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Funding Information North East's

Commissioning & Procurement bulletin

Issue 08: July 2010

If you have any queries or suggestions feel free to contact Jen on 0191 477 1253 / jen@fine.org.uk / John Haswell House, 8/9 Gladstone Terrace, Gateshead NE8 4DY

Supply Opportunities

Capacitybuilders Programme Evaluations

Source: FINE

Buyer: Capacitybuilders

Deadline: Varies; see text

Capacitybuilders are inviting proposals for the evaluation of a number of its programmes due to commence from August 2010. In each case, the team appointed will have worked on comparable projects and have a strong track record in evaluation and research. 

Deadline 19^th July 2010

Consortia Modernisation Programme Evaluation (budget £23,500)

Improving Reach Programme Evaluation (budget £23,500)

Deadline 20^th July 2010

 Consortia Development Programme Evaluation (budget £23,500)

Overarching Evaluation of the National Workstreams (budget £23,500)

Deadline 21^st July 2010

 Capacitybuilders' Programme Overall Evaluation (budget £99,000)

Capital Investment Programme Evaluation (budget £30,000)

For more information and to respond visit Website Link or contact 0121 237 5100 / info@capacitybuilders.org.uk

Adult Social Care Workforce Strategy for the North East

Source: FINE / ProContract

Buyer: North East Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (NE IEP)

Deadline: 21^st July 2010

Tender to identify and assess adult social care training opportunities and requirements for the region’s Councillors, commissioners and senior leaders and to develop and deliver training modules to meet these requirements based upon adult social care priorities of

• personalisation

• prevention

• reablement

• joint working with health services

The maximum budget is £45,000.

For more information and to respond visit Website Link or contact Sarah MacNab on 0191 433 5993 / sarahmacnab@gateshead.gov.uk

Independent Advocacy for Looked After Children and Young People

Source: FINE / ProContract

Buyer: Sunderland City Council

Respond by: 21^st July 2010

Opportunity to recruit, supervise and provide independent Advocates as required to eligible children and young people. Responsibilities will include:

• recruitment and selection

• planned induction of Advocates

• supervision

• Advocate training / development in Advocacy, Customer care, Listening & Responding, Cultural Diversity, Lone Working, Safeguarding

The Provider will also maintain awareness of the service amongst looked after children and young people, including those with learning or communication difficulties, through provision of information and visits to children’s homes, staff and care workshops, and other settings as required. The maximum budget is £25,000 p.a.

For more information and to register: Website Link

21^st Century Business Skills - Development Programme

Source: FINE / ProContract

Buyer: North East Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (NE IEP)

Deadline: 23^rd July 2010

Opportunity to embed strategic use of ‘citizen insight’ in the region’s Local Authorities and Fire & Rescue Services through the design, development and delivery of a ‘new business skills’ learning module and to demonstrate the financial, practical and organisational development benefits of investment in citizen insight which will be capable of replication across the region. There will be four components:

• 'Taught’ sessions

• Work-based projects

• Action learning meetings

• Learning dissemination at local and regional level

The maximum budget is £26,000.

For more information and to respond visit Website Link or contact Sarah MacNab on 0191 433 5993 / sarahmacnab@gateshead.gov.uk

Tees Valley Sub-Regional In-house Foster Care Recruitment Collaboration

Source: FINE / ProContract

Buyer: North East Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (NE IEP)

Deadline: 27^th July 2010

Opportunity to develop and implement shared collaborative arrangements for the marketing, recruitment, assessment and training of local authority foster carers across the Tees Valley Local Authorities. Services include:

• Marketing - marketing strategy and campaign to increase the number of enquiries received from potential foster carers with a view to increasing the number of in-house foster carers

• Recruitment - enquiry point for potential foster carers

• Assessment - assessment processes to approve new foster carers Training - programme of training to be used by local authority staff

The Provider will involve and consult with local authority officers throughout. The budget is £45,000.

For more information and to respond visit Website Link or contact Sarah MacNab on 0191 433 5993 / sarahmacnab@gateshead.gov.uk

Training Services Database for RBI clients

Source: FINE

Buyer: Northumbria University

Deadline: 29^th July 2010

Opportunity to join a database of consultants and trainers from which the University can draw upon, as required, to help design and deliver customised training events and programmes to their RBI (Research, Business & Innovation) clients’ requirements and satisfaction. Types of services required vary; the most common include (not exhaustive):

• facilitation, mediation and handling conflict training

• environmental management

• business Management & Skills

• purchasing & procurement

• training & training management

• accredited courses

The contract is expected to run for 2 years from October 2010.

