Ta

Our clients

Talent Lab works with clients of all sizes and sectors, from PLCs to SMEs and micro companies, submit and win public sector tenders. We are an advocate for the value micro practices and small businesses bring to the UK economy and have a proud track record of helping them secure new contracts, including places on frameworks and supply chain success.

The challenge

The UK Government’s New Procurement Act received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023 and will come into force on 28 October 2024.  It promises to deliver the largest changes in recent times to the way the public sector procures its services including more contracts awarded to SMEs. However, there is too little meaningful engagement between those organisations which publish Invitation to Tenders (ITTs) and SMEs which have to respond to them.

How we help

Talent Lab leverages Urbano Network, our sustainable business network, to organise and facilitate panel speaker events on a range of topics with industry experts, including procurement. Our aim to bring both sides of procurement together to share their experiences and discuss how to make tendering less onerous and more efficient to encourage micro and small businesses to tender for public sector contracts.

These events are part of a wider Urbano ecosystem that helps connect companies of all sizes and sectors to learn, share, and explore ways to collaborate on future work opportunities.  We publish a weekly tenders list providing an affordable solution for micro and small businesses as well as an extra set of “eyes and ears” for more established bid teams within larger organisations. This platform gives Talent Lab a unique perspective on the recurring constraints as well as access to hundreds of resilient and innovative SMEs across a variety of sectors – from construction to technology – that have potential to offer real added value to public sector services.

Outcomes

Our past events include:

• SME and Public Procurement: the last barrier to inclusion?
• The new procurement bill and opportunities for SMEs
• Insights and lessons from major bid submissions
• Tendering Lessons learned on how to write better tenders
• New Procurement Legislation [2021, covering the new Social Value Framework] – Good News for SMEs?
• The New Procurement Act (2024 updates) examining the new flexible regime and role of social value

Through the Innovation Driven Procurement (IDP) Programme, a joint collaboration between Nottingham Trent University (NTU), Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) and Morgan Sindall, Talent Lab has also delivered a 25-page Guide To Procurement for SMEs, cutting through the jargon and demystifying the tender process.

Our recent event

On 13th June 2024, through Urbano we hosted a speaker panel event on Procurement Act 2024 with leading law firm Trowers & Hamlins at their London offices. The event featured main speaker Rebecca Rees, Head of Public Procurement at Trowers,  who provided insight and practical knowledge on the new regime, including updates on the changes to procurement procedures. Joining Rebecca was Caroline Brock, Director of Talent Lab and Matthew Grenier from HACT, the social housing charity and social value pioneers. The event examined key areas around the following three questions:

1. How will the new flexible procurement regime work in practice?
2. How will the new act help SMEs win more places on supply chains and work through direct tendering?
3. What is the role of social value in new procurement landscape?

This event was exclusively for senior bid managers and directors from in-house procurement teams within large organisations or directors of small businesses looking to explore opportunities to supply the public sector. To receive details on future events register here.