News

Scottish Government Third Sector Social Research Report

Scottish Procurement and Property have published a new Third Sector social research report, focusing on the views and experiences of third sector organisations and new private sector businesses in relation to Scottish public procurement.

The report comes from the findings of research undertaken by Blake Stevenson Ltd, an independent social research company on behalf of the Scottish Government. The research involved a combination of surveys, interviews, and focus groups with individuals from third sector organisations, from new businesses, and from stakeholder organisations representing the interests of the third sector and private sector organisations.

Some key points from the report include:

• Experiences of public procurement to date – 80% of respondents said the bidding process for Scottish public sector contracts was difficult or very difficult. However, the respondents maintained that the security of contracts and reliability of payments were the greatest benefits of public contracts.
• Training and Support - Take-up of current public procurement training and support provision is reasonably good, and those third sector organisations and new private businesses that had participated in training or received advice from some of the existing support bodies were positive about the quality of support they had received. However, organisations were keen to see more in-depth, intensive support provided in the future.

Some barriers to engagement with Scottish public procurement for third sector and new private businesses

• Both third and private sector having lack of capacity
• The complexity of procurement processes
• Difficulties using Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) and Public Contracts Scotland-Tender (PCS-T)
• Insufficient early market engagement with potential bidders
• Lack of transparency in relation to short-listing of suppliers
• Ineffective tender assessment processes
• Insufficient lotting of contracts
• Ineffective use of framework agreements
• Lack of feedback from public bodies
• Short duration of contracts and low contract values
• Onerous terms and conditions
• Lack of a robust appeals process for lower value contracts
• Conflicts of interest
• Buyer and supplier preconceptions

You can read the full report on the Scottish Government website.

Support from the Supplier Development Programme

The Supplier Development Programme is consistently working to ensure that Scottish SMEs, Supported Businesses, and Third Sector organisations are ‘tender ready’ for any opportunity they are interested in bidding in. The Programme offers free tender training to those businesses who have little or no experience of tendering and are often too small to have dedicated bid/tender resources to contemplate bidding for public sector contracts.

SDP training courses are already tackling some of the barriers mentioned in the Third Sector social research report. For example, the Using Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) – How to Find and Bid for Opportunity session covers all there needs to know about Scotland’s national tender portals, ensuring suppliers are not only comfortable using the websites but also know how to generate business from it. SDP also has an Understanding and Bidding – Frameworks and Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS) training session that helps suppliers understand what a framework is, the common features of a framework and why buyers use frameworks.

If you can’t wait for the next session, SDP has recently launched an eLearning platform that allows suppliers to work through the course at your own pace, with built-in quizzes to test your knowledge along the way. SDP's eLearning courses that are available include:

• Quick Quotes Made Easy
• 1.1 Working with the Public Sector - All You Need to Know
• 1.2 Using Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) - How to Find and Bid for Opportunities
• 1.3 Getting You Business Tender Ready - The Checklist
• 2.1 Passing the Selection Stage - The Single Procurement Document (SPD)
• 2.2 How to Write Outstanding Tenders - The Invitation to Tender (ITT) Stage
• 2.3 Understanding and Bidding - Frameworks and Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS)
• 2.4 Improving Your Bid Score - Increase You Tender Win Rate
• 2.5 Responding to Tender Policy Requirements - Power Of Procurement
• 3.1 Understanding Your Role in Contract Management - Critical Success Factors
• 3.2 Expanding Your Business Globally - Tendering in New Markets