News
New CCS Supply Teachers Framework
In November, the CCS is planning to publish a tender opportunity for a totally new national framework for provision of supply teachers. The CCS and DfE have conducted a pre-market engagement exercise which provides some useful insights into how they anticipate the framework will operate. Here are the key elements that we believe will be…
Bidding for Executive Roles Made Easy
Many senior level public sector roles have to go through a procurement process now, particularly in areas such as Central Government, Local Authorities and the NHS. Alternatively you may have been to see a client who has an executive role and everything has been going swimmingly until they utter the dreaded words: “perhaps you could…
Top Tips for Tackling the Hot Topic of CSR
So what is this CSR thing that we keep being asked for in tenders? It can seem such an intangible thing to write about so it’s easy to land up waffling about “doing the right thing” and “putting something back”. As a result CSR policies are often half a page of meaningless text about…
How about this for a New Year’s resolution?
As of September 2016, all contracting authorities in England (and most of those in Wales & Northern Ireland) have been legally obliged to replace the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) with the new Selection Questionnaire (SQ). This has been done to align us with European procurement legislation; and with the purpose of making it easier for SMEs…
Modern Slavery in Recruitment Tenders – Surely This Can't Apply to Us?
I’m getting a lot of calls from recruitment agencies with questions about a “Modern Slavery Statement” as this subject is appearing more and more in tenders. This is because companies with a turnover of over £36 million per annum are now obliged to publish a modern slavery statement under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and…
CPP National Clinical Staffing Framework Tender
The CPP National Clinical Staffing Framework tender has recently been published (submission deadline 19th April 2016) and it's demanding a lot of documented policies and procedures! Possibly the largest piece of work is putting together the verification, policy and procedure documents required in Annex B7. These are not only questions that you can pass or…
Top 10 Tips for Writing Successful Awards Nominations
There are lots of awards about at the moment, but sadly it's often not the best company that wins them, but the one with the most well written and compelling awards nominations. So here's some advice to help you showcase your business and win those prestigious accolades! Bear in mind that the judges have to…
Top 5 Forthcoming Public Sector Recruitment Bids
Now that summer is over, if the trend of the past 5 years continues, public sector recruitment bids will come thick and fast from now until the end of the year. Some significant frameworks are already mid tender, with Procurement for Housing and Scottish Procurement, but the big ones are yet to drop. Here we…
How to Make the Right Bid / No Bid Decisions
You’ll often see a tender opportunity that on the surface looks really interesting, but writing tenders is incredibly time consuming and expensive so it’s vital that you are selective and only bid for business that: You’ve got a good chance of winning That fits with your core business and that you have a proven track…
How to Score Maximum Points in the Diversity Section of a Tender
Diversity questions in tenders are often viewed with scepticism by recruiters, however tendering processes are increasingly weighted in favour of those organisations with diversity initiatives in place, therefore by improving your approach to diversity, you should also be able to improve your tender results! We’ve therefore grilled Dawn Milman-Hurst, a leading Diversity Consultant and the…
How to use the Copy and Paste Function in Recruitment Tenders
I review tenders written by recruitment agencies for a living, and the single most common mistake I see is poor use of the copy and paste function in PQQs, tenders and proposals. If I can spot a “set piece” which has been pasted into a tender a hundred miles off, you can be sure that…
How to Write Good!
OK – so maybe I didn't think this up all by myself…..actually I stole it from a friend's Facebook page (originally courtesy of The Gutter Bookshop, Dublin), but I think it puts across in a single page some of the most important points to consider when writing recruitment proposals, tenders and presentations! I hope this…
