any Qualified Provider (AQP)
Competitive Dialogue
Looking out for opportunities

21. Introductions
Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support Unit (GEM CSU)
NHS Commissioning Support Service
Supports the use of Best Practice
Operates & Manages the e-Tender process on behalf of commissioners
Ensures the e-Tender process is fair, transparent and has a full audit trail by using:
Bravo solutions and Supply2Health
Ensures the process is compliant - Legal

22. Providers Commissioners
NHS
NHS England Commissioners of Primary Care
Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs)
Commissioners of health services for the local population - community care, emergency care, acute, non-acute, mental health, ambulatory and patient transport services
Private/Independent
Commissioning Support Units (CSUs)
Providing commissioning support services
Others
Public Health England
Responsible for national public health: such as immunisations and vaccinations.
Local Authorities (LAs)
Responsible for local public health issues: such as smoking cessation, drug and alcohol services, sexual health etc.

23. CCGs Commissioning Obligations:
Use of the current NHS Standard Contract for all clinical services procured
Use of the appropriate procurement route
Open
Restricted
Any Qualified Provider (AQP)
Competitive Dialogue

24. What is AQP?
When a service is opened up to choice of ‘any qualified provider’, patients can choose from a range of providers all of whom meet NHS standards and price
Prices paid to providers will be determined in advance by commissioners. Either national tariff where it applies, or a locally agreed price. There is NO competition on price
Patients will choose based on quality and individual preferences and money will follow patients’ choices
Providers must respond to an offer on Contracts Finder and pass the national qualification process to ensure they meet the appropriate quality standards
A national directory of qualified providers and contracts will allow information sharing across the NHS when the regulator or a commissioner terminates or suspends a contract

25. Complete Application form Contracts Finder Advert
AQP Process
APPLICATION WINDOW
Bravo
Complete Application form
Contracts Finder Advert
EVALUATION AND CLARIFICATION STAGE
Evaluation
Clarifications asked
Final evaluation
Pass/Fail
Internal Approvals
Contract Award + Service Mobilisation

29. Your response
Read the questions carefully, and if you are not sure about something then ask! - Your Response can be copied & pasted - Max word count per text box approx: 350 words for responses - Attachments allowed where defined

30. HELP!
If you are having difficulty understanding the questions or you have queries about the service or application form, contact GEM CSU using the messaging function within Bravo. ************************************************************************************ If you are having difficulty navigating or using the website please contact the Bravo helpdesk: Phone:

31. Useful Links Contracts Finder:
BravoSolutions:

32. Useful Contacts Collette Palmer- Senior Procurement Manager
Tel:
General Procurement Enquiries:

33. Questions?

34. Higher Education Procurement
James Trotter
Head of Procurement
University of Leicester
&
Barry Higgins
Head of Procurement
De Montfort University

35. Structure
Our environment
Our spend
Our processes
Our plans

36. Our environment Reforms to European Procurement Directives
Government Policy
Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012
Diamond Report
30% collaboration target
HE Purchasing Consortia
Marketisation
Research funding reduction
Reforms to European Procurement Directives - Simplify, more flexible, increase SME participation e.g. limits on contract value/turnover ratio, shorter timescales, reason required for not breaking contracts/framework into lots
Government Policy - Core PQQ questions, reduction in tender timescales, flexibility on financial vetting
Public Services (Social Value) Act Consider social, economic, environmental benefits for EU service contracts
Diamond Report - Strategic leadership, 30% collaboration, improve capability/capacity
Procurement Maturity Assessments (Nine criteria) - Corporate Social Responsibility (Sustainability, SME-friendly)
Marketization – Removal of student cap, greater competition between universities
UNIVERSITIES NEED TO GET VALUE FOR MONEY

37. University of Leicester – Spend Profile

38. Via electronic process (e.g. In-Tend)
Our processes
Contract Value
Procurement Process
Below £5k
Single written quote
£5k - £25k
Three written quotes
Via electronic process (e.g. In-Tend)
Above £25k
Request for Quotation
Above £50k
Tender (led by University Procurement Team)
Above EU threshold
EU Tender (led by University Procurement Team)
Can be advertised on In-Tend to a selection of registered suppliers or to all registered suppliers
EU tenders advertised via OJEU
- Quickly reach EU threshold as calculated as total contract value, including any extension options

39. Registration and alerts are free
Widely used across HE sector
Used by all three Leics universities

40. Our plans Collaboration
Joint pre-qualification process / Qualified supplier database
Aligned policies, including SME-Friendly Policy
Influencing the HE Sector Procurement Consortia
Collaborative tender processes
“Demand Segmentation”
SME-relevant contracts identified
Support
Market-facing procurement professionals
‘How to do business with Universities’ workshops
UoL, DMU and L’boro looking to work together
Market-facing procurement professionals
Category Managers at UoL
Senior Procurement Advisors at DMU
…contact details on respective websites
SME-relevant contracts, e.g. FM, reactive maintenance

41. Our plans Enabling access to the market / streamlining
Joint pre-qualification process / Qualified supplier database
Encouraging open advertising and local bids for low value contracts
Proportionate financial standing and insurance levels
Greater use of outcome specifications
In-house training emphasising value of SMEs
Performance measures include spend with SMEs
Influencing the Supply Chain
Selection/management of subcontractors tender questions
Payment of subcontractors in 30 days
UoL, DMU and L’boro looking to work together
Market-facing procurement professionals
Category Managers at UoL
Senior Procurement Advisors at DMU
…contact details on respective websites
SME-relevant contracts, e.g. FM, reactive maintenance

42. Summary Complex and dynamic environment
Procurement never more important
Leicestershire’s universities working together
Collaboration/SME ‘Sweet Spot’
Good procurement = SME-friendly procurement
‘Sweet Spot’ = Leics’ universities making progress towards the Diamond collaboration target by working together, purposefully identifying SME-relevant contracts

43. Emerging Issues
Chris Hobson
DNLCC

44. Where do you think public sector contract opportunities are advertised?
News Papers
Organisation websites
Direct Contact
Local authorities website
Source Leicestershire

45. What are the major obstacles you encounter in securing public sector contracts?
Terms and Conditions
Lack of focus on and support for SMEs
Having to fill in dozens of pages of Non Applicable questions or ones that verge on idiocy
Too brief description of work at pre-qualification stage. 
Disjointed and irrelevant PQQ requirements.
Being too small (in terms of numbers of employees and £) to be given a fair chance

46. What are the major obstacles you encounter in securing public sector contracts?
Timescales for completion of tenders & the amount of work involved 
Understanding what the procurement organisation want
Level of information required very high for small but capable businesses
Finding public sector contract opportunities
Complicated process

47. Support from the Chamber
Helen Carter
DNLCC

48. NETWORKING