What SMEs told us about barriers to working with the public sector

Last month we spent a day at Kent Construction EXPO with a big blank board and one question: what are the barriers for SMEs when working with the public sector?  

Safe to say it filled up pretty quickly. But a lot of the answers were the same comments just in different handwriting. In theory this means that we’re all presenting similar barriers and that there must be some consistent changes we can all make to help remove them.  

Here’s a summary of what we heard and what buyers can do to help.

“How do I even get started?” 

The most common question was about the very first step. Small businesses told us they don’t know who to speak to, how to get a foot through the door, or how to be taken seriously when they don’t have any public sector experience. Essentially, they wanted to know how you get experience in the public sector when you need experience to get in?  

Visibility came up as well. SMEs have significantly smaller marketing budgets (sometimes none at all), so getting their name out there is hard.  

What can buyers do?  

• Meet SMEs where they are – attend more events like Kent Construction EXPO to engage with SMEs who wouldn’t necessarily know of other engagement routes. Events like this are usually free for the public sector, so can be key to spreading the work outside of your current network 
• Make it obvious who to contact – a named person or a simple route in beats a generic inbox 
• Run supplier days or short market engagement sessions – keep them informal enough that an SME feels welcome. And advertise it outside of your usual channels to spread the invites further 
• Where it’s appropriate, split larger packages of work – this helps smaller, more specialised businesses to build a track record on work that fits with them  

"It takes too long and it costs too much”

The time and cost of tendering came up again and again. It ties directly into comments on compliance requirements, social value expectations, and what’s expected of the contractor. For a small business, a tender can take people away from the work that pays the bills, and there’s no guarantee at the end of it. Duplication was also a sore point: the same information goes onto the Central Digital Platform, and is then asked for again in a PSQ (Pre-Selection Questionnaire).  

What can buyers do?  

• Reduce duplication – don't ask bidders to submit the same information included in their CDP (Central Digital Platform) profile  
• Be proportional on compliance and social value – for relevant contracts only ask for what a small supplier can realistically be expected to deliver 
• Give enough time to respond and always tell unsuccessful budders what they could do better next time – this is the cheapest way to improve the next bids you get back 
• Publish pipelines and upcoming opportunities early 
• Share indicative timescales at pre market engagement sessions so suppliers can plan resources

"I can’t tell what you’re asking for” 

SMEs said that quality questions aren’t always easy to understand and often don’t seem written for the work being tendered. Accreditations were a frustration too: either too many that aren’t relevant, or the relevant ones aren’t requested.  

What can buyers do? 

• Check how relevant your quality questions are – only ask for what you need for that particular contract and nothing more 
• Match accreditations to the actual risk and scope of the work 
• Make your responses to clarification questions really clear – write answers in plain English, without jargon to help with readability for organisations that don’t have public sector experience  
• Avoid asking multiple questions that assess essentially the same thing
• Provide assessment summaries that give meaningful award and debrief feedback - explain strengths and weaknesses against the scoring criteria and avoid generic comments that can't be acted upon 
• Make procurement processes easier to understand - using plain English wherever possible 
• Clearly explain procurement routes, frameworks, dynamic markets, and tender processes - and publish guidance notes, FAQs, and bidder packs 

"There are lots of routes to market – which ones matter the most?” 

Along with all of this, SMEs told us that they really struggle to understand all the routes to market and which to prioritise. They also asked what the routes of engagement are between SMEs and SEC.  

What we’ll do: We’ll deliver more SME-focused engagement days on new frameworks, but also more regular sessions that help us to understand how their barriers change over time. We’ll keep reaching out to SMEs at regional events and will look at our training offer for contractors. This will make sure we’re delivering targeted support for SMEs across our business. 

What happens next?  

We’re taking all this feedback and thinking about where we can make a real difference. If you’re one of our customers and you’d like to talk through any of this, or share what’s already working for you, we’d love to hear from you.  

Amy Silkstone, our Procurement Manager for Strategy leads our team that engages with suppliers and customers on this project – amy.silkstone@southeastconsortium.org.uk.