Tendering & Procurement

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Tendering & procurement issues have begun to impact significantly on Voluntary Sector service providers in Scotland in recent times. This is a result of the introduction of EU Procurement Directives and the subsequent Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations in 2006, which set out the law on public procurement. As the Voluntary Sector has a long history of delivering services and activities on behalf of public sector bodies such as Local Authorities and the National Health Service, then clearly any change relating to public sector procurement is going to impact upon the sector

Although the Regulations came into force in 2006, many public sector bodies would already have had commitments in place at that time to work with external organisations to deliver certain services. It is as these existing arrangements have been coming to an end that we have begun to see the impact of EU Procurement framework. For the Voluntary Sector, what this means in practice is that as existing Service Level Agreements and other funding arrangements come to an end, there is a possibility that the contracting authority may have to consider wider advertising and competition as part of the process for deciding how the service area concerned will be delivered in the future.

About these pages

We have grouped together a range of information resources relating to the topic of tendering and procurement which are relevant to the Voluntary Sector and to those with a wider interest in the procurement agenda. This is part of CVS Fife's response to supporting the sector as we anticipate the move towards increased tendering activity amongst public sector agencies. We are also developing training opportunities in partnership with Fife Council's Procurement Service - many representatives from Voluntary Organisations in Fife have already attended introductory training. See our Training Pages for further information on the opportunities available. Finally, we are researching the use of community benefit clauses in tender specifications and are planning some visits to gather further information which will help us to lobby on behalf of the sector. We would welcome any feedback or suggestions as to how to further develop our response to the procurement agenda and this resource.

Carole Patrick, Deputy Manager
CVS Fife, 23-27 Randolph Street, Buckhaven, Fife KY8 1AT
T: 01592 567001 - E: carole.patrick@cvsfife.org

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