Supplier Development Programme

Welcome to the Supplier Development Programme (SDP), a local authority partnership programme established to offer small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) the opportunity to grow and diversify through procurement.

With a public sector spend of approximately £8 billion, the SDP aims to assist SMEs (small to medium sized enterprises) improve their performance in winning contracts with public sector organisations. We offer information, support and training events to help unravel the tendering process.

If you are a Supplier, Buyer or Partner Agency you are welcome to register now with the SDP.

10-DR is our new interactive member of the team.

The SDP is now well established as a business growth initiative which, in partnership, delivers a range of specialist business support activities including the provision of advice, information and training support with the aim of assisting businesses to become more capable of accessing and competing for public sector contracts.

Read our annual review online now.

2010/2011 has been about building on the successes of previous years still completely focussed on helping our members to compete for those contracts. This year SDP acheived increases in SME membership and local authority partnership.

For many SMEs and third sector organisations supplying to the public sector for the first time presents a new set of challenges and opportunities. If your business cannot meet all the requirements set out in a tender, contact the SDP and see what we can do for you. We offer a wide range of training from policy workshops to collaborative bids worksops - and all FREE of charge.

Find Out More

Or contact the SDP if you have had some success with tendering but would like to build on your skills and experience.

Find Out More

The SDP can also help SMEs and third sector organisations that have achieved high levels of success through public sector procurement by helping them, for example, explore new markets including overseas.

Find Out More

The SDP host a full range of events to help our member companies compete for tenders.

We provide training from awareness raising seminars to policy workshops to tender writing workshops and collaborative bids workshops.

Companies are encouraged to self select what training is appropriate to them and this could be from Level 1, 2 or 3. Member SMEs and social enterprises can attend any training event in any partner area. All events are free of charge if you are registered with the Programme.

Why did you first get involved with the Supplier Development Programme

We had had limited success in passing the PQQ stage, and had not been successful when tendering for public sector business. The PQQ's were being filled in each time with no knowledge of what we were doing right, and what we were scoring low on. I attended the Meet The Buyer event in 2009, and registered with the Supplier Development Programme at the time. My main reason was to attend the Love Me Tender workshops, which I felt would be beneficial.