HEPA Digest: summer 2024

Here at HEPA we have been delighted to welcome our new Deputy Chair, Amy Noble, Director of Procurement at the University of Liverpool.  Members can find out more about Amy here!

Transforming Public Procurement

The Cabinet Office have shared a very handy information sheet which you may find useful when completing the Transforming Public Procurement eLearning and / or booking Deep Dive sessions.  You can download the resource here, which contains useful screenshots and step-by-step instructions.  A couple of things to remember:

• for our sector there is no nomination / approval required – once you or a colleague have completed the e-learning then you will be eligible to register for a Deep Dive session.
• the Deep Dive sessions are being released in batches – if there are no sessions available then do remember to check back the next day, and so on.

As part of the Transforming Public Procurement L&D programme, HEPA is provided with an eLearning module progress report and a Deep Dive booking status report by the Cabinet Office.  If you would like to review this information then please do let me know.

The Cabinet Office are continuing to update their guidance documents relating to the Procurement Act 2023 which are separated into the manage, plan, define and procure stages.  You can view the most up-to date suite of guidance on gov.uk here.

Bookings are open for the next set of Communities of Practice throughout summer and into September.  The scheduled sessions cover the Central Digital Platform, frameworks / Dynamic Markets, transition and plenty of other topics.  Find out more and secure your place here.

Responsible Procurement Group (RPG)

We are pleased to share two resources from the RPG:

• The Social Responsibility sub-group has finalised its third piece of guidance on the subject of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) which you can download here.
• The Supplier Assurance task & finish group has produced a guide which sets out practical ways to reduce your organisations’ supply chain risks and climate impacts, pitfalls to avoid and further sources of advice to draw on, which you can download here. Of course everything that we share in the HEPA Digest is worth a read, but this guide really is worth reading if you have the time.

UKUPC Responsible Procurement Network and the RPG are collaborating on a review of the UKUPC Risk Analysis Matrix with a view to better align it with the Supply Chain Code of Conduct.  We are seeking input from both users of the current matrix and anyone who has not used it but might be interested in doing so in the future.  Please provide feedback via this very short survey by 31^st July.

We are also seeking volunteers to support the risk classification work.  This would involve working with a sub-group on one of the four themes: Social Compliance, Working Environment & Terms, Ethical Compliance & Economic Development or Environmental Compliance; to determine relevant risks, the considerations that feed into the classification and the level of risk.  If you would be interested in supporting this activity, please contact sarah.dye@nwupc.ac.uk – again – by 31^st July.

Round-up

• Learning from the mistakes of others – an ICO retrospective report – is available to read here. The report helps you to take simple steps to improve your own security, with the aim of preventing future data breaches before they can happen; the report focuses on the main causes of security breaches, including attacks on the supply chain.
• Do take a look at the HEPA Discussion Boards as there have been plenty of interesting posts recently: How is pre market engagement managed? And what are your plans for your tender documentation, with the implementation of the Procurement Act approaching on 28^th October?
• Finally, keep an eye out for the next HEPA survey which will hit your inbox after summer. The RPG are keen to re-run the net zero scope 3 target date survey, and a number of members are also no longer Contracting Authorities since we last surveyed the sector.  If there is anything else that you would like to know in terms of information sharing, best practise or benchmarking then please do let me know as we may be able to build it into the short survey.