Doing a Local Authority Tender: Part 2 – How To Win A Tender.

In the previous blog in this series on tender writing for health and social care, it was noted that winning local authority tenders is crucial for the survival and growth of many social care providers.

We saw how tender writing for health and social care involves more than simply completing forms and answering questions; it requires preparation, and providers must ensure they meet the qualifying criteria before investing time in the tender application.

Remember, Care England, provide a resource for social care providers to find current tenders on their website, so book mark this page and visit it regularly.

This blog will discuss what is needed to complete the tender writing for health and social care process and outline some important considerations and guidelines for providers during the process.

Do what you are asked, how you are asked

Perhaps the key reason tender bids from social care providers fail is that they do not answer the questions as set and therefore fail to address the key requirements of the tender as identified in the specification document. This means reading what the local authority has said about what they are looking for and importantly how they are going to evaluate responses. It also means answering the question.

If you write the most enlightened response about how you will provide safe care when a question specifically asks about how you will be responsive to the needs of Service Users, then you will score nothing for the answer and almost certainly lose the tender.

As in any written piece of work, such as an exam or filling in any official forms, the importance of reading the question cannot be underestimated.

Reading the question and highlighting the important elements gives you a big clue as to what to write about in the answer. In some cases it may also be useful to use the elements of the question to create headings (these can be left in or removed, depending on what the instructions say). Headings drawn from the question:
• Keep your answers focussed.
• Ensure you cover all the key elements.
• Signpost to the authority that you have addressed the question.

Failing to address the elements of the question will mean that the response will be deemed to lack detail and this will be reflected in the scoring.

Show off your experience

Questions will typically be about quality elements of the provision of care and situations you might encounter, such as safeguarding events or challenges with staffing. Where the questions ask for examples, given examples. If you are asked for examples and provide no examples, your score for the answer will reflect this.

As stated above, examples must be pertinent to the question being asked. Sometime this is difficult to achieve, so talking through examples with someone else to ensure they make sense and answer the question might be beneficial.

Where possible, examples should be used to show how you have achieved good outcomes for an individual, or individuals, this signposts to the local authority what you might achieve for their Service Users.

Such experience might also be underpinned with evidence such as feedback from Service Users, families or commissioners. Such feedback serves to send a message to the reader that it is not just your opinion that you are an excellent provider, but that other people say this of you too!

Things to avoid

Tender writing for health and social care is not an opportunity for you to write about everything you know about social care, so avoid the temptation and answer the question.

Stick to word limits. This means that if the response asks for 500 words or less, you must write no more than 500 words. Writing more than 500 words may mean the answer is not evaluated or that anything after the 500-word limit is not scored. This could be disastrous, especially if you have saved the best insights for last.

Similarly, avoid under answering. The word limit is a good guide to the level of detail needed in the answer, so 500 words or less is certainly 450 words or more in most cases. Providing answers which are short, means you are probably missing detail, or examples, and potentially missing out on a good score.

Burying your important messages towards the end of an answer can be a mistake as the person evaluating the submission may miss them. Instead, ensure the important elements of any answer are at the start of any response where they will be seen, and scored, first.

While content is king, presentation is important. There is nothing more distracting for a reader than submissions which are poorly formatted or in which the font type changes throughout in a seemingly random manner. Poor presentation gives a bad impression, so avoid it.

Along side presentation, proofreading is important. You may know what you want to say, or what you meant to say, but did you say it? Get someone else who has a good grasp of written English to proofread answers for you – top tip, use someone who will be honest, rather than just nice.

Show off, a little

While we have said stick to the question and avoid deviation, you also want to stand out from the crowd. If you have examples of where you do things which other providers don’t do, or that you are known for doing very well, such as perhaps experience with particular Service User groups or specific communities, say so.

When tender writing for health and social care don’t be tempted to write about the things you do especially well at the expense of answering the questions and ensure when you use your special examples, they are relevant to the question.

Summary

In this blog about tender writing for health and social care, we have identified how writing the main elements of a tender bid requires the provider to read, understand and follow the guidance from the local authority closely. We have seen how the best bids include examples of the work of the agency which provide evidence of the effectiveness of the bidder.

Bettal Quality Consultancy has a comprehensive and regularly updated suite of policies, procedures and risk assessments, which support social care providers to met many of the requirements for tender eligibility. This includes all of the policies and procedures which may be asked for when tender writing for health and social care.

Contact Bettal Quality Consultancy today to learn how our comprehensive and value for money policies and procedures, https://bettal.co.uk/policies-and-procedures/, can help you achieve successful care provision and local authority compliance.

To find out more please email us or call us at 01697 741411 to get started!

Peter Ellis MA MSc BSc(Hons) RN
Consultant, Bettal Quality Consultancy