Selling to the Public Sector in Gloucestershire

1. Selling to the Public Sector in Gloucestershire WELCOME

2. Today’s agenda • 09:30 - Housekeeping • 09:35 – Introduction from Portfolio Holder – Gloucestershire County Council • 09:45 - Who is who and what we do • 09:55 - Portals and where tender opportunities can be found • 10:05 - An overview of tendering • 10:30 - Sustainability and Equalities • 10:45 - Question & Answer Session • 10:50 - Coffee Break & Networking • 11:15 - Frameworks and Professional Buying Organisations explained • 11:30 – Transparency • 11:45 - Case Study from Devon County Council – Tendering as a Consortia • 12:30 - Question & Answer Session • 12.40 - Break • 12:45 - Demonstration of Pro Contract (Optional)

3. Supplying to the Public Sector in GloucestershireWelcome Ray Theoudoulou Cabinet Member for Finance Resources – Gloucestershire County Council

4. About Gloucestershire “A unique and special place to live” • No dominating metropolis • 25 market towns • Distinct contrasting areas • Economically diverse

5. Challenges • Population • Climate Change • Economy

6. Gloucestershire Procurement Partnership A collaborative public sector approach to procurement in Gloucestershire Gloucester NHS Gloucester City Homes Gloucestershire County Council Gloucester City Council Forest of Dean District Council Stroud District Council Cotswold District Council Tewkesbury Borough Council Cheltenham Borough Council

7. The Efficiency Agenda • Local Government is in a very different place / position than it has ever been before • We need to be exploring every way we can for Public Sector organisations to make efficiencies • A real move for Local Authorities and other Public Sector Bodies to collaborate regionally and nationally

8. What does this mean for Gloucestershire • Partnership, innovation, collaboration • Suppliers need to be aware of • Where to look for opportunities • How to tender / constraints on public sector • Buyers need to be aware of importance of listening to their private sector partners.

9. Thank you

10. Who We Are and What We Buy Imogen Batton – Head of Procurement Gloucestershire NHS Procurement Shared Service Claire Smart – Director Strategic Procurement Gloucestershire County Council

11. NHS PROCUREMENTWhat we buy • Medical and Surgical products and services (equipment, consumables and maintenance etc including capital equipment and managed services) • Non Medical goods and services (laundry, legal services, IT systems, hardware and software, stationery and furniture, post and catering etc) • Estate & Facilities goods and services (Boilers, parking, cleaning and gardening, transport etc)

12. NHS PROCUREMENTThe Team • The team in Gloucestershire manage all requirements across the county for up to 80 sites (not including energy and drugs) • The Ambulance Trust deals with all of their requirements themselves (so we don’t cover ambulances and kit in them).

13. Gloucestershire County CouncilWho we are • 1 strategic Procurement team (strategy policy, process, documentation, some corporate contracts) • 11 teams of purchasers (Sourcing Pools) – distributed across directorates

14. Gloucestershire County CouncilWhat we buy • Social Care • Highways maintenance • Waste disposal • Fire engines • Transport • Schools services • Building services And much more…

15. Forest of Dean District Council Requirements of District Councils

16. Typical activities of a local authority • Revenue Collection • Development Control • Housing Allocation • Environmental Health • Waste Collection • Leisure Services • Community/Voluntary Support • Economic/Tourism Promotion

17. Services contracted / transferred out • Waste Collection (contracted out). • Housing Stock (transferred out to Two Rivers Housing).

18. Main areas of spend (2011/2012 Budget) • Leisure Services £1.24m • Domestic Waste Collection £1.18m • Green Waste Collection £0.66m • Recycling £1.17m • Home Improvements £0.21m • Car Park Provision £ 46,000 • Reprographics £124,000 • Postage £ 69,000 • Telephones £ 58,000 • Insurance £102,000

19. Our aspirations • Want to support Local Business but opportunities are very ad-hoc. • Urge you all to register on the SW Portal Supplyingthesouthwest.org.uk • Identify local suppliers when opportunities arise. • Achieve Value For Money.

20. Advertising and Regional Portals Steve Hodgson

21. Where we advertise • OJEU • Regional Portal – Supplying the South West • Web pages

22. Supply2Gov • The Supply2.gov.uk service is due to end in March 2011. Until 31 March 2011 you will continue to be able to access live contract opportunities through Supply2.gov.uk. From 1st April 2011, new public sector contract opportunities can be found on the Government’s new Contracts Finder system, which will be accessible from Business Link website

23. Benefits of the Portalwww.supplyingthesouthwest.org.uk • It’s Free • It’s easy • It’s a one stop shop – you register, it alerts you to opportunities in your business area • It gives you access to multiple organisations across the South West

24. Demonstration • At the end of the event there will be a demonstration of the regional portal (Pro contract)

25. Selling to the Public Sector in Gloucestershire Tendering

26. Rules – Internal • Each organisation is a statutory body and has rules which cover how it is set up, the delegation of authority or reservation of powers, and tendering levels and procedures to be followed. • Each organisation has set a level at which competitive quotes or competitive tendering takes place. An example may be £5,000 for quotes and £25,000 for tendering.

