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/

Generation Recession

 "summer's gone" - Wake up Boo, The Boo Radleys

Well we are into September, and the future is not looking so bright we have to wear shades (Timbuk 3).  A long winter and probably a long few years are to come.  Figures in the news today suggest a 10% drop in real incomes over this year and next for UK households, some £3000 on average.  We shall be no better off than we were in 2003, despite high employment/low unemployment.

That money has to come from somewhere - and that means first of all from discretionary spend.  That new sofa, car, holiday, wallpaper - if it can be put off it will be.  Which means a hit to the retail and service sectors, followed by the manufacturing sector (or possibly lead by it).

My kids recently turned 20 and hopefully by the time they fully enter the workplace things will be better.  But it got me thinking.

My kids are really just becoming aware of the economy and business, so lets say that most of us really understand that when we have been working for a while, say when we are 25.  (I didn't even start work until I was nearly 26 - perpetual student!).

Assuming this current crisis can be resolved in about 5 years (it will be more than one) then we are talking 2027.  That is 20 years after the global financial crisis of 2007/8.

So, in 2007 people who were 25 might be aware of good times coming to an end, and then start to experience austerity, Brexit, covid, the 2022 cost of living crisis... By 2027 they will be 45 and be able to remember one or two good years for the economy a long time ago.  Anyone under 45 will never have known anything but tough times.  

Of course us oldsters will be telling our war stories about the times of plenty.  And be rightly ignored.  

We talk of recovery as a part of the business cycle, but realistically we have to be in boom before people feel recovery has happened, and those breathing spaces have been short recently.

We all know our early experiences in business have an influence on how we behave in our careers.  What will it mean for them?

45 year old should be the engines of business - a combination of energy and experience.  They will have known nothing but recession and depression.  Will they be able to imagine a better future?  Will their formative years set them on a path of limited risk?

The impact of these years will be not just economic, but psychological (which will also impact on the economy).

What will it do to business thinking and strategy?

I've no idea, but we ought to start thinking about getting young people to have the right mindset.

It would probably help if we stopped telling them they could buy a house if they gave up eating avocado toast (is that really a thing?) and recognised they are our future.  And they will pay our pensions.  I hope they have a booming economy to help them do so.

Anyway, have a good weekend.  Sorry if I am being gloomy.