The government has released new guidance to help voluntary and community organisations to pitch for government contracts.
They want organisations of all sizes to be able to compete for and win government business and have reduced many of the barriers and bureaucracy in public sector procurement.
Practical advice and guidance is a useful resource, so they have produced a video to help voluntary organisations prepare winning bids for government contracts:
- In this video Michael O’Toole, Voluntary and Charitable Sector Enterprises (VCSE) Crown Representative, provides his top tips for voluntary and charitable organisations.
The video is one of a series - with others aimed at SMEs and other businesses - that aims to provide invaluable insight on sourcing details of potential public sector contracts, preparing successful bids, requesting feedback on bids and challenging poor procurement practices.
The government is reducing the barriers for suppliers competing for business and has issued Procurement policy note (02/13): supplier financial risk issuesadvising contracting authorities that financial appraisal is proportional to size of the contract. This should make bidding easier for charities, SMEs and mutuals as, for instance, it counsels against arbitrary turnover limits and performance bonds which have locked out SMEs and mutuals in the past.
Public sector contracts worth over £10,000 are listed on www.gov.uk/contracts-findergov.uk.
Bidders can always challenge public sector procurement practices via the Cabinet Office’s Mystery Shopper scheme. More details are available in this short video from Sally Collier, Government Deputy Chief Procurement Officer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ1LtFKGlH4
The Cabinet Office is encouraging feedback on the videos via Twitter. Please use #SMEtips to tweet your comments and observations on the videos or follow/connect with them @cabinetofficeuk.
