FSB at heart of campaign to improve Gloucestershire procurement.

The importance of giving as many small businesses as possible the best chance of selling their goods and services via the procurement process is at the heart of a unique and exciting venture the FSB have been proud to be involved in the last couple of years.

The ‘Together Gloucestershire’ campaign is a forward thinking and positive initiative which brings together small businesses, large businesses and the public sector in Gloucestershire with the united aim of trying to make it easier for all the different parties to talk to each other, work with each other and hopefully provide supply chain support to keep jobs and contracts in the county.

The FSB has been supportive of the initiative along with other business groups like Cheltenham Chamber Of Commerce and Cirencester Chamber, giant companies in Gloucestershire such as Renishaw, Spirax Sarco, St. James’s Place and Hazlewoods and councils including Cotswold District Council, Cheltenham Borough Council & Forest of Dean District Council. We have also been supported by other public sector bodies including Gloucestershire Police, GFirst LEP and Glos MP too.

The overall aim is to create a local pledge from all parties to improve the amount of procurement that goes to SMEs within the county and for SMEs themselves to adopt an ethical and environmentally friendly approach to ensure those in the private/public sector are confident in the values of those in their supply chains.

We had our latest meeting last week at Spirax Sarco where FSB Development Manager Sam Holliday was given the platform to talk about the FSB’s views on procurement and Government’s targets as well as issues like the importance of Social Value to help SMEs improve their winning chances and some of the FSB research into small business experience of trying to win contracts.

The ‘Together Gloucestershire’ scheme is still not quite at launch stage but it is definitely moving in the right direction and we will keep you posted on progress. It is another great example of when Gloucestershire comes together it really does work.