Government Contracts Revealed

Are you looking to secure public sector contracts to increase your income and impact?

This 90 minute webinar is the ideal first step towards contract readiness, giving voluntary, community or social enterprises (VCSEs) a solid grounding in the procurement process.

Gareth Rees from MadLug secured more than ten new corporate contracts following an SSE procurement programme.

“The programme has given us the ability to learn more about procurement and create a strategy about who and what we can aim at.”

Answer yes to all the below and the Contracts Revealed Webinar is right for you:

What you’ll learn from this webinar

Get to grips with the fundamentals of public procurement and tendering, and find out where the government offers contracts. You’ll gain insight on the process from the commissioner’s side and understand what they’re looking for in a strong bid.

“This is a brilliant and exciting breakthrough programme for any charity or social enterprise that wants to break into public sector contracting. We dispel the myths, hear from commissioners and successful bidders and help you to maximise your chances of success in this growing and important space for social business.”
SSE Facilitator

Webinars have a limited number of places and bookings will close in advance of the event dates. We recommend booking as early as possible.

Who should attend?

This course is aimed at VCSEs that have little or no experience in tendering but are interested in finding out whether public sector contracts are for them.

Your charity or social enterprise should be operating and registered in England. Social enterprises that are unincorporated are also welcome to book, provided that they operate and register in England when they incorporate.

For charities and social enterprises wanting to prepare for government contracts, look at the Government Contract Ready course. 

We welcome bookings from people of all faiths, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, economic circumstances and backgrounds. We encourage bookings from people who are from racialised and minoritised communities¹, are disabled, including non-visible and learning disabilities, and d/Deaf, or work in low-income areas. Support with the booking process is available. Get in touch with Sarah to see if we can help: call 01872 306130 or send us a query.

We want to support social or environmental impact in all areas, and particularly welcome organisations addressing:

• health and social care
• employability
• disability
• homelessness
• domestic violence
• sexual abuse

No educational qualifications are needed to join this Webinar.

Eligible Organisations

We encourage you to apply if your organisation is a:

• Registered charity, or
• Social enterprise (or is unincorporated with aspirations to register as a social enterprise).

By social enterprise, we mean a diverse range of organisations including (but not limited to) Community Interest Companies (CIC), Community Benefit Society (CBS), Registered Charity, Cooperatives, and in some cases a Limited company.

Your social enterprise must also meet the following criteria:

• Have a social and/or environmental purpose
• Earn (or aspire to earn) at least 50% of your income from trading
• Reinvest or donate at least 50% of profits towards your social and/or environmental purpose

Accessibility 

If this content or process is not accessible to you, please call Sarah on 020 7089 9120 or send us a query so we can share an accessible version. 

Webinar dates

We will be running this webinar on three occasions in early 2025:

• Wednesday 22nd January 12.00pm – 1.30pm
• Monday 24th February 12.00pm – 1.30pm
• Wednesday 26th March 12.00pm – 1.30pm

How to apply

Simply complete a short application form. Places on each webinar are limited and allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Apply now

The VCSE Contract Readiness Programme

This programme is a partnership led by SSE and funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. We’ve teamed up with Social Enterprise UK and Voice4Change England to enable charities and social enterprises – otherwise known as voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSEs) – to  compete alongside other organisations for public sector contracts. We share the aim of diversifying the government supply chains and delivering greater social value for public spending.

The government spends approximately £290 billion on goods and services each year². Charities and social enterprises play a vital role in delivering public services – and are uniquely placed to create social value.

This programme provides a real opportunity for charities and social enterprises to increase their impact.

VCSE Contract Readiness Programme Privacy Policy

¹We know that language about identity is personal and these terms won’t feel right to everyone. We mean people who may identify as Black, Brown, bi- or multi-racial, being from a diaspora, having Asian/African/Caribbean/Latinx/Middle Eastern/Indigenous heritage, as a “person of colour”, Jewish, and/or from a white ethnic minority such as Gypsy, Roma, Traveller. We have consulted our community to shape this language.

²Transforming Public Procurement (publishing.service.gov.uk)