Tender Writing & Bid Management

Many organisations view the tendering process as a ‘necessary evil’ that enables them to win contracts and deliver services on behalf of public sector organisations and private companies. In practice, it is a highly valuable and insightful process that enables a competitive marketplace to be maintained where UK suppliers have the opportunity to expand their portfolio through a fair and transparent process.

This week’s blog post is from one of our specialist health and social care bid writers. We look at the bid writing process and how it works in practice, using a current supported living tender as a case study.

There are thousands of construction contracts put out to tender in the UK each year. To award a contract, buyers typically use a tender process to evaluate the most suitable company to deliver the work. In the public sector, this is mandatory for most contracts.

A framework agreement is an agreement which sets out the terms on which future contracts under the agreement will be based. Framework agreements are used when there is no defined quantity of goods or services to be put out to tender but the buyer has identified a need for a long term relationship during the lifecycle of the contract.

The term ‘public tender’ refers to the tender process for contracts procured by the public sector. For contracts over a certain monetary threshold, authorities must advertise this need and follow a specific process. We outline how this selection process works for public sector tenders.

The bidding process is used to select the most suitable company to deliver a contract for goods or services. Within the public sector, the tender process is mandatory for most contracts, and aims to establish a transparent and accessible process for all.