For more information and to respond visit and register Website Link (different from NEPO ProContract registration) or

contact Katrina Foster: katrina.foster@northumbria.ac.uk / 0191 227 4078

Volunteer Centre Workshops Opportunity

Source: FINE

Buyer: Volunteering England (VE)

Deadline 30^th July 2010

Opportunity relating to Inspiration and Legacy from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Project. VE want to deliver 10 workshops across the country (in addition to the 18 already contracted), hosted by tendering organisations, to ensure the project has national coverage. The events will provide the backbone of the project’s in depth outreach work to volunteer involving organisations (VIOs) during financial year April 2010 - March 2011.

The aims of each workshop will be to reach VIOs who have never worked with the volunteering infrastructure (local and electronic) to recruit volunteers, and to support all attendees to create Games inspired volunteering opportunities.

For more information visit

www.volunteering.org.uk/WhoWeAre/jobvacancies/tender

Or contact the regional representative Scott Williams: 020 7520 8951, scott.williams@volunteeringengland.org

Feasibility Study into Options for Collaborative Social Work

Source: FINE / ProContract

Buyer: North East Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (NE IEP)

Deadline: 2^nd August 2010

Opportunity to produce a baseline statement, options appraisal and feasibility study into the establishment of collaborative arrangements between North East local authorities to address two significant regional issues relating to social work:

• Reviewing arrangements for ‘growing your own’ pool of social workers, including arrangements for progression of newly qualified staff

• Developing options for collaborative arrangements for a new approach in the provision of temporary social workers

The budget will be £45,000

For more information and to respond visit Website Link or contact Sarah MacNab on 0191 433 5993 / sarahmacnab@gateshead.gov.uk

Commissioning Improvement Programme

Source: SYFAB / FINE

Buyer: IDeA (Local Government Improvement and Development website)

Deadline: Not specified

New bids are invited to the Programme, which provides support for commissioners and voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations to work more closely together in the commissioning process. Ideally bids will come from a chair of a Local Strategic Partnership.

The focus will be on commissioning from small and medium-sized local VCS sector organisations and is based on the highly successful Partnership Improvement Programme. Funding is available to work with three further partnerships.

The programme will include

• initial discussions between programme facilitators, local authorities and other public agencies engaged in commissioning from the third sector to discuss potential contracts and service areas

• initial discussions between programme facilitators and third sector representative groups to explain the programme’s purpose

• three half-day sessions for the partners to work through a series of exercises and discussions to develop a plan that can be implemented locally to improve aspects of third sector commissioning identified

Those interested must send a brief (1 page) outline of their partnership and why they think it is important that it should be chosen to tina.holland@idea.gov.uk

For more information visit www.navca.org.uk/localvs/lcp/news/cipbids.htm

Information

About Framework Agreements

Source: FINE

Tenders Direct has written a blog piece explaining framework agreements in more detail for those unfamiliar or new to this increasingly popular form of commissioning.

A framework agreement (FA) is an ‘umbrella’ agreement that sets out the overall terms (price etc) under which individual contracts (‘call-offs’) can then be made during the agreement period. FAs are normally used if a buyer expects to need a certain product or service (training or maintenance work, for example) but don’t know the full details yet.

If the FA is only awarded to one provider/supplier, then the buyer can ‘call-off’ the specific requirement as and when it is needed, but if there is more than one supplier appointed to the FA, a different approach is needed. In this case, if the terms are detailed enough for the buyer to quickly identify the best supplier for the job they won’t need to re-open any competition or tendering process, but if the terms of the FA are not specific enough then another tendering process is likely.

A key advantage for both the purchasing authority and the supplier is a reduction in tendering costs as the main procedure is only followed once. For the supplier, the main advantage to suppliers of being on a framework agreement is the chance of being awarded valuable business opportunities. It does not, however, guarantee them work as the purchasing authority is not obliged to offer any opportunities.

Website Link

Resources

Growing the Big Society: Encouraging success in social and community enterprise in deprived communities

Source: IPPR North / FINE

This report, which focuses on the North West, explores the critical success factors for social and community enterprises (SCEs) in light of ‘Big Society’.

Overall the report finds that there are many reasons to be optimistic – the messages coming from the new government are very positive toward the sector and local authorities are increasingly aware and supportive of SCE – but there are, however, some significant challenges on the horizon, including

• implications of the public sector spending cuts

• the funding cliff edge looming in March 2011 as many grants, service agreements and contracts are due to end

• fears that the drive for public sector efficiency will result in ever-larger contracts, pushing commission and procurement further out of reach for more and more SCE

www.ippr.org.uk/ipprnorth/publicationsandreports/publication.asp?id=761

Mapping the Gaps

Source: FINE

This ACEVO report explores the gaps currently existing between the income generation needs of frontline organisations and the support available to them.

