The Trust does not maintain a preferred or approved supplier list. We use national contracts or agreements wherever possible, primarily through NHS Supply Chain, the Crown Commercial Service and NHS Commercial Alliance.
Where it is not possible to use a national agreement, we advertise contracts in the public domain via the government portal Contracts Finder.
Procurement Act 2023 and the Central Digital Platform
Update 21 February 2025
Public procurement is changing from 24 February 2025, as the Procurement Act 2023 (PA 2023) comes into force. The rules that shape how public bodies, including UHSussex, buy goods and services will change. The PA 2023 will improve and streamline the way procurement is done and benefit prospective suppliers of all sizes, particularly small businesses, start-ups and social enterprises.
If you or your organisation supplies UHSussex with goods, services or works, we have important changes to share with you about how you do business with our Trust, including actionable steps you can take now to prepare for these changes. Please read the letter to suppliers for a briefing on these changes.
From 24 February 2025, the Central Digital Platform will go live for suppliers to register on the platform. Please read through the Central Digital Platform factsheet which will tell you what information you will need to have ready when you register. To ensure that UHSussex is able to continue to use your business as a supplier to our Trust, please make sure you register promptly to avoid any delays to issuing of contract awards or purchase orders, as well as providing you an opportunity to take part in competitive procurement processes.
To assist you in your preparation to register, please see the supplier registration questions document which will show you what questions you will need to answer in the registration process.
If you have any questions related to the Procurement Act 2023 implementation at UHSussex Procurement, please submit these through our form. If your question is regarding the centralised Transforming Public Procurement reform and Central Digital Platform, please contact [email protected] as these are being managed centrally by the Cabinet Office, not through this Trust.
Tips for tendering
- Don’t be put off by the tender documentation – always ask for help. It is part of our job to assist you.
- Read the documentation thoroughly and understand the requirements. If you have any concerns, email the buyer stated within the tender document for clarification.
- Provide all the information requested or make it clear within your tender return where it has not been possible and the reasons why.
- Work out the most important questions from the evaluation criteria weightings in the tender documents and take extra care to answer them fully. Responses which are blank or don’t contain detail can’t be scored.
- Do not assume anything is obvious, or ‘goes without saying’. We can only evaluate on what is written down in your answer.
- Make it clear which question your answer refers to. If you provide any supplementary information, please refer to this in your answer.
- Focus your answers on the questions. Show how you will fulfil the requirements set out in the tender.
- Be clear on your pricing model and state any assumptions you made when pricing (e.g. availability of resources, timing etc.).
- Check that you have signed everything you should have and complete and return the documents by the date and time given. Late submissions are likely to be rejected.
- Don’t include publicity material in your submission unless you are asked to do so.
- Treat each tender and PQQ as a new requirement and provide information accordingly. Tenders and PQQs will be evaluated on the information received, not on past performance or contracts currently held.
- Register with NHS Commercial Solutions and Contracts Finder as these are the locations for all tenders run by the Trust at present.
Contract opportunities
Finding contract opportunities
- Contracts below the EU threshold – visit Contracts Finder.
- Contracts above EU threshold
Registering your interest on our eSourcing portal
To register your interest in any of our contracts please access the eSourcing portal used by the Trust.
To access the eSourcing portal you will need the following minimum system requirements.
- If using a PC you will need to use a minimum of Internet explorer 6+
- If using a Mac, we recommend using Firefox rather than Safari.
- We recommend that the latest version of Java is installed.
The eSourcing Portal is available free to all suppliers and is fully compliant with EU procurement legislation, confidential and independently security accredited.
eSourcing Portal Registration
- Navigate to https://www.lppsourcing.org/procontract/LPP/supplier.nsf
- Use the ‘Useful Links’ section to browse current opportunities on the portal. Please ensure you register your company on the Portal in sufficient time to be assessed as new supplier requests must be approved before you will be enabled to register your expression of interest.
- Login to the portal with the username/password to access the contract opportunities.
Help available
If you need support with the portal, please contact: [email protected]
Invitations to tender
BSUH in conjunction with Brighton and Hove CCG, SPFT and SCFT are tendering for providers to facilitate our communication support requirements for our patients/service users, under the following lots:
• Overseas Language – Face to Face
• Translation Services – Easy Read
• British Sign Language (BSL) – Face to Face
• Translation Services – Overseas Language
• Translation Services – Braille
• Video Interpreting – Overseas Language
• Telephone Interpreting – Overseas Language
• Video Relay Interpreting – British Sign Language (BSL)
View the advertisements:
Procurement policies
If you are a current or prospective supplier you must read and comply with the following policies.