New guide makes it easier for Welsh businesses to bid for public sector contracts

A new guide that makes it easier for Welsh businesses to form consortia to bid for public sector contracts has been launched today by Finance Minister Jane Hutt.

The new Joint Bidding Guide gives practical advice on the benefits and challenges of joint-working for both businesses who are bidding for contracts and professionals within the public sector who are advertising contracts. 

Launching the new guide in Swansea, Jane Hutt said:

"Collaboration is key to our procurement reform programme in Wales. However, sometimes Welsh businesses may not have the capacity to bid independently for collaborative contracts. This may also be the case for some large, one-off contracts.

"We have seen some good examples of companies coming together to successfully deliver public contracts in Wales and I want to see this success grow. The new guide I am launching today will help both companies and the public sector to build on this success through joint bidding.

"Produced by the Welsh Government, the Wales Cooperative Centre and the Wales Council for Voluntary Action, the guide provides a comprehensive package of practical tools to help buyers and suppliers identify the benefits and make joint bidding work.

"This is an important addition to our public procurement toolbox and I look forward to seeing further examples of Welsh public service contracts being delivered through collaboration."

Rhian Edwards, Consortia Development Manager from the Wales Cooperative Centre said:

"We were delighted to be able to work with Welsh Government and the WCVA on the guide. The Wales Co-operative Centre works with small businesses and social enterprises that are desperate to access public sector work but more often than not they find that they cannot offer the scale or the breadth of services needed by themselves.

"This guide will help business in Wales to consider forming co-operative consortia. This approach will allow them to offer a wider level of services and access the large contracts they can’t currently access, keeping a larger element of the Welsh procurement spend in Wales and with Welsh businesses."

Gareth Coles, Public Service Delivery Officer at the Wales Council for Voluntary Action said:

"Developing a consortium is often proposed as a useful vehicle for third sector organisations to compete for contact opportunities which they would not have the capacity or expertise to tender for alone. But tendering with partners can be complex, and there are a number of barriers preventing organisations from collaborating effectively to bid for contracts.

"We are therefore delighted that the Minister for Finance is launching this guidance about joint bidding, which is itself the result of a fruitful collaboration between Welsh Government, the Wales Co-operative Centre and WCVA. We hope that the guide will be of considerable benefit to third sector organisations as they develop collaborative responses to public service delivery."