The Painting and Decorating Association has made its Power Up Your Business webinar series available to members, ensuring they can access insights and information whenever they need to.
The series includes the latest webinar dedicated to the Procurement Act 2023, hosted by the PDA in partnership with Eastern Procurement.
Leigh-Anne Franklin, Procurement & Business Assurance Manager at Eastern Procurement led the webinar, which is now available to PDA members via the online PDA Members Hub.
Neil Ogilvie, Chief Executive at the PDA, said: “The webinar with Leigh-Anne was an extremely useful session for PDA members.
“She gave a very comprehensive overview of the opportunities for sole traders and SMEs in the public sector, as well as giving meaningful and practical advice on the ways on which painters and decorators can navigate the public procurement processes.
“The Q&A session was also very interesting, with members getting some one-to-one support from Leigh-Anne as well.”
Eastern Procurement has a specific decorating procurement framework for the East of England which requires contractors to hold accreditations including membership of the PDA.
Leigh-Anne said: “The session was really enjoyable with lots of questions and engagement from PDA members.
“We spent time talking through what the changes actually mean in practical terms and answering the honest questions people often hesitate to ask.
“If we can help suppliers understand the opportunities available and feel more confident navigating the process, then that is a positive step forward.”
Key questions put forward by PDA members included:
- How can SMEs and sole traders find out about smaller projects locally?
- Does the 30-day payment rule apply to sub-contractors and even sub-sub-contractors?
- Does everything need to go to tender?
- Do we need to pay for additional insurances or accreditations before we’ve even won the work?
Samantha Costa at Costa Decoration attended the webinar. She said: “This webinar was extremely useful for members such as us. Navigating public procurement processes can be overwhelming.
“As a small business, it can be difficult to expand into the public sector; past experiences and preconceptions hold us back from exploring public procurement opportunities, but this webinar showed us a different side to public procurement with opportunities for small businesses just like ours. Now we just need to make a start.”
To access the Hub, find out more about the PDA, or apply to join, visit: www.paintingdecoratingassociation.co.uk.