27. Rules – External (Regulations) • The Public Contracts Regulations 2006 (SI No 5) & The Public Contract (Amendments) Regulations 2009 (SI No 2992), derived from EU Directives • European threshold varies for different public sector organisations and for goods & services versus works contracts. It generally changes every 2 years and is based on the Euro. - NHS threshold is set at £101,323 - Councils’ threshold is at £156,442 - All “works” thresholds are set at £3,927,260.

28. What needs tendering? • The Value of contract must be considered over the life of the contract. This is the total spend for the organisation over a period usually of 3 - 5 years • Part A services, as stipulated in the regulations and would include services that could be provided across member states. • Part B services may be excluded from full EU tendering as they have special considerations for a country rather than the EU. eg: legal services/personnel placement

29. What exists already? • If a local contract already exists there is an expectation that the contracted supplier/suppliers would be used. • Buying Solutions (national, all public sector) or NHS Supply Chain (NHS only), frameworks are in place and could be utilised via call off or mini-competition • Some regional arrangements (eg PRO5 for councils) exist that organisations can choose to use, again either via call off or by mini-competitions. - Mini-competitions allow us to use the framework suppliers only to obtain tenders – hence “mini”

30. What if no arrangements exist? • If no current contract exists or is due to expire a full tendering process may be applicable, either locally for a lower level contract or via OJEU (Official Journal for the European Union) for higher values. • Set formats apply for OJEU tenders but often the same sets of forms will be used for local and OJEU tenders.

31. Tender process – Sourcing • Initially an advertisement is required to invite suppliers to express an interest. An OJEU ‘Contract notice’ as well as website notices may be issued. Other media could also be used to invite interest e.g. local newspaper or trade magazine. • A pre-qualification stage / shortlisting stage may be used to reduce the suppliers who have expressed an interest to a reasonable number to invite to tender.

32. Tender process - evaluation • The shortlisted suppliers are invited to submit an offer for the goods or service via an Invitation to Tender (ITT). • The returned bids will be evaluated, either by individuals or more usually by a team • Sometimes presentations, samples or trials, reference site visits, or further clarification is sought to evaluate or confirm evaluation.

33. Tender process - award • The preferred supplier is advised and all other bidders are advised of the details where their bid was lacking or valued less than the preferred supplier • Further debriefs may take place with suppliers to assist them to improve their bids for the future. • The award is made after a standstill period.

34. Tendering – Pre-qualificationHow to get your details across… • At Pre-Qualification stage each public sector organisation is trying to get details on how a potential supplier operates in general. • The more financially stable the supplier is and, the closer the requirement matches the supplier’s current work, the less risk for the public sector and the more likely the supplier will manage the requirement through the life of the contract period.

35. Tendering – ITTHow good are you for what we need? • Answer each point as accurately as possible, with sufficient detail to explain each point without wandering off the question. • If you have supporting documentation please add this in where asked to do so, e.g. as appendices. • Send all of your responses back in the format requested and for the time needed.

36. Reasons you can be ‘disqualified’ (before the ITT stage) • No evidence of capability to meet specification • Financial instability or where you are not deemed capable to perform a contract of the value envisaged • Misleading information provided or failure to disclose • Unpaid taxes or social security payments • Criminal offences relevant to the contract: eg security guard with an arson conviction; • Winding up order against supplier • Suspension from trading: eg bankruptcy of a director • Legal problems: eg patent rights • Found guilty of organised crime, corruption or fraud

37. Reasons you can be ‘excluded’(After submission of bid) • After evaluation of the product or service there is an unacceptable price, delivery or terms (usual evaluation criteria to assess bids) • Improper approaches: e.g. canvassing • If it is subsequently discovered reasons for disqualification that would have disqualified a bidder at the PQQ stage had the information been known.

38. 10 common mistakes made by tenderers!

39. 1. Late Submission The return date and time are fixed. It is vital that you get your tender to the right location and on time.

40. 2. Open envelope Make sure your envelope is sealed. If It is opened it could be disqualified

41. 3. The wrong information on the envelope If the envelope isn’t clearly marked as a tender it may be opened at the wrong time or place, and can then be disqualified.

42. 4. Canvassing individuals in the tendering organisation The tender process has to be fair and transparent. If you try to influence staff or try to obtain information outside the process your bid could be disqualified.

43. 5. Alternative bids “We can’t do what you’re asking but we can do this…” Unless we specifically ask for alternatives we cannot accept them.

44. 6. Qualified bids “We can give you this price, but only if…..” Unless we specifically ask for qualified bids we cannot accept them

45. 7. Wrong information supplied Don’t tell us what you want us to know, tell us what we ask for, or anything that relates directly to the tender.

46. 8. Gaps in information We are not allowed to make it up or guess, so please make sure that all information needed is supplied

47. 9. Don’t assume we know you We have to assess you on the information that you supply for an individual tender, not on what we may know about you.

48. 10. Be realistic Be realistic about what you can actually achieve.

49. Sustainability Economy Society Environment

50. Sustainable Procurement • Sustainable Procurement Policy • “We will integrate the economic, social and environmental strands of sustainability into our procurement and commissioning decisions in a manner which supports the UK Government’s approach to sustainable development.” • It’s our responsibility • It makes business sense