The client

Our client is an employee-owned SME and national provider of healthcare products and services; they are a distributor of medical equipment, working with manufacturers around the world to supply the NHS and hospitals in the UK.  

The challenge

We worked with our client to respond to a framework application to provide surgical products, commissioned by NHS Scotland. We supported the client to develop their Social Value response, which was a significant part of the framework and used to form the basis of bidder/buyer interaction and joint learning, before applying weighted scoring in future tenders. 

The framework contained very specific mandatory questions on managing and reducing climate change and environmental impact, relating to supply chain, resourcing, transport, logistics, and storage. 

Our client was already delivering social value as an employee-owned SME, including sponsoring a sports teams to promote inclusion, pursuing ambitious Net Zero targets, and delivering multiple employee benefits. But these were ad hoc and not systematically captured or measured to demonstrate Social Value impact. The client needed support with understanding what the commissioner required, along with ideas on how to develop and stretch their offer to maximise tender scores, particularly with regard to sustainability targets.

What we did

Our Managing Consultant met with our client to understand what they required, establishing preferred methods of working, including agreeing bid milestones and catch-up calls along with key points of contact. We gathered relevant client information, including previous bid responses and key documentation such as their Corporate Social Responsibility Policy and Carbon Reduction Plans to help us understand their approach to sustainability.  

We held an initial solution development meeting to understand the key messages and commitments we wanted to highlight in the response i.e. what the client’s strengths were and what was realistic to commit to for future social value targets for NHS Scotland.  

We worked with their carbon measurement consultants to describe complex carbon reduction calculations at the product level, demonstrating actions the client had taken to reduce emissions from transport and logistics.  

We drafted the responses and invited review and input from our client; this included providing clarity on specific aims and initiatives as well as ensuring we captured and articulated all relevant information.