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Doing business with the public sector provides stability and the opens the door to many opportunities. However, bidding for contracts isn't easy; the public sector must award contracts based on value for money for the taxpayer. It's therefore important for businesses to be well prepared to ensure they not only meet tender requirements, but stand out from the crowd.

Discovering opportunities

You may have already seen our Finding public tenders article, where we show you how to find tenders for free online. Offline, there are various trade journals and industry magazines that advertise various public sector tendering opportunities. When reviewing an advert, it's important to ensure you contact them to ensure you understand the requirement. This is particularly important for OJEU adverts which have a limited word count.

Don't be afraid to call up public sector bodies regarding available contracts. Developing a relationship with a contact may mean they end up informing you of upcoming tenders. And of course, you can market yourself to the public sector, just like you would with a private sector firm.

To be full prepared, it may be worth attending a Business Link event. They often have workshops covering the basics, right up to writing an effective tender response.

Responding to a tender opportunity

You will be expected to reveal all details about your business when responding to a tender.  This includes your financial position, technical ability and experience in similar projects. If you cannot offer a good response for the latter, your bid may not be acceptable. It's also important to ensure you meet the deadline.

The deadline for the tender response may be broken down to specific dates. Ensure you know these and ask if there are to be any interviews beyond simply sending documentation. Ask what format the documentation should be in to avoid any complications. Remember: the deadline won't change, if you cannot deliver an adequate response on time, that could be your chance lost.

Finding out if you have won a tender contract may take months, so be patient!

Government Procurement Code of Good Practice

The Government has a code of practice for working with suppliers, developed by the Office of Government Commerce. With four sections concentrating on fairness, honest, efficiency and professionalism, each section includes expected actions and. As you would expect, it’s worth reviewing the Code of Good Practice to be in a strong position for tenders.

Policy requirements

Other policies are becoming more common when tendering for public sector tenders.  Although of varying importance, the response to these policies may become the difference between winning and losing the contract.

Quality Policy

A quality management statement or policy is a familiar requirement. However, many public sector organisations go further in asking contracts to have a certified Quality Management System (QMS). This is particularly prevalent if you are involved in an industry where external assessments are the norm.

Look out for quality assurance standards that affect your industry. The most popular, because it's not industry specific, is the ISO 9001 quality management standard. It should guarantee that you provide a consistent level of quality, which is why it is so popular with the public sector.

Government, Business Link and the Federation of Small Businesses all recommend that organisations seeking ISO 9001 should choose a UKAS accredited Certification Body. This is because UKAS is the sole Government body recognised for accrediting certification, ensuring technical competence, impartiality and performance capability. Without UKAS accredited certification, you may find your certificate rejected.

Environmental Policy

 

An Environmental Policy is a statement outlining your business's strategy for environmental management. It should include objectives, with deadlines. Ideally, it should work in conjunction with a more comprehensive Environmental Management System (EMS). A successful EMS helps a business manage any operations that could affect the environment. It will help you to be more environmentally friendly, show you how to measure your consumption and reduce waste. Once you see how you can effectively reduce, re-use and recycle, you will benefit by making tangible cost savings, reducing your environmental impact.

The benefits of an EMS include:

Many organisations formalise their policy with the environmental management standard ISO 14001. It demonstrates their commitment to reducing their environmental effect and also  helps save money in areas of consumption and waste. Becoming certified to a recognised standard like ISO 14001 will improve tender prospects and It is also recognised that certified businesses are better managed and have enhanced customer loyalty.

Sustainability Policy

Related to the Environmental Policy, a Sustainability Policy should outline sustainability considerations within business decisions, with a plan of how to prevent particular issues arising. This might include encouraging staff to use public transport (where possible), to ensuring your business is doing its best to recycle. The idea is to show consideration to the environment and natural resources. Sustainable procurement would also have the objective of social progress that recognises the needs of all stakeholders, including the wider community.

Employment Policy

When tendering, you should contact the relevant local authority and ask what diversity issues should be included for your bid. This can then be worked into your Employment and Equal Opportunities Policy.

Your introductory statement can be general and needs to describe the aims of the organisation with regards to equality or you could list the types of people relevant to your organisation that are vulnerable to discrimination. This would continue in the vein of how your organisation is opposed to discrimination and the specific procedures you have to ensure it doesn't happen.

Health and Safety policy

It is law in the UK for you to have a documented safety policy if you employ five or more people. Your safety policy should:

You may be asked to provide copies of this document with your tender application. Another management standard, OHSAS 18001, covers occupational health and safety issues for those keen to go one step further.

Tender debrief

Submitting a fully compliant tender document doesn't always end up in good news. Despite best efforts, the outcome may not be in your favour. However, there is an opportunity to learn why you were not successful, and that's through a debrief.

Debriefing is mandatory for OJEU tenders. For tenders under the OJEU size limits, debriefing is not mandatory but is encouraged as good practice. You are fully entitled to ask for one.

The aim of a debrief is give positive, constructive feedback to competing suppliers on their performance at any evaluation stage of a procurement exercise. Debriefing therefore gives you the opportunity to improve your performance in the future. They can be written, take the form of a face-to-face meeting with senior company representatives, or a phone call.

If you have been unsuccessful with an OJEU tender, you can contact the contracting authority and request the reasons for being unsuccessful. The authority then has 15 days to provide those reasons. If you were unsuccessful at the tender stage, the contracting authority is also obliged to let you know the characteristics and relative advantages of the successful tender as well as the name of the person awarded the contract.

Further Reading

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