Procurement News November 2017 Welcome to ‘Procurement News’. This newsletter is for all public sector colleagues within the Department of Health and its ALBs who have an interest in procurement and commercial activities. You may forward to colleagues within the health family (with gov.uk, nhs.net or similar email) who have an interest in commercial issues. If was forwarded to you, you can sign up to receive future editions. If you have anything to contribute, feedback or suggestions for future stories please get in touch. Rick Webb Procurement Policy Manager Department of Health Crown Commercial Service customer updates: November 2017 The latest issue (published 7th November) is available here. This month there is news on: • How government is addressing the upcoming changes to data protection • Join a CCS aggregation and make great savings • Upcoming events • Exhibitions • Communications brochure • New frameworks: Management Consultancy (RM3745) • Latest procurements: Health and Social Care Network Access Services (RM3825), Behavioural Insights (RM6004) • Frameworks expiring shortly: Wider Public Sector Travel Management Services (RM1034), ConsultancyONE (RM1502), Legal Services (RM919), Printing and Specialist Paper (RM1078), Behavioural Insights Consulting and Research (RM3742) • Recently expired frameworks: Customer Based Testing Services (RM995) • Framework extensions Page 1 of 8 Procurement Policy Notes (PPNs) All Procurement Policy Notes (PPN’s) are published on the CCS website here. No new PPNs have been published since the last edition. CCS – Public Bodies Band Together on New Mobile Voice and data Procurement CCS is currently seeking expressions of interest from Public Sector buyers to join the bulk buying activity for the purchasing of mobile voice and data services. These expressions will allow buyers to send their individual requirements to CCS to inform the wider specification to make sure that the agreement is open to as many public sector bodies as possible. The contract will offer flexibility by: • Establishing a zero line rental model for basic connections, avoiding customers incurring costs from unused lines • Structuring services as ‘bolt-ons’ which can be added to the basic connection, enabling packages to built to customer specifications • 30-day terms for ‘bolt-ons’ to enable customers to change their mix of services during the contract term If you would like to be part of this process please select the Get in Touch button on the CCS Website. Move from Richmond House to 39 Victoria Street Moves have been taking place over the last few weeks to move DH staff from Richmond House to 39 Victoria Street and are set to be completed in December 2017. The workspaces in 39VS will allow staff to choose how they work for the specific task they are working on, whether this be a standing desk, collaboration space or a quiet area. They will allow staff to be flexible and adapt to changing priorities resulting in greater working efficiency. We have been working to advise our suppliers of the changes for our larger contracts. We are advising all Contract Managers to check that all the contact details in contracts are valid and correct, particularly the names and addresses to which formal notice under the contract should be served in the event of dispute or termination. Our Contract Management team will assist with any necessary updates/variations Page 2 of 8 Changes to the OJEU Thresholds The thresholds for European public procurement are due to change on 1st January 2018. The Commission has not yet published exact details of the changes though this usually happens late November or early December. Procurement regulations set out the rules that contracting authorities must follow when procuring contracts. Contracts exceeding the thresholds must follow the applicable regulations. The threshold amounts are adjusted every two years based on the average daily value of the Euro. The thresholds are higher for local government than central government. The amounts are exclusive of VAT. New Contract Management Best Practice Guide On 18th October 2017 the new Cross Government Contract Management Best Practice Guide was launched at a GCF Best Practice event led by Vicky Ladizhinskaya. The new Guide and its interactive suite of tools, templates and process maps have all been added as a new tab in the GCF Knowledge Hub. The Contract Management Best Practice Guide can be found on the grey bar at the top of the main GCF community page. First Contractor Verified under BRE’s Ethical Labour Sourcing Standard In response to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 the Ethical Labour Sourcing Standard was created to provide a tool for organisations to be assessed. The standard is intended for organisations operating in the UK whilst