{{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022 The Scedu (Sheffield Community Enterprise Development Unit) Tender Readiness Toolkit was released in March 2006 as a practical resource for

social enterprise A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being. This may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners. Social enterprises ca ...

s looking at

procurement Procurement is the method of discovering and agreeing to terms and purchasing goods, services, or other works from an external source, often with the use of a tendering or competitive bidding process. When a government agency buys goods or ser ...

. The Tender Readiness Toolkit was adopted by many leading social enterprises since its launch, and received warm backing from across the

public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, in ...

and

social enterprise sector Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...

nationally and locally in

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. I ...

Background

The issue of procurement was particularly important in South Yorkshire as many mainstream

funding Funding is the act of providing resources to finance a need, program, or project. While this is usually in the form of money, it can also take the form of effort or time from an organization or company. Generally, this word is used when a firm us ...

opportunities were diminishing with the end of the Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) and the

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's expansion leading to a decrease in Objective 1 Structural funds.

Sheffield City Council Sheffield City Council is the city council for the metropolitan borough of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It consists of 84 councillors, elected to represent 28 wards, each with three councillors. It is currently under No Overall Con ...

approved a report in April 2004 entitled ''A policy for the expansion of opportunities for social enterprises through public procurement and planning policies'' which outlined the council's ambition for a mixed economy of provision through procurement: ''"A thriving social enterprise sector in the city is also a mechanism for bringing excluded groups into the labour market, raising skill levels and increasing future employability, which in turn improves the quality of life for the individuals concerned and their families and helps to secure the sustainability of communities."'' This built upon Central Government's
The National Procurement Strategy for Local Government
' (2003) which spelt out that effective procurement would help local authorities to achieve their Community/City Plan objectives.

What it did

The Scedu Tender Readiness Toolkit differed from the likes of the DTI's 2003 report ''Public procurement: a toolkit for social enterprises'', in that it offered a practical solution for social enterprises and voluntary and community organisations to assess their options, benchmark their current status, set development targets, and find contract opportunities. It was produced in cd-rom format and was specifically designed to be easy and practical for people to use.

Tools of the trade award

The Tender Readiness Toolkit won a Tools of the Trade award run by

BURA Bura may refer to: Places * Bura (Achaea), a city in Greece * Boura, Burkina Faso (disambiguation), also spelled Bura * Bura, Iran (disambiguation) * Bura, Taita-Taveta District, Kenya * Bura, Tana River District, Kenya People and civilizatio ...

(the British Urban Regeneration Association) in June 2007. The judges marked the Toolkit against components identified by Sir John Egan as those of a

sustainable community The term "sustainable communities" has various definitions, but in essence refers to communities planned, built, or modified to promote sustainable living. Sustainable communities tend to focus on environmental and economic sustainability, urban in ...

. The judges commented "An excellent piece of work with accessible documentation and a staged process which allows for progression through the process of getting an organisation in the kind of shape needed to tender as well as writing up the content of a tender."

Version 2

An updated version of the Tender Readiness Toolkit was released in July 2007, termed V2, and containing new tools, updated links, and more information about social enterprise and public sector procurement.

External links

Scedu Tender Readiness ToolkitDTISheffield City CouncilFeatured in Yorkshire Forward's ''Inform magazine'' page 5 July 2006 edition
Social entrepreneurship Economy of Sheffield