Procurement Reform Roadshow - Norwich 10th October 2023 and Liverpool 12th October

 The first roadshow for buyers went very well in Newcastle.

We are looking forward to 2 more next week on Tuesday 10th October 2023 in Norwich and Thursday 12th October in Liverpool.

Full details here.

After these 2 with me acting a Master of Ceremonies, and further events follow in Birmingham, Nottingham, Sheffield and Bristol MC'd by my colleague Gemma.

After that we turn to running events for suppliers in November on 22nd in Manchester and 23rd in London.  Details here.

Hope to see you at these events.

The Procurement Bill 2024

 

I am delighted to be announce that I shall be working with my colleagues at BIPSolutions to run a series of Roadshows about the Procurement Bill that is currently undergoing review in Parliament.  This will replace the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 that we have all been working under for almost a decade.

The plan is to have Royal Assent next year, and then have a six month period to allow everyone to understand the new rules before it goes live.  So, a year from new we should have a new public procurement regime.

If you are either a Public Sector buyer, or a supplier to the public sector then these changes are going to have an impact on you.

We are running a series of roadshows around England, firstly focusing on Buyers and then a follow up series focused on the implications for suppliers.  

The Buyer events are going start in Newcastle on Tuesday 3rd October, and then move on to Norwich on 10th October and Liverpool on 12th October with my as the host.  My colleague Gemma Waring will be hosting the events in Sheffield (19th Oct), Nottingham (31st Nov), Birmingham (7th Nov) and Bristol (21st Nov).

The supplier dates will be in November in Manchester and London (dates should be released early in October).

We have a range of great guest speakers to help talk through the Bill, and will have a panel discussion where we can address any other public procurement topics.  Questions will be welcome at the end of all sessions.

Fuller details including booking are at the link here.

Hope to see you there.

Training fees repeated

 Well inflation remains stubbornly high, and we are all going to have to get used to needing to negotiate higher fees/salaries to remain standing still.

I increased fees this time last year, and I have already booked in new rates for 2024 with some clients.

This is the new world we all have to get used to.  Even my window cleaner put prices up 20%.

After years of relatively low inflation, we are now in a second year of it being high, and consequently significant wage/cost inflation is going to happen.  We can pretend it wont, but the reality is that it has to.  This will mean added difficulties in agreeing fees/rates/prices with suppliers, but we should be getting used to this new normal.

Anyway, for new work coming in after September 2023, my rates are going up.  I imagine so are everyone elses.  Good luck to everyone on both sides of the table.

Tackling Procurement Fraud - BIP Solutions

 The second online course I shall be delivering for BIP Solutions this month is Tackling Procurement Fraud, Wednesday 23rd August 2023.  

Date is being rearranged-  will keep you up to date.  Probably September

Another interesting topic, with some key interests at the moment.  I shall try to stay the right side of the line on fair comments!

Hope to see you there.

BREAKING NEWS: Course now due to run on Wednesday 8th November.  Full details including booking forms in the link here.

Apologies for the delay.

BIP Solutions - Understanding Sustainability in Public Procurement

 I am pleased to tell you that I have renewed my relationship with BIP Solutions, and will be delivering a range of programmes on their behalf.

The first of this is Understanding Sustainability in Public Procurement which I shall be delivering on line on Tuesday 15th August 2023. Full details are in the link here.  

Very interesting topic and very affordable - but I would say that, wouldn't I?

Hope to see you there

25 years of PAWA Consulting

 Well to be accurate, 25 years and one month.  But things have been so busy that it is only now we are in August that I have time to write about it.

As I said in a very early newsletter (remember them?) "what a long strange trip its been" (quoting the Grateful Dead).  And it has been strange and fun.  And I am still here - though I have had various colleagues along the way.

Looks like 2023 is going to be the busiest year for training that I have ever had, and so I have decided to mostly draw the line under consultancy (unless something particularly piques my interest).

I have some news about returning to an old client later in the year, which means a range of new open courses on public procurement and related topics.  Meanwhile I am running further in-house programmes, and working as usual for a range of partner organisations running open and in-house programmes.

I've been only in the UK since Covid, but hope to be travelling to deliver courses from next year (2024).

In the meantime I have been running some courses on international time.  Which is fine for Europe, the Middle East and USA.  I am feeling a little bit more apprehensive about doing one on Japanese time in October!  Better to get back to doing these face to face I think. And as a sign that is possible I am being Master of Ceremonies at some UK conferences in the autumn.

Hope to see you at an event in the future.

(technically 23 years of PAWA Consulting Ltd, but 25 years of PAWA Consulting).

IChemE - What Engineers need to know about contracts - 14-16 June 2023

 We are running the popular What Engineers need to know about contracts course for the first time this year on 14-16 June 2023.  We are still running it online, but will at some point try face to face again.  Hopefully later this year.

The online course is 3 half days (mornings UK time).  It is based on our F2F course which is two full days, and so we had to strip it down a bit and go at pace when we did it in two half days.  To give us more time for discussion (and more content) we are expanding it to 3 half days.

Full details are at https://www.icheme.org/career/training/courses-a-z/what-engineers-need-to-know-about-contracts/