Acevo has published four online briefings covering all aspects of ‘Successful Procurement and Negotiation’ after a six month research project funded by the Finance Hub.
The four briefings covering; negotiation, tendering and bidding, VAT, and impact reporting are intended to help third sector organisations diversify income by helping them to manage procurement and negotiation processes.
Feedback was gathered for the final briefings from around the country through a series of seminars and workshops held by experts in the relevant field.
Almost 300 delegates; third sector leaders and commissioners, attended the seminars to develop their mutual understanding of good funding practice.
The project not only built skills and knowledge in procurement and negotiation, it also identified the gap between current and best practice and opportunities for capacity building within the sector.
Orli Gorenski, Head of the Full Cost Recovery programme at acevo said, “The IDeA recently revealed that 65% of commissioners they surveyed believe the third sector does not have the capacity to successfully deliver public service contracts and there is considerable variation in commissioners’ knowledge of the sector.
“There is a need for training for commissioners, to dispel the myth that the third sector is not fit to deliver public services, but third sector organisations must also better evidence their outputs and outcomes.
“This project is timely to address concerns from the public sector that the third sector is not ‘fit for purpose’.”
The final report of the project stressed that in order to improve on current procurement and commissioning processes, partnership working between the third sector and public sector was essential. This would only be achieved through open dialogue and sharing of best practice.
Another major area for learning was also identified in partnership working and consortia building to help smaller organisations win contracts in their local area.
The report concluded that acevo will be increasing its offering of support and advice on commissioning, negotiation and partnership working to progress learning in the sector. This work will be delivered through a new Income Generation department at acevo, funded by Capacitybuilders.
