2.5 Responding to Tender Policy Requirements - Power of Procurement

What is the Power of Procurement? Do you know how to implement procurement policies into your bids? 

Public sector procurement in Scotland is guided by several policy requirements that were put in place so that organisations, operations, and procurement exercises achieve specific, desirable outcomes. So, what does that mean for suppliers?

During this training, you will get an overview of the most common policy requirements including Sustainability, Community Benefits, Fair Work Practices, Community Wealth Building and Net Zero targets. These topics are extremely important to buyers; so much so that the public sector expects businesses of all sizes to demonstrate how they are meeting these policy requirements in tender documents. 

Please note: Even though a buyer may not specifically ask suppliers to provide evidence of how the business is meeting policy requirements, it is still expected to be included within a bid.

Policies can be daunting, but help is at hand for Scottish SMEs, supported businesses and third sector organisations through the Supplier Development Programme. 

Join this webinar to become 'tender ready' and find out how you can provide the most up-to-date policies on your bids. You will also get advice on how to record and evidence what your business is doing to meet these requirements. By successfully providing evidence on how you are implementing policy requirements, you can improve how high your bid scores go and also stand out from competitors to buyers.

You will learn: 

• How to put the theory of the public sector's common policy requirements into practical terms.
• What sustainability is, as well as examples of what sustainability could mean for your business.
• What Community Benefits are, and ideas for and examples of Community Benefits you could implement into your business.
• What Net Zero is and how you can work towards meeting your Net Zero targets.
• What Fair Work First is, what it involves, and tools available to help you implement the five aspects of Fair Work into your business such as the Living Wage and other practical steps.
• How to record and evidence these key common policies into your bids.

You won’t just come away from this training course with good ideas: you will learn how to turn those ideas into a workable plan of action your business can use to get ‘tender ready’ for your next bid. 

At the end of the session, there will be an interactive Q&A session where you will have the opportunity to ask SDP's expert trainers any questions you may have and hear what other SME businesses in Scotland are asking, too. 

This event is suitable for Level 2 (Intermediate), for businesses which understand bidding concepts but need to develop and refine specific knowledge and skills. 

How to prepare for this event 

You can attend the webinar from the comfort of your own desk – the joining instructions and Cisco WebEx link are contained within the confirmation email received at time of booking, and also within the reminder emails. To prepare, you can access SDP's top tips on how to join a webinar, or alternatively please email info@sdpscotland.co.uk if you have any further questions about the joining process.

Please feel free to join the webinar before the start time.

Don’t just take our word for it! Here is what suppliers that previously attended this training had to say:

• "I found the examples of Community Benefits and how to implement an action plan most useful.” – Small business from Aberdeen City.
• "I found it useful having the opportunity to ask questions to an expert in real time." – Small business from South Lanarkshire.
• "This course is a good comprehensive overview of procurement policies. It was useful to understand in more detail the component parts of the tender process." – Medium sized business from North Lanarkshire.  
• “I was impressed by the refreshed content in the training course.” – Medium sized business from Renfrewshire.