Supply2.gov.uk is a government-backed service designed specifically to give companies easy access to lower-value contract opportunities (typically worth under GBP100,000) offered by the public sector. This portal brings buyers and suppliers together and aims to be the first portal of call for lower-value business opportunities.

This website provides a gateway to specialised resources for purchasers who wish to publish tender notices in the S series of the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) (formerly known as the OJEC) and suppliers who wish to search for business opportunities.

Tenders which have a total value which is above the threshold are published in the Official Journal of the European Union and can be found on Tenders Electronic Daily. This is published six days per week and can be found at;

A site delivered by a private sector company, Public Technology Limited, providing up to date listings of public sector tenders across England.

Procurement and proposals
These pages provide information about purchasing and tenders within DH and the NHS, and also serve as a guide for submitting proposals; for research and development, and covers public private partnerships (PPP), whose two main areas are the private finance initiative (PFI) and NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT).

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Supplier Focused Website, a single point of access to guide you around commercial functions within the Department. This website is designed to encourage greater two-way communication and enable you to do business more easily with DWP.

Information for any one seeking to tender for work including children’s services.

The Department brings together functions from the former Department of Trade and Industry, including responsibilities for productivity, business relations, energy, competition and consumers, with the Better Regulation Executive (BRE), previously part of the Cabinet Office.

The aim of this guide is to give suppliers insight into how the Department goes about buying its goods and services. Hopefully it also enables suppliers to identify potential opportunities to sell to the Department.

A key document outlining a range of public procurement reforms which aims to equip the UK in the next decade with the capability to deliver world class public services in the face of growing challenges of global competition, changing demographics and increasing pressures on natural resources. This is the first major reshaping of the procurement agenda since the Office of Government Commerce was established under the leadership of Sir Peter Gershon.

An important feature of new developments is the possibility for purchasers to buy using online systems called e-procurement. This is the guidance document on the National e Procurement Project.

A guide to the European Union Services Directive July 1993 (92/50/EEC). Whilst this relates to the Regulations pre February 2006, the Guidance is however no less valid as it emphasises how purchasers should handle some of the areas which cause providers concern.

The Essential List is Tagish's directory of UK public sector information sources covering UK central and local government (including parish and town councils), UK healthcare providers, and UK universities.

Finding more government information
A brief guide to finding more specialised government information.
Directories
In Directgov's Directories section you can browse or search for contact details and websites of many government organisations and public bodies.

Includes all county, metropolitan, unitary, borough and district authority sites, irrespective of the quantity or quality of information.

Some voluntary sector commissioning of services happens through a Local Area Agreement (LAA). These set out the priorities for a local area agreed between central government and a local area (the local authority and Local Strategic Partnership) and other key partners at the local level. LAAs aim to simplify some central funding, help join up public services more effectively and allow greater flexibility for local solutions to local circumstances.

Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) are single multi-agency bodies - which match local authority boundaries - and aim to bring together at a local level the different parts of the public, private, community and voluntary sectors. Local partners working through a LSP will be expected to take many of the major decisions about priorities for their local area.

The NHS website provides an A-Z list of PCTs in the UK.

Downloadable 40 page .pdf (600kb) produced for the Finance Hub by NCVO Sustainable Funding Project. The document introduces procurement and contracting. It includes advice on how to approach agencies who may want to buy your services, assessing whether you have the capacity to deliver a contract, explaining different forms of agreements, and looking at the tendering process.

Downloadable 35 page .pdf (405kb) document produced for the Finance Hub by NCVO Sustainable Funding Project. The document provides a series of exercises and checklists designed to support advisers working with groups on procurement and contracting. It includes materials designed for those just starting to look at contracting (introductory), those ready to explore the topic further (intermediate), and for those wanting to look at contracting more seriously (advanced).

The climate has changed for third sector organisations across the country. Spending public money in an open and transparent manner to achieve particular outcomes has become a natural requirement for commissioners, and has led to a “contract culture” for those they fund.

This briefing outlines, in a step-by-step template, the four stages of a negotiation process: preparation; discussion; proposal; bargain and close.

This briefing shows how to put outcomes and impact at the heart of tendering and commissioning for public services. By
doing this, both third sector service providers and commissioners can meet the needs of people and communities more effectively.

A guide for Charity Trustees, setting out their responsibilities in relation to public service contracts.

A guide from NCVO to enable small and medium sized organisations to navigate the complex rules, procedures and practices that constitute the public sector procurement process.

Advice from NCVO on finding information about contracts.

This document sets out good practice for third sector commissioning.

The National Association for Voluntary and Community Action are working to support the Third sector’s ability to successfully tender for the delivery of public services. You can find information about their work in this area here.