still recognising that these companies will operate in globally connected supply chains. Sir Robert Alpine (a construction firm) has become the first contractor to be successfully verified under this standard having been assessed on the following areas: • Organisation Structure • Bribery & Corruption • Management Structure • Forums • HR • Management Policies, • Procurement • Immigration Page 3 of 8 • Supply Chain management • Reporting and Assurance & • Learning & Development Compliance More information is available here Launch of GCF Northern Hub The Government Commercial Function’s leaders in the North are joining forces to leverage their collective networks and create a GCF Northern Hub. It will be open to all who work in commercial roles in a central government department and Arms’ Length Bodies Examples of opportunities to engage include the GCO Northern Council and GCF City Facilitators. Join this group through the Knowledge Hub here: https://khub.net/group/gcf- north/group-forum Contract and Spend Insight Engine (CaSIE) CaSIE is a government commercial function communication tool that provides information about government’s contractual landscape to facilitate collaboration between Departments. The system takes data from existing systems such as Contracts Finder and Bravo to create a complete picture of spend and commitment. All commercial professionals within the Commercial Function are expected to use this tool. Release 1 was launched in September 2017 and a beta version went live on 27th October to CO, BEIS, DWP, HO, MoJ, DfT and DH. This release includes information about contracts, suppliers, procurement activity and bespoke requirements. User testing in this controlled environment will allow the multi-disciplinary team to improve the functionality, advance data availability and improve support material and services. It is anticipated that the wider commercial community will have access to align all data across Government such as CCS and the Complex Transactions Team in January 2018. If you have questions you can direct them through the following channels: • Your Department Single Point of Contact for CaSIE (SPOC) and /or CaSIE Power User (s). • Refer to the Customer service desk: o Email [email protected] o Contact form http://ccs-forms.cabin... o Telephone 0345 410 2222 (9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday) Page 4 of 8 To support your understanding of CaSIE the following documents have been produced, all of which can be found in the GCF knowledge hub. https://khub.net/group/gcf-community/group-library • CaSIE brochure (attached to this email and for cascade to your team) • A Quick Start User Guide • An FAQ document • Training video (to be available next week) . Government Commercial Operating Standards (GCOS) Best Practice Sessions Below is a list of upcoming GCOS Best Practice Sessions which are talks led by commercial experts from various government organisations. They aim to provide staff with knowledge and solutions about issues that they face in their respective roles, and will consist of presentations, discussions and networking opportunities. Dynamic Purchasing Systems: Presented by Lindsay Maguire (DWP) & Ron Gorham (NDA) Monday 20 November, 13:00 to 15:00, Sheffield For tickets: www.gcos-dps.eventbrite.co.uk Understanding Commercial Risk: Floods & Coastal Risk Management Programme: Presented by Ian Wilson (DEFRA) Thursday 23 November, 14:00 to 16:00, Liverpool For tickets: www.gcos-risk.eventbrite.co.uk Supply Chain Management (SCM): Presented by Vanessa Bold (HS2) Monday 27 November, 15:00 to 17:00, London For tickets: www.gcos-scm.eventbrite.co.uk Competing Grants: Presented by David Morley (DEFRA) Thursday 30 November, 14:00 to 16:00, Manchester For tickets: www.gcos-grants.eventbrite.co.uk Organisational Transformation & Commercial Role Profiling: Presented by Ann Harms (DWP) Wednesday 6 December, 10:30 to 13:00, Leeds For tickets: www.gcos-transformation.eventbrite.co.uk Page 5 of 8 . Changes to Accounting Rules affecting Financial Reporting Two changes to international accounting standards will affect how companies report their financial position, and may also affect the operating practices and contracting decisions of some big companies. At the moment they only apply to the big suppliers who operate internationally. The first rule change relates to how companies recognise and report revenue from customer contracts that run over multiple years (this rule is known as IFRS 15). Under new guidance, companies will have less flexibility in how they spread the profits from multi-year customer contracts over those years. This does not directly affect the cash flow of a company. It affects their profits and the tax they pay on it, thus, many companies may look to change the nature of the