Summer's gone (wake up Boo!) - The Procurement Act in Practice for Suppliers 9th September 2025

 Gosh, it's 2nd September already. Summer's not quite gone, but it is getting ready for back to school...

And so I assume lots of people are now keen to stop reading that summer blockbuster on the beach and start thinking again about the Procurement Act 2023.

No?

Well if you are then, you might want to come along for our first Procurement Act in Practice for Suppliers next Tuesday 9th September at PASS Procurement.

Link here - https://www.passprocurement.co.uk/event/procurement-act-in-practice-for-suppliers/

And if you are old enough to get the reference, the Boo Radleys are here

Writing a Tender Specification - Course, Manchester 29th November 2016

I'm stepping in for Eddie Regan, who has another course at short notice, to present Writing a Tender Specification in Manchester on Tuesday 29th November 2016.  Fuller details are here.

Usually a very interesting event - throws up quite a few questions, and of course the main issue is that if we don't have the right specification the procurement almost certainly fails to deliver the right outcome.

It might be my last UK course in 2016 - should be a good one.

Procurex Scotland 9th November 2016, SECC Glasgow

I've just had a great time at LGPE at Olympia in London with BIP Solutions - see above.  Their next event is Procurex Scotland next week.  I can't be there because I shall be running the Introduction to Public Sector Procurement for CIPS in Greenwich, but it should be a great event. 

If you are in public sector procurement, you should get along to Procurex - they are free for you.  Next one is 21st March 2017 in Birmingham, then 20th April back at Olympia.

The CIPS event is full incidentally, and next one is 21st February 2017 also in Birmingham.

Hope to see you at one of these.

@pawa51

Introduction to Public Procurement - Manchester 4th October 2016

Finally got a few days without either courses or (looming) deadlines, so have found time to report that I am stepping in for Eddie Regan at BIP Solutions to run the Introduction to Public Procurement course in Manchester on 4th October 2016.  It is pretty full, and after that the next ones are in Edinburgh in November and London in December, for which normal service will be resumed and Eddie will be the presenter.

Preparing Perfect Tenders - Leeds, 4th November 2015

Been on holiday, and so not much notice for this one.http://www.passprocurement.co.uk/topics/preparing-perfect-tenders/

Ideal for me because it is just around the corner in Leeds.  And about one of my favourite topic - how to win tenders.

Bit late but still room for any latecomers.

The new season: Contract Management and Compliant PQQ courses in Manchester 16/17 September 2015

It's not just football that has a new season.  We always have a relatively quiet summer for training, and then things pick up again in September.  Like the transfer window a few things are usually up in the air till the last minute.

But, I can confirm that I shall be running a couple of courses for BIP Solutions Pass Training in Manchester this month
Wednesday 16th September I shall be running Drafting a Compliant PQQ - which is a rather interesting topic given the changes to PQQs this year.
Thursday 17th September it is Contract Management - which is a topic that I know I always drone on about, but has always been vitally important and given the changes in the PCR 2015 will now be even more important than before.

Both are at the Renaissance Marriot in Manchester, just off Deansgate and down the hill a bit from Harvey Nichols (in case you need any more incentive to come along), next to a multi-storey car park.

Hope to see you there.  Now where is that suit and tie?

Questions raised by the new Public Contracts Regulations 2015

We (at BIP Solutions) have run a few of our courses about the impact of the new regulations, and have had some great questions from the delegates.  Most of which we could answer - but a couple we have had to dig into before we could give a full answer.  Which is great - because now we can tell anyone who is interested.

As I have said before, it takes time for new regulations to be bedded in and for people to understand what there is between the cracks.  Of course eventually we shall have case law, derived from challenges, but that could be a year or two away yet.

The questions include;
- When do we have to move to full electronic tendering?
- Do we need to advertise our tenders on Contracts Finder?
- as a consultancy/agency do only our fees count towards the OJEU limit?
- Do we need to have all our documentation available when we publish our Contract Notice?

Good questions all.  And if you want to know the answers, why not come along to one of our events in the next couple of months.  A few of the dates have been rearranged and others added but there should be an event (relatively) near you unless you live in Scotland (where the new PCRs have not yet been adopted).  Details are here.

New Public Contract regulations - other blogs

On Wednesday I ran my first event of the PASS  series of Impact of the New Public Contracts Regulations 2015.  Not as especially catchy title, but as one of the delegates said "it's not something we want to know about, it's something we need to know about".

Very interesting session with very knowledgeable and engaged delegates, two of whom were good enough to give me a lift to the station because I over ran.

If you want some additional information, a pair of law lecturers from Swansea and Leicester are going through the regulations in tandem on their blogs - one per post.  This onerous task (which I discovered from Peter Smith's Spend Matters blog)  will take them until autumn, but it is an interesting exercise for anyone wondering (as I do) where the challenges to the new regulations are going to arise.

The blogs are;

www.telles.eu
www.howtocrackanut.blogspot.co.uk

Preparing Perfect Tenders - Birmingham 25th March 2015

I am taking over the Preparing Perfect Tenders course in Birmingham from my colleague Eddie, and so I have the opportunity to repeat the event I ran last month in Manchester.  Hopefully with new jokes.

 

Of course, since then the new EU procurement regulations have come into force in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  How does this change things?  Why not come along to the Novotel and find out?  (Ideally having booked first of course)

 

 

Contract Management training 19th February/10th March 2015

I am running a Contract Management course for PASS (part of BIP Solutions), and they asked me to write a few word about it for their blog.  Here it is - Essential Contract Management.

I am running the course 19th February in Liverpool, and 10th March 2015 in Southampton (but not 25th March in London, because I am running Preparing Perfect Tenders that day in Birmingham).

Hope to see you there.