Think the government is slacking off in its aim of delivering at least £15bn worth of working to Britain’s smaller businesses?
A new bit of outreach by Emma Jones, currently the SME Crown Rep and hence the individual with the highest profile in government in making that claim work, says many elements are coming together to finally make that promise – which dates back in one form or another to the start of the decade – a reality at long last.
Her declarations come in a new LinkedIn post addressed to the UK SME (small to medium enterprise) sector – especially the ones trying to sell into central government.
“Over the past 18 months in my role as SME Crown Rep, I’ve been repeatedly asked by entrepreneurs as to what’s being done in government to focus minds on the target of spending £1 in every £3 with SMEs by 2022,” she says, going on to explain in the post that “the key people working on this very task” include a diverse cast of “Ministers, proven entrepreneurs, and willing civil servants”.
These include ‘SME Ministers’ at the heart of Westminster such as David Liddington and Oliver Dowden, respectively the Cabinet Office Minister and the ‘Minister for Implementation’, the SME ‘Panel’ of 23 entrepreneurs who have successfully sold to the public sector and now give time, on a voluntary basis, to advise on what did and didn’t work for them ie how can the procurement process be eased for smaller firms, she claims.
The voices calling for more SME involvement also include the ‘SME Champion’ in each central government department, there to oversee progress towards that magic £15bn spend target, as well as representatives from big suppliers in the shape of the government’s so-called ‘SME-friendly Strategic Suppliers’.
That’s a group of representatives from government’s largest commercial partners, with a group of 35 from same meeting in the Summer, writes Jones, “to work on ways in which SMEs could more readily sell to government, via tier one contractors”.
This group will meet again next month to work on uploading contract opportunities to Contracts Finder, ensuring prompt payment, and finding innovative SMEs to build into the supply chain: companies represented include Serco, G4S, IBM, Sodexo and Boeing, she says.
The final component, she says, is a dedicated SME Policy team in Cabinet Office “whose job it is to lead and influence, based on reliable data, and what’s being heard in the market”.
Put it all together, she’s saying, and this is the combination that “unites us all is to get closer to that 33% spend aspiration”.
