Scottish Government is gathering views on the re-procurement of its third sector business support services contract, with a short online survey.

The current contract expires in May 2023 and Scottish Government will be inviting tenders for a new contract during 2022.

They have published a Prior Information Notice (PIN) and the survey to provide potential bidders and those with an interest in the service, and how it is delivered, to shape the new contract to ensure it continues to meet the needs of the third sector going forward.

Since June 2011, free specialist business support has been available nationally to the enterprising third sector (eg. social enterprises, including Community Interest Companies (CICs) and SCIOs), funded by Scottish Government. The contract for delivering business support for the third sector plugs the gap for the many small and medium-sized (SME) social enterprise organisations across the country which would be unable to access mainstream business support. The bespoke service offers one-to-one advice from business advisors, as well as one-to-many workshops on specialist topics including impact measurement and market research and is viewed as an exemplar service internationally.

Through Scotland’s Social Enterprise Action Plan 2021-2024, Scottish Government has committed to:

working with sector partners and national agencies to enhance the national ecosystem of support for new-start social enterprises and a pipeline of support throughout their journey
ensure that mainstream business support services continue to recognise and appropriately support social enterprises, while at the same time enhancing specialist provision

Survey responses will inform the future development of the business support contract for the third sector in Scotland.

The deadline for survey responses is next Friday 24^th June.

To submit your response, please click on the following options linked below:

Alternatively, for further information or any queries on the survey, please visit Scottish Government’s blog, or contact the team by email: scottishprocurement@gov.scot .

For further information on Public Procurement in Scotland, visit the Scottish Government website.