Public sector organisations at risk from cyber threats

The National Crime Agency has seen a “significant growth in cyber criminality in the form of high-profile ransomware campaigns over the last year”.

This kind of breach can leak personal data on a massive scale. Public sector organisations must not relive the past. During the WannaCry attacks in 2017 lives were put at risk and services damaged by a ransomware campaign that affected the NHS and many other organisations worldwide.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also escalated risk as 1 in 4 UK cyber attacks in 2020 are related to COVID. The total number of cyber incidents over this year has increased by 20% compared to the annual average since 2016*.

The healthcare sector is a popular target for hackers. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently reported a fivefold increase in cyber-attacks (in 2020) against the organisation compared to the previous year.

Cyber security experts Cyber Essentials said:

“The main fear among NHS professionals is that another cyber attack during the coronavirus pandemic would cause similar widespread disruption. This is not a situation the NHS can afford in its current fragile state. It is likely that hackers will continue to target the NHS in 2021.”

Brexit beginnings

On 31 December 2020, the Transition period for the United Kingdom ended and we left the EU Single Market and Customs Union.

For the UK, Brexit has been a significant event that has presented businesses and public sector organisations with both challenges and opportunities.

On 1 January 2021, Find a Tender Service (known as FTS) replaced the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) as the place to which UK above threshold procurement notices must be sent for new procurements. Any procurement that started in the OJEU on or before 31 December 2020 must continue to be published in the OJEU. As an eSender, Delta eSourcing has been involved with FTS since before its launch and can guarantee that all notices created through Delta eSourcing are sent efficiently to FTS.

The UK Government has published a Green Paper ‘Transforming Public Procurement’ which details many of the changes that they propose to make to the current procurement framework.

At Delta eSourcing, we are acutely aware of the bearing that this could have on our clients in the public sector and we plan to keep you informed during 2021 on how this is impacting across the procurement marketplace.

This briefing takes a high level look at what we know is changing, the key proposals in the Green Paper and a few things we hope may come to fruition as the changes are enacted.

For more information and advice on Brexit, visit our dedicated section of this website.

COVID-19 could continue to affect global supply chains

The Coronavirus outbreak has affected supply chains across the world.

The pandemic has had a significant impact on businesses across all continents as many suppliers are struggling to meet their contractual obligations, putting their financial viability, ability to retain staff, and their supply chains at risk.

As many countries have experienced “lockdowns”, many businesses have had to close. If suppliers could not obtain the right equipment and supplies from their supply chain, both the procurement process and work on existing contracts came to a halt.

Many countries are now back in lockdown. Whether your organisation is working with domestic or international suppliers, it is crucial that it balances auditing practice with relationship management, something which supplier management software can support your organisation to achieve.

Not only will supplier relationship management software support your employees to discipline your organisation’s processes, but this software will also help your procurement team to strategically plan and manage interactions with suppliers.

Social and economic value and environmental benefits will continue to be of huge importance

While the fundamental aim of public procurement is to buy goods, works and services for the public sector, the reality has become increasingly complex. The public sector is regularly exhorted to greater efficiency, while the years of austerity saw large areas of the sector experience significant budget reductions. These factors have led to an ever-increasing desire for greater value for money, and for procurement to achieve more than merely purchasing.

As part of the quest for value for money, for every pound spent to do the greatest good and achieve the maximum possible return, public procurement has come to be seen and used as a vehicle through which other goals can be achieved, including social value, economic benefit, and environmental targets. All these are important aspects of the local and central government and the wider public sector’s drive to build a better, fairer, and greener society.

These aspects of public procurement are likely to assume even greater importance. The government is proposing to publish a National Procurement Policy Statement which will set out new priorities for procurement, one of which is social value, including delivering social, economic and environmental outcomes.

One of the challenges when seeking to apply social, economic, and environmental value to public procurement is that its inclusion often makes procurement exercises more subjective, and as challenges to procurement exercises are often on the more subjective elements, it becomes more important to create a clear audit trail.

Using Delta, you can create and record your audit trail, facilitating reporting and placing your organisation in a more legally defensible position.

Start 2021 with Delta

Despite Lockdown 3.0, 2021 is shaping up to be a significantly better year than 2020. Buyers and suppliers have learned from their experiences in the lead-up to Brexit and last year’s lockdown period. They now understand that preparing for the unpredictable is essential for success.

Delta eSourcing supports buying organisations to manage every stage of the tendering process and supply chain in a single solution, and accordance with UK and EU regulatory requirements.

One of the biggest challenges in the procurement world is finding a user-friendly solution that can be easily adopted by other departments. Delta is so simple to use it quickly relieves pressure on procurement resources by enabling others to help with procurement tasks safely and securely.

Choosing Delta eSourcing, we can help you to maximise the value of those interactions. Find out why thousands of public sector buyers choose Delta eSourcing today with a free demo.

Identify, invite, and manage suppliers more efficiently.

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*source https://cyberscotlandweek.com/why-cyber

Whether you are a buyer or a supplier, there has been a small flurry of information relating to public procurement as we head into 2021. Some of this means change in certain areas, depending on who you are, where you’re located and what you buy or sell.

On 10 December the ball started rolling with a Procurement Policy Note (PPN) from the UK Government that confirmed changes to the advertising of contracts.

As we have advised in previous blogs and webinars from 11pm on 31^st December 2020 new procurement advertisements will require to be sent to the Find a Tender Service, as the OJEU will no longer accept advertisements from UK buyers.

However, for procurements that have been advertised in OJEU before the cut-off, any subsequent notices, such as award notices, will continue to be sent to OJEU for publication.

For buyers that are BiP customers this isn’t an issue, as our Delta eSourcing platform has been ‘parallel publishing’ to both OJEU and the FTS portal for quite some time, so when the switch occurs it will be seamless for Delta users. However, if you aren’t using Delta, it is essential that you seek assurance from your current eSender that they will be ready.

Likewise, for suppliers using BiP services, such as Tracker and Supply2Gov, there will be no visible change and information will continue to be received just as at present.

Another interesting issue highlighted in the FAQs to the 10 December PPN relates to the recognition of European professional or trade registers, which may be an issue for some suppliers.

Simply put, for procurements started on or after 1^st January 2021, the requirement for a business to be enrolled in one of the professional or trade registers kept in their Member State will be removed as this would not be appropriate, although there is always the option for the public sector to choose to recognise those registers.

On 15 December, the Cabinet Office published its long-awaited Green Paper on public procurement, “Transforming Public Procurement”, which sets out its vision for procurement in the future.

There are too many variants to cover in this blog, but some of the key themes include possible changes to over 350 regulations governing public procurement and integrating the current regulations into a single, uniform framework.

It is also proposed that the current procedures could be replaced by three simple, modern procedures:

• a new flexible procedure that gives buyers freedom to negotiate and innovate to get the best from the private, charity and social enterprise sectors.
• an open procedure that buyers can use for simpler, ‘off the shelf’ competitions.
• a limited tendering procedure that buyers can use in certain circumstances, such as in crisis or extreme urgency.

There is also the proposal to remove the current Light Touch Regime by applying the rules applicable to other contracts to services currently subject to this process.

Another proposal, which will certainly find favour with suppliers, is for the creation of a single digital platform for supplier registration, that ensures suppliers only have to submit their data once to qualify for any public sector procurement.

From a buying authority’s perspective, one proposal that many will find desirable is that Cabinet Office want to allow buyers to include criteria that go beyond the subject matter of the contract and encourage suppliers to operate in a way that positively contributes to economic, social and environmental outcomes.

15 December also saw the publication of another Procurement Policy Note (PPN), this time covering a subject we have previously raised, on the reserving of below threshold procurements

This PPN specifically applies to all Central Government Departments, their Executive Agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies (known as In-Scope Bodies) at this time but there is likely to be a roll-out to the general public sector at some future point, one has to assume, as other contracting authorities are encouraged to apply the principles outlined.

There are two key parts to the PPN, namely the option to reserve the procurement by supplier location and to reserve the procurement for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises (VCSEs).

If reserving a procurement by supplier location, the contracting authority would be able to run a competition and specify that only suppliers located in a geographical area can bid.

This could be UK-wide, or where appropriate, by county to tackle economic inequality and support local recruitment, training, skills and investment.

In reserving the procurement for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises (VCSEs), the contracting authority would be able to run a competition and specify that only SMEs and VCSEs can bid.

All these changes and suggestions have come from the UK Government and, at this time, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have not published anything similar. Of course, we will keep everyone informed if they do so.

We will produce a comprehensive briefing on the Green Paper on public procurement, “Transforming Public Procurement”, early in the New Year and will follow that up with webinars in January.

To register for the webinars, simply click here.

Delta eSourcing provides its public sector clients with assured confidentiality, integrity and availability and we look forward to this next chapter working with NHS LPP.

NHS London Procurement Partnership (LPP)

We are delighted to be a part of the NHS London Procurement Partnership framework.

NHS LPP is one of four national procurement hubs serving the health community in London and surrounding areas.

The organisation’s members extend across the acute, community and mental health sectors, as well as primary care and clinical commissioning.

We recognise that working with NHS LPP is one of our greatest achievements, given the quality of suppliers listed on the framework. On the NHS LPP website it states:

“At NHS LPP we pride ourselves on working with the very best suppliers for the benefit of the NHS and its patients. We highly value the suppliers we work with because we know they share our high standards and we support their innovation, their knowledge and contribution to the NHS as a whole.”

NHS LPP agreements provide NHS and other public sector organisations with list of pre-qualified suppliers that can bid for work around a specific group of services – buyers then award individual contracts throughout the lifetime of the framework. As these agreements are accessible by all public sector bodies in the UK, they are used by other organisations such as universities, local authorities and central government.

Click here to find out more about NHS LPP.

Our relationship with the healthcare sector is going strong

We are continually evolving to meet the needs of our healthcare clients. Not only is our eSourcing and eTendering service compliant with UK legislation and EU regulations, but our tools allow buying organisations to manage tenders, suppliers, and contracts within a single solution.

The Delta eSourcing team are ready to deliver training and support to NHS LPP whenever necessary and believe that we are the right partner to deliver value for money.

In response to the framework placement, Anne McKinnon, Delta eSourcing’s Head of Sales, said:

“We are delighted to win a place on the NHS LPP framework.

The coronavirus pandemic has shone a spotlight on healthcare procurement especially, which makes now a critical time for NHS organisations to review spending, reduce costs and build resilience through the use of digitisation.

At Delta eSourcing, we want to help buyers achieve efficiencies. With our impressive portfolio of eProcurement solutions and 36 years of experience working with the public sector- we look forward to this next chapter supporting the NHS.”

Revaluating your procurement strategy?

Delta has worked with buyers for more than 36 years. We offer procurement professionals a central, secure, online solution that simplifies and automates many of the time-consuming processes involved in creating and issuing calls for competition and managing tender responses.

Delta eSourcing offers a range of procurement software and is committed to helping public sector organisations make efficiency savings to improve their procurement processes. Our customers also have the option of helpdesk support for both buyers and suppliers, which is available via email, telephone, and live chat.

Are you ready to chat to us about your eProcurement needs?

You can book a meeting at a time that suits you using the calendar below. Or if you’ve got a question, just click here to complete our form and we will be with your right away.

Despite a Government review in 2015 which recommended that “[the] measurement of social value needs to be developed,” there is still little specific guidance as to what measures organisations need to implement to fulfil this requirement. However, this leaves organisations with the flexibility to define ‘social value’ in a way that is most fitting to their industry and their way of working.

In any case, social value is only set to become more important, since both the Government and service users are increasingly aware of, and concerned by, issues such as sustainability and workers’ rights.

Learn more about social value and procurement below.

What is social value?

Social value may mean a commitment to environmental issues in procurement, for example ensuring sustainable or low-carbon practices are prioritised. But social value can also encompass elements that are ‘closer to home’ for businesses.

Companies treating their employees well is a type of ‘social value’. Paying the living wage to all workers, for example, contributes both to employee wellbeing and the local economy.

Malcolm Harrison, CEO at the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply, has previously emphasised that it is a misconception to think that social value is only important in local government procurement. Social value has become increasingly important for central government, national governments around the world, and the private sector too.

Social value needs to be considered in all procurement exercises, not only large-scale procurements with central government. Mr Harrison stresses that, for social value, “It all starts in terms of leadership”.

Social Value starts at the top

Social value needs to be written into every step of the procurement exercise. In fact, it is increasingly important for ethical practices to be thought about at every step of the supply chain.

Social value should not be an additional ‘benefit’ of procurement projects, but something integral to the very nature of the projects undertaken. Social value needs to be embedded in projects themselves, the public sector should invest in communities rather than projects, and ask what community is served by construction projects.

Ben Carpenter of Social Value UK and Social Value International suggests that it is vital to have board-level buy-in to allow for effective social value. It cannot simply be something ‘added on’ as a final consideration in a procurement exercise; to be effective and meaningful, social value needs to be central to the entire organisation’s way of doing procurement.

Understanding social value

Social value is only set to become more important to buyers, businesses and end users increasingly concerned with issues such as sustainability, fair trade and equal pay.

There is a clear appetite for organisations to understand how to integrate social value into their procurement strategy. At Procurex National 2019, the ‘Get Strategic with Social Value’ session, led by Ben Carpenter, was among the best-attended sessions of the day.

Social Value UK and Social Value International are leading a global network of practitioners and help organisations across the world develop principles and standards for social value accounting.

Mr Carpenter says that organisations must think about how their activities impact on people’s lives, He has stressed that organisations must measure and manage this effectively. This year Ben will be speaking online at Procurex National Engage on 9 September, with a presentation that aims to helps businesses grow through embedding international standards for social value.

Is social value achievable?

The short answer to this is yes.

However, it’s impossible to know what the cost of this is to all of us as taxpayers as these elements are included in the costs of procurement exercises and their cost and impact are rarely objectively quantified.

All contracting authorities should continue to resource training and support for all staff responsible for procurement exercises so that, expertise and time permitting, public sector procurement exercises can continue to lead the way in promoting and delivering positive socio-economic and environmental outcomes as part of relevant procurement exercises.

While I think that it would be possible with infinite resources and time to deliver sustainability through virtually every procurement, this does not reflect a reality where the results may be affected by:

• The motivation, expertise and experience of procurement staff, budget holders and other key stakeholders to make sustainability an integral part of their procurement strategy and processes (beyond what is required by the relevant legislation).
• The relative capability and capacity of organisations.
• The provision of relevant training and tools to enhance the capability and capacity of procurers and budget holders.
• The nature of the procurement.
• The time available.

How Can Contracting Authorities Make a Difference?

• By listening to their customers, understanding stakeholders needs and learning from other organisations
• By making sure sustainability is considered in all new contracts, frameworks and dynamic purchasing systems (and importantly getting to a position where this is just a normal everyday part of procurement, and not something that needs a separate discussion each time).
• By reviewing current contracts and relationships to identify socio-economic and environmental opportunities.
• By working with suppliers so they are ready to respond to their socio-economic and environmental challenges.
• By providing tools and guidance to staff and other stakeholders to help build sustainability into procurements and measure the success of any initiatives and requirements.
• By making these tools available not only to their organisation but free of charge to others to use on their procurements.
• By making sure that information about their sustainability and other related policies is available on their website so that stakeholders and potential suppliers know about it.
• By monitoring government policy and best practice to stay up to date.

Is your organisations achieving social value?

Communication is vital when it comes to social value. Not only will supplier relationship management software discipline your organisation’s processes, but it will also support your employees to strategically plan and manage interactions with suppliers.

Choosing Delta eSourcing, we can help you to maximise the value of those interactions. Find out why thousands of public sector buyers choose Delta eSourcing today with a free demo.

Identify, invite, and manage suppliers more efficiently.

Book Demo

Delta eSourcing is an official supplier and, having first secured a place on the UK Government framework when it was G-Cloud 7 in November 2015, our team has a proven track record of providing Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions to public sector organisations.

What is G-Cloud 12?

The latest G-Cloud framework will allow public sector organisations to purchase cloud-based computing services such as hosting, software and cloud support, this includes many off-the-shelf, pay-as-you-go cloud solutions.

Our relationship with the public sector is going strong

On the UK government’s website, it says that the benefits of Delta eSourcing include “assured confidentiality, integrity and availability.”

David Adam, Delta eSourcing’s Associate Director of Sales, said:

“We are delighted to win a place on the G-Cloud 12 framework.

The coronavirus pandemic has shone a spotlight on UK procurement. Now is a critical time for public sector organisations to review spending, reduce costs and build resilience through the use of digitisation.

At Delta eSourcing, we want to help buyers achieve efficiencies. With our impressive portfolio of eProcurement solutions and 36 years of experience working with the public sector- we look forward to this next chapter supporting the UK government.”

We are continually evolving to meet the needs of our public sector clients. Not only is our eSourcing and eTendering service compliant with UK legislation and EU regulations, but our tools allow buying organisations to manage tenders, suppliers and contracts within a single solution.

G-Cloud buyers can also purchase “off-the-shelf” services, which makes Delta’s Branded Portal module an excellent choice.

Our service is completely tailored to our users’ needs. Users of Delta eSourcing can also pick and choose from our range of securely hosted modules including Buyer Profile and Portal, Tender Manager, Supplier Manager, Contract Manager, Project and Workspace Manager, Quick Call and eAuctions.

There are many benefits of a bespoke platform. Most importantly, it can be used to increase the transparency of tender opportunities. It also creates a more personal experience and will allow buyers to engage further and advertise their brand values more prominently.

Delta eSourcing customers also have the option of helpdesk support for both buyers and suppliers, which is available via email, telephone and live chat.

Getting started with Delta

We help our G-Cloud buyers every step of the way.

Our team provide detailed and comprehensive ‘Train the Trainer’ based training in the use of the system.

Although our solution is designed to be intuitive and easily self-learned, formal training in each of the solution modules will be provided for key procurement staff.

Training plays a major role during the introduction of the solution. Delta has resources dedicated to the planning, production and delivery of training courses.

We provide effective training through a variety of different learning methods such as:
• Classroom-based workshops
• Training packs
• A training site
• Webinars.

You can find out more about the services we offer through G-Cloud 12 here.

We are here to help

Revaluating your procurement strategy?

Delta has worked with buyers for more than 36 years. We offer procurement professionals a central, secure, online solution that simplifies and automates many of the time-consuming processes involved in creating and issuing calls for competition and managing tender responses.

Delta eSourcing offers a range of procurement software and is committed to helping public sector organisations make efficiency savings to improve their procurement processes.

To find out how Delta can streamline your procurement process, you can book a free demonstration at a time that suits you using the below calendar. Or if you’ve got a question, you can complete our contact form and we will be with your right away.

Two of the most pressing issues affecting UK public procurement are social value and ethical supply chains. These themes have the potential to reshape how procurement is practised across the country as the UK is introducing new measures to promote ethical procurement.

New measures to strengthen the Modern Slavery Act

On 22 September, the government introduced new measures to ensure that large businesses and public bodies tackle modern slavery risks in supply chains.

On the government website, it states that:

“The government is committed to harnessing the spending power of the UK’s public sector, accounting for around £250 billion of spend, to ensure responsible practices in supply chains and bring it in line with businesses…

“Moving forward, public bodies which have a budget of £36 million or more, including local authorities in England and Wales, will be required to regularly report on the steps they have taken to prevent modern slavery in their supply chains.”

The government has committed to mandating the key topics that modern slavery statements must cover (e.g. due diligence to risk assessment), to encourage suppliers to be more transparent about the work they are doing to ensure ethics and social value are part of the procurement process.

Safeguarding Minister Victoria Atkins said:

“Sadly, we know that no sector is immune from the risks of modern slavery, which can be hidden in the supply chains of the everyday goods and services we all buy and use.

“We expect businesses and public bodies to be open about their risks, including where they have found instances of exploitation and to demonstrate how they are taking targeted and sustained action to tackle modern slavery.”

Ethical supply chains

It is important that organisations consider not only their practices when it comes to social value and ethics, but also their entire supply chain, and how it addresses – or does not address – moral issues such as modern slavery and corruption.

CIPS CEO Malcolm Harrison stressed at Procurex National 2019 that “choosing an ethically responsible supplier is incredibly important” – to end users, stakeholders, and even potential employees. “People are thinking about who they’re going to work for based in some part on the ethical reputations of those organisations”, said Mr Harrison. Ensuring ethical procurement is more than just ‘good PR’ for companies – it can contribute to the amount of business companies receive.

Given that procurement exercises can involve complex relationships between many different organisations, there is potential for many unethical practices to become involved somewhere in the supply chain. These can range from illegal activities such as modern-day slavery and corruption to broader issues such as disregard for the consequences of climate change.

Even if a company is ensuring good practice themselves, their supply chain may involve an organisation engaged in unethical working practices. These issues are as relevant to exclusively UK-based supply chains as those that work internationally – for example, the Government estimates around 13,000 people are working in slavery-like conditions in the UK.

The public sector must lead by example

The Government has pledged that by 2022, a third of Government spend by value will be with SMEs either directly or as part of the supply chain. However, simply contracting SMEs is not enough – buyers need to show that they are treating smaller companies fairly.

Mr Harrison claims that certain large organisations “balance the books” by deliberately delaying payments to some of their smaller suppliers, something he says is quite simply “ethically wrong”. Therefore, the Government is doing more to lead by example, aiming to pay 90% of its undisputed invoices to SMEs within five days.

Since September 2019, processes have become much stricter. Large suppliers that bid for government contracts valued at above £5m a year who cannot demonstrate that they are paying 95% of their invoices within 60 days stand to be excluded from future government contracts.

Ensure you are managing your supply chain effectively

Organisations need to ensure that they are taking social value seriously – but also that they are seen to be working with companies that take it equally seriously. Serious reputational damage and a loss of custom may be consequences of including ‘unethical’ companies in your supply chain.

Delta is an all-in-one solution allowing buyers to manage every stage of the procurement process and supply chain. The Tender Management tool facilitates sharing and storing information throughout the entire tendering process, meaning it can be easier to specify social value requirements in tenders and cross-reference responses.

Meanwhile, Delta’s Supplier Management tool allows for closer and more detailed interactions with both new and existing suppliers from a central hub – meaning more transparent work with local suppliers. All of this makes it easier to check suppliers’ credentials and to ensure the local economy agenda is being fulfilled. Above all, Delta aims to make managing the supply chain from end to end easier – meaning greater clarity on the issues that are important to buyers and service users.

Learn more about Delta eSourcing, Request a demo.