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Cabinet Office standard contracts training
The Cabinet Office provides three standard contracts for public sector procurement. These reduce administration, legal costs and negotiation time, and are up to date with current procurement policy, legislation, and best practice.
Sitting alongside the commercial agreements for common goods and services owned by the Crown Commercial Service, these contracts are for use with a single supplier, and include:
The Cabinet Office is holding free online training sessions (beginning on 9 February) to help procurement professionals in councils to understand how to use the family of contracts. These sessions are running from February to early May and are open to anyone in contract management, procurement or commercial roles.
Tickets for the online training sessions can be found at the links below:
Any questions, please email: modelservicescontract@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Government Commercial College (GCC) User Guide
The Cabinet Office have on offer a funded comprehensive learning and development package to support everyone operating within the new regime and help you to understand what is changing from the current system.
The focus for all training will be on what is changing from the Public Contract Regulations 2015 (with tailoring for other sets of regulations such as utilities, defence and security and concessions) therefore wouldn’t be suitable for brand new entrants into the procurement space. Colleagues will need to register on GCC to get access to the Transforming Public Procurement learning programmes when they become available.
Please note the learning system is only supported on Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. It does not support Edge or any other browser.
If you need any assistance, please contact the Government Commercial College Support Team at: govcomcollege@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Building an enabling digital culture – procurement, governance and security
The LGA is hosting a webinar which will shine a light on innovative approaches that councils have taken to manage digital and technology procurement, and the risks and opportunities that come with it.
This webinar will take place on 1 March, 10am – 11:30am.
Better Hiring toolkit for local authorities
LGA workforce, together with Better Hiring Institute, have produced a free toolkit for local authorities to make informed, safer recruitment decisions. It provides guidance when hiring employees against regulatory requirements and best practice, allowing recruitment leads to benchmark current processes and gain assurances about the people they are hiring. Read the Recruitment and Retention guide and sign up to our launch event on 22 February.
Dorset Council’s innovative approach to increasing recruitment
Dorset Council has begun a transformation of their recruitment with the aim of improving candidate connections, foster inclusivity, embrace technology and use data-driven decision making.
North East councils pilot a national recruitment campaign
LGA and Solace are supporting a new campaign to encourage people to make a difference where they live with a career in local government. Advertising on billboards, radio and social media will highlight the variety of roles and exciting opportunities to develop a career in our sector and will complement the councils’ own recruitment activities.
Festival solutions
YPO is providing procurement support for local authorities organising festivals and large scale events this summer.
Achieving stability for children with complex needs
Ofsted has published a report, how local authorities and children’s homes can achieve stability and permanence for children with complex needs. The report considers the challenges in finding suitable placements for children with multiple needs of different types and identifies key themes from good practice in supporting these children.
Support for children with special educational needs and disabilities
The Department for Education announced that families in England who have children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) will soon receive further support with more short breaks, supported internship opportunities and better support for those with Down's syndrome.
The short breaks innovation programme – which provides a range of activities for children with SEND, to help improve their health, education and wellbeing outcomes – will be extended to a further seven councils.
Heat Network Efficiency Scheme (HNES)
The Government has extended the deadline for Round 6 of the Heat Network Efficiency Scheme from 2 February to 22 March 2024. HNES provides funding to public, private and third-party applicants to support improvements to existing district heating or communal heating projects that are operating sub optimally.
Defining and identifying complex-to-decarbonise homes
The Government has published a research report that aims to identify complex-to-decarbonise homes and recommend retrofit solutions. The research develops a definition for housing stock in which attributes and contextual factors add complexity to improving energy efficiency and utilising low-carbon heating.
LGA Tackling exploitation and modern slavery in Adult Social Care
Wednesday 7 February 2024, 11.00am-12.30pm | Virtual event
NEPO Supplier Partnership Programme: Introduction to Public Sector Tendering
Tuesday 13 February, 1pm - 4pm | Virtual event
LGA Do you have the best hiring strategies?
Thursday 22 February 2024, 10.30am – 12.00pm | Virtual event
LGA Building an enabling digital culture – procurement, governance and security
Friday 1 March, 10am – 11:30am | Virtual event
The Procurement Act Expo
Tuesday 12 March 2024 | In person conference
LGA Transformation Conference (Hybrid event)
Tuesday 26 March 2024, 10.30am - 2.30pm | 18 Smith Square, Westminster, London & Online
Procurex National
Thursday 16 May 2024 | Liverpool Exhibition Centre
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