The research shows that frontline organisations mainly use 'traditional' forms of income generation. There is currently only moderate use of social enterprise, trading and partnership models. The report concludes that this may be evidence of an appetite within the sector for more commercial income generation activities.

The research also reveals that the majority of frontline organisations encounter obstacles when undertaking income generating activities. Typically these include the availability of additional income and a lack of clarity around income generation.

www.acevo.org.uk/Document.Doc?id=802

Procurement and Commissioning Case Studies

Source: SYFAB / FINE

The Income Generation workstream, led by ACEVO, have released 9 Procurement and Commissioning case studies, showing how different legal rules have been applied at a local level and how VCS organisations have interacted with them. Developed as part of the Winning a Bigger Buck for Your Bang training course, the guides cover the following topics:

• NHS Sheffield Commission A New Service

•  How Buyers Go To Market

• Building Relationships 

• Negotiation Scenarios 

• Approaches To Negotiation and Relationship Building

• Challenging Bad Commissioning Practice 

• Setting Targets and Measuring Benefit

•  Developing A Successful Marketing Strategy

Website Link

Events and Training

Advocating intelligent commissioning

When: 4^th August 2010, 10am – 4pm

Where: MPH Training & Conference Centre, Stonehills, Shields Road,

Cost: NAVCA mbr £40 / VCS £55 / Public body / other £130 (all inc VAT)

This is an interactive NAVCA seminar for local support and development organisation workers to become better equipped to champion good practice in the commissioning of public services.

The day covers:

• good practice in commissioning processes

• sharing local experience and knowledge

• a chance to network and find out what other local support and development organisations in the region are involved with

For more information and to book visit Website Link

or contact events@navca.org.uk or 0114 278 6636.

The closing date to book is 23^rd July 2010.

NESEP Procurement Training and Mentoring Programme: next seminars

All events 9:30am – 4pm

Understanding the Procurement Process and Identifying Opportunities

26^th July 2010  Bliss-Ability, South Shields NE33 5DL

2^nd August 2010  Morpeth Town Hall NE61 1HG

Winning Tenders

7^th October 2010  Bliss-Ability, South Shields NE33 5DL

8^th October 2010  Linskill CDT Centre, North Shields NE30 2AY

Delivering Contracts

3^rd November 2010  Chester-le-Street Cricket Club DH3 3PF

4^th November 2010  Linskill CDT Centre, North Shields NE30 2AY

5^th November 2010  Bliss-Ability, South Shields NE33 5DL

To book contact Helen Armitage: harmitage@nesep.co.uk or 0191 427 2150

Selling to the public sector - free events

Source: FINE / NEPO

The North East Improvement & Efficiency Partnership (NE IEP), Compete North East and ONE North East have joined forces to develop, manage and run a Supplier Development Programme in the region. 
 
The programme aims to better equip North East suppliers with the skills needed to win public sector work both inside and outside of the region. This will be achieved by engaging and up skilling suppliers to understand the requirements and have the expertise to participate in public sector procurement and to improve their overall business-winning capability.

At the same time the programme will undertake an evaluation to more accurately assess the exact support needs of the regions suppliers, generically and potentially across different sectors or projects, to enable an ongoing, sustainable long term procurement skills improvement programme to be structured accordingly
 

The Programme offers seminars, workshops, masterclasses and bid writing events during July.

For more information and to register visit www.procurementevents.org.uk/home

Supply: The National SME Engagement Programme

Source: Direct

This Supply Programme has been developed to equip small-medium enterprises (SMEs) with the knowledge and skills they need to increase their chances of winning public sector business. Supply Workshops are specifically focused on the key stages of tendering and will equip organisations with the knowledge and skill set necessary to win more work than competitors.

There is now an opportunity to enter a prize draw to win a place at the following one-day event in the North East, worth £170:

Understanding the Contract Notice (1/2 day)

 What do I need to Tender? (1/2 day)

To enter register at www.bipsolutions.com/events/Supply2010/SupplyPrizeDraw/

For more information on the Programme visit www.supplygov.co.uk/events/Supply2010/

** end of  bulletin**

Reminders

O=Supply Opportunity   I=Information   R=Resources   E=Event/Training

For further information please contact:

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© Funding Information North East 2010