Procurement, Capital and Shared Assets Productivity Workstream

Big Wins Strategy

Potential Big Win Suggestion

Big Win Suggestion:

Impact overview
Hard to implement / 1------2------3------4------5 / Easy to implement
Risk High / 1------2------3------4------5 / Risk Low
Negative Policy Impact / 1------2------3------4------5 / Positive policy impact
Slow return (12 months or more) / 1------2------3------4------5 / Fast return
What is it?
Implementation of a regional, collaborative category management approach to a range of spend area, focusing initially upon 10 key areas of spend, including those taking the largest budget allocations, locally and nationally, e.g. Social Care, Professional Services, Facilities Management and Works. Support for NE SMEs through a dedicated, branded and standardised approach to supplier development, to increase competiveness for public sector tendering / business, not just in the NE, but nationally and internationally.
The NE Purchasing Organisation has now obtained approval from all 12 NE LAs to implement this approach. However, due to the higher than average percentage of reduced budgets within the region (the level of cuts equate to a loss of £209m in Spending Power or a reduction of £80.21 per head of population compared to the England average loss of £49.30 per head and the South East reduction of £21 per head), the need to make significantly higher than anticipated cost savings in the next financial year is now greater than originally anticipated. This therefore requires the new NEPO organisation to act more quickly in its new approach to deliver, up to five fold savings, on the current and new NEPO contracts / take-up.
What are the benefits?
Additional funding would allow the benefits to be more quickly realised, than highlighted in the business case. Benefits suggested could be in the region of £26m in the first full year of operation, although it is anticipated that some areas may take slightly longer to deliver, due to existing contracting arrangements of some LAs.
What is the Big Win proposal?
There are two key areas for consideration, which can be taken as a whole or delivered on an either or basis.
BIG WIN 1:
Lead on developing regional category management strategies and action plans in areas where such plans do not appear to exist elsewhere (especially in adult and children’s social services) with the aim of offering standard models that could be adopted elsewhere to speed up the application of category management to procurement in other regions. This would ensure that work undertaken, not just on collaborative contracts, but by individual LAs adopting a truly regional category management framework / structure, would provide a range of best deal approaches that could be replicated (or
This proposal could also take
BIG WIN 2:
Developing practical strategies for sustaining and developing local supply markets and supporting SMEs in becoming more competitive for public sector contracts. This would be done by offering a range of support, which has been tried and tested through an initial pilot programme delivered in 2010, which supported 198 unique suppliers in the North East, to better understand the public sector procurement practices, the requirements on them as a delivery organisations through the delivery of Awareness Raising Seminars, Procurement and Bid Writing Master classes and direct 1:1 Support (max. 7 hours per organisation).
The pilot programme was delivered in partnership with ONE NorthEast (RDA), Compete NE / Business Enterprise NE (BE-NE) NEPO and the NE IEP.
Feedback from participants in the pilot was extremely positive with “97% of (198) attendees said that the programme increased their ability and confidence to compete for procurement contracts by attending the programme” & “99% of the attendees said that the training would benefit their business and that they would definitely or probably use the material or knowledge gained”.
The proposal to deliver across the region one branded (through the Solution for Business branding – a well know, respected brand when it comes to delivery of business support training etc.) uniformed approach, that incorporates the changes made through the NE IEPs “public procurement reform” programme, to support local SMEs together. There will also be some elements within the new programme to deal with innovation in service / product delivery, which will ensure that suppliers can discuss with the public sector new ideas in a secure environment, without the current concerns over IPR issues. with newly incorporated modules for
This approach would allow provide the following modules and anticipated number of participants:
•  Get fit to compete - Module 1 [Unique participants / suppliers: 3500]
–  An introduction into what you need to do to compete for work from the public sector and the type of opportunities
•  Get fit to compete - Module 2 [1000]
–  Training in how to develop tenders, prepare and present a proposal. Providing practical sessions on policies and systems encompassing how to present a bid through to providing a basic understanding of negotiation and contract management.
•  Get fit to compete - Module 3 [500]
–  Providing master classes in procurement and bid writing; taking a detailed look at individual business development strategy and on a practical basis, how the supplier can really differentiate themselves and add value to the procurement official/buyer. Helping suppliers to build up specific expertise and skills through 1:1 mentoring, advising and account managing.
•  Ready to compete – Module 4 [1600]
–  Introduction to procurement professionals and the chance to pitch for real opportunities via Meet the Buyer event and 1:1 introductions. Presenting real and live opportunities for supplier to compete for.
•  Innovate to compete – Module 5 [250]
–  An opportunity to demonstrate to procurement professionals and Service Managers where an alternative or innovative approach could result in greater efficiency and effectiveness. “A DRAGON’S DEN…!!!”
The difference with this programme to a range of others already in the market place are that they will all be targeted (in the latter modules) to real live contracting opportunities, and all 12 NE LAs have agreed to feed their forthcoming opportunities registers, through the NEPO Portal, to allow these to be offered up as the prize at the end of the process. We believe that by offering a real tangible outcome of opportunities at the end of the training, suppliers will feel the benefits of training immediately, and thus presenting better formulated tender submissions / PQQs (or quotations), and winning more business. This will help to further drive a failing economy in the region.
Similarly to the pilot programme a roll-out of this across the full region would be supported by the original partnership.
What are the risks/problems to avoid?
Big Win 2: Not making it appropriate to the way of working for that region. If the training development support for SMEs didn’t reflect that regions working arrangements, i.e. local Portals, infrastructure differences etc. then
For the approach to fully work then it has to be adopted by the entire region, working with the local Business Link provider to deliver a single, uniformed and branded service. This may mean bringing together existing providers of this type of support to see how best to deliver.
What examples exist of this approach?
Big Win 2: Pilot programme delivered by NE IEP in the summer of 2010, support this approach – see evidence above
How scalable is this opportunity across England?
Big Win 2: This approach could be rolled out across each of the remaining RIEP areas, with little requirement to change, other than to ensure local issues were appropriately picked up by detailed discussions with the delivery agent and those who were instrumental in making any changes to the way that region works.
Which tier of councils would use this and at what approximate implementation cost?
All 12 Unitary North East Local Authorities, Fire & Rescue Services.
Big Win 2: This approach is self financing within a relatively short timeframe, as the model expects that suppliers would pay for the more specific support, i.e. master classes and 1:1 mentoring. The pilot indicated that 60% of SMEs would be prepared to pay up to £250 for a full day session. Initial funding needed would be in the region of £100,000 - £150,000 dependant upon scale of programme.
Other resources/links to supporting documents/case studies etc.
See attached Business Plan.
Key contact:
Diane Nielsen,
Collaborative Procurement Programme Manager,
North East Improvement & Efficiency Partnership
(submission on behalf of NE IEP & North Eastern Purchasing Organisation (NEPO))
Mobile: 07825 112629
Email: