The Sourcing and Consultancy Playbooks – Tenders Direct Weblog
The UK government has clear expectations regarding the cooperation between contracting authorities and suppliers and has published guidelines for these relationships in The Sourcing Playbook and The Consultancy Playbook, which have been published side by side. This post provides a summary of the most important pieces of information contained in both.
The guidelines contained in each playbook are aimed at central government but should be viewed as “best practice” by the broader public sector. As a supplier, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the guidelines mentioned and use them to support future offers.
If you are a supplier in the construction industry, you may want to check out the more specific guidelines in the Construction Playbook.
The sourcing playbook
The Sourcing Playbook contains guides on outsourcing, insourcing, mixed economy sourcing and contracting and aims to:
◆ Get more projects right from the start
◆ Developing robust procurement strategies
◆ Commitment to healthy markets
◆ Contract with suppliers who want to work with the public sector
◆ Be prepared when things go wrong
To achieve these results, The Sourcing Playbook provides 11 key guidelines for all central departments to follow.
The 11 most important guidelines of the sourcing playbook
- Commercial pipelines
The government will ensure the market is informed of any upcoming projects and publish pipelines for at least the next 18 months, with the goal of sharing plans for the next 3-5 years. This gives suppliers plenty of time to connect with buyers, understand demand, and agree joint offers before contracts are published.
- Market health and skill assessments
You will work on designing strategies and contracts that will help maintain a healthy market – by removing barriers to entry, leveraging innovation and promoting competition.
This is good for suppliers as the focus is more on creating and simplifying market access.
- Project Validation Exam (PVR)
New initiatives that are likely to lead to major projects are led through a PVR. This now also applies to all complex outsourcing projects. It consists of independent peer reviews at the beginning of the project life cycle and ensures that experts have the opportunity to evaluate, discuss and question proposed strategies.
This could give suppliers the opportunity to get in touch with buyers and help shape the final strategy.
- Delivery model evaluations (DMA)
The use of DMAs is considered good practice and ensures that contracting authorities use evidence-based processes to determine the best delivery model for projects.
These assessments provide additional opportunities for suppliers to pre-approach buyers before contracts are published.
- Should models cost
The use of Should Cost Models (SCM) is used to forecast the total cost of living and risks of proposed projects.
The use of SCM should prevent “low-cost bid bias” and help ensure that the most thorough and well-planned bids produce the best results.
- Requirement for pilots
When contracting authorities outsource a service for the first time, a pilot project should be carried out as part of a thorough testing program before a long-term delivery model is determined.
Testing is an essential part of the public sector and suppliers should be aware that this can be requested.
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
New projects should include KPIs that are both relevant and proportionate to the size and complexity of the job.
Through the introduction of KPIs, the public sector is planning to work more closely with suppliers to ensure that expectations are presented more clearly and misunderstandings are avoided – making it easier for suppliers to provide accurate quotations.
- Spread of risk
Working with suppliers early on should address risks and develop solutions to mitigate them before contracts are published. The risk allocation then determines which parties assume each risk.
- Price and Payment Mechanisms
Working out the best prices based on the delivery of outputs, labor value, or the performance of the supplier. Pricing should reflect the level of security or risk in terms of scope and requirement.
- Assessment of the economic and financial performance of suppliers
The economic and financial performance of the suppliers is taken into account to ensure the delivery of projects. These assessments are part of their risk management activities and are tailored to each specific project – with the aim of being proportionate, fair and not overly risk averse.
- Development planning
Focuses on mitigating the effects of bankruptcy on projects. While major bankruptcies are rare, this is now part of their risk management and critical public service providers are contractually required to provide resolution planning information.
Bankruptcy is considered a risk in the business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) review and exit plans of suppliers.
You can access the Sourcing Playbook on GOV.UK by following this link.
The counseling playbook
The Consultancy Playbook was published together with the Sourcing Playbook to help public buyers hire and interact with consultants more effectively, achieve better results, get better value for money and transfer knowledge and Improve skills.
The identified results are:
◆ understand when consultants can add the most value
◆ If necessary, set up our procurements for success
◆ get better results when getting to market
◆ Be a more effective client of consultants while building meaningful relationships with our suppliers
◆ Enhancing public service skills by maximizing knowledge generation and transfer across the contract lifecycle
Although there are no new guidelines for advisory services, The Consultancy Playbook contains a lot of useful information about the considerations public buyers need to make and what to look out for.
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Categories: General Procurement, News, Public Procurement
