News

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Supplier Development Programme!

The Supplier Development Programme would like to thank all of our suppliers, members, partners, and exhibitors for your support during 2024.

It has been another very busy year for SDP. Check out our year (1 Jan – 12 Dec 2024) in review:

• 3,042 new accounts registered with SDP (up 9.5% on last year).
• 2,026 new unique Scottish-based SMEs registered with SDP (up almost 9% on last year). 
• 11,925 event registrations from suppliers for both in-person and online events (up almost 25% on last year). 
• 6,250 attendees across all events, including Core Training, Talking Tenders, Aligned Tender Training and Meet the Buyers (up almost 27% on last year). 

The Supplier Development Programme held/supported 114 events 2024( up almost 13% on last year), including:

• 46 Core Training webinars;
• 22 Talking Tenders webinars;
• 13 Aligned Tender Training webinars;
• 11 Supplier Engagement events;
• 8 Meet the Buyer events;
• 7 External events;
• 4 Meet the Contractor events and
• 3 Buyer events

Our SDP elves are already hard at work, creating a jam-packed events calendar for 2025!

If you’re a micro, small or medium sized business based in Scotland, please ensure that you visit the events section and register for FREE to join upcoming tender training and engagement events in 2025.

SDP’s highlights of 2024:

• SDP hosted a free webinar, in partnership with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Orkney Islands Council, and Shetland Islands Council, focusing on the Scottish Islands Growth Deal. This event gave local suppliers an overview of the opportunities in the 10-year pipeline of work.
• SDP’s Programme Manager, Gillian Cameron, gave evidence to the Economy and Fair Work Committee Post-Legislative Scrutiny of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 (Private), discussing the improvements already made by the Act and the areas that still required work.
• SDP’s SME support was recognised in the Scottish Government’s SME and Third Sector Action Plan.
• SDP was announced as a finalist, alongside NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, for the ‘Delivering Supplier Diversity Award’ at the UK GO Awards 2023/2024.
• SDP was delighted to welcome all of Scotland’s Procurement Centres of Expertise to our national Meet the Buyer for the first time.
• SDP were awarded a highly commended in the ‘Collaborative Procurement Initiative’ category alongside our partners Scottish Borders Council, at the GO Awards Scotland 2024/2025.
• SDP launched a project, commissioned by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, to help suppliers and Third Sector Organisations in Greater Glasgow better understand how to use the NHS National Community Benefit Gateway portal.
• SDP made a submission to the Economy and Fair Work Committee Inquiry into Scotland’s City Region and Regional Growth Deals.
• SDP’s free tendering support was recognised in the Scottish Government’s Engagement Guide.

Thank you to everyone that helped make SDP’s 2024 a success. We hope you have a wonderful festive break!

Please Note: over the festive period, the SDP Office will be closed from 23 December 2024 until 6 January 2025. During this period, our help desk will be unavailable.

But don’t worry, there are still plenty of free resources for Scottish SMEs to access while the office is closed, such as the SDP jargon buster, procurement guide, policy templates, and of course, our free eLearning modules, where you learn how to get ‘tender ready’ for contract opportunities in 2025!

If you have a query during the festive break, please email info@sdpscotland.co.uk and a member of the team will respond when the office has re-opened on 6 January 2025.

We hope to see you at our upcoming events in 2025!