Launch of VCSE Contract Readiness Programme
Programme launched to help unlock government contracts for England’s charities and social enterprises.
Details
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is pleased to announce the launch of the VCSE Contract Readiness Programme, a £900,000 package of support designed to enable the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector in England better compete for government contracts.
The programme primarily provides fully funded and tailored training to charities and social enterprises interested in bidding for public contracts — ranging from introductory webinars to in-depth short and long courses. To complement this approach, the programme also offers public sector commissioners ways to increase their awareness and understanding of the VCSE sector ultimately to enable effective partnerships.
The programme is delivered by School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) in consortium with Social Enterprise UK (SEUK) and Voice4Change England (V4CE). It will run until the end of the financial year 2024 - 2025.
Alongside the new DCMS VCSE Action Plan, the VCSE Contract Readiness Programme reflects the government’s broader efforts to reduce barriers to VCSE participation in public services, and to enable both VCSE suppliers and public sector commissioners to overcome these barriers and seize on the opportunities of working together.
VCSE Crown Representative, Claire Dove CBE, said:
The expertise of VCSEs means they are often ideally placed to help create compassionate, responsive and efficient public services.
The VCSE Contract Readiness Programme will help to address some of the barriers that have prevented VCSEs entering the public sector market. It will improve the skills and knowledge of VCSEs on how to bid for contracts and provide them greater opportunity to enter public sector supply chains. This in turn gives the government the opportunity of having increased diversity of providers in its supply chains.
Part of the programme is the newly created Public Services Hub. Hosted on SEUK’s website, the hub contains resources to support both VCSEs and public sector commissioners.
For VCSEs it contains information and resources about how to engage in public sector procurement and the support available to VCSEs including a learning programme of webinars, short and long courses.
For commissioners it contains information and resources to help them better work with the VCSE sector.
How to sign-up
For VCSEs
Information on the VCSE Contract Readiness Programme and how VCSEs can sign up is on the SSE’s website.
Sign up for the VCSE Contract Readiness Programme.
For commissioners
The programme seeks to make it easier for the government to engage with VCSE suppliers. SEUK lead on the programme offer to public sector commissioners. This will include working with central government departments to:
- benchmark departmental spend with VCSEs by using SEUK and open-source datasets to help departments understand how much they’re spending with VCSEs and how they can do more
- engage staff through a series of ‘Demystifying the VCSE sector’ webinars
- drive new relationships through a series of targeted ‘meet the buyer’ events working with relevant VCSE suppliers for specific departmental/category level spend
If you work for a government department and would like to learn more about how the programme can support you, please email the DCMS Public Sector Commissioning team: public-sector-commissioning-team@dcms.gov.uk