Person Centred Care the mantra of the specification. The contract looks good and the opportunity is a means of securing income.

The reality is often that we are competitively bidding at the council’s fixed rate. This is often below the market hourly charge.

The example that springs to mind, the National Care Association in the publication “2019 Social Care Briefing paper”, the authors noted that:

The result being that Local Authorities feel comfortable commissioning complex care at unrealistically low prices – a patient in an NHS facility with assessed care needs costs the state over £2000 p/w but on discharge the commissioner will expect to purchase the same care in more homely surrounding for about £600 per week. Clearly, there is a disconnect between what we pay for care!

This is reflected at a local level when we compare the real cost and the price paid. This is one of the motivations for pushing more Not for Profit providers into the marketplace. However, Not for Profits must at less remain ahead of the “breakeven point”.

Our Solution

As experienced care sector project managers the team addresses the key factors that reduce overheads and unavoidable cost centres.

Work processes, the greatest efficiency in all service provision remains to “meet the need as it arises”. It sounds simple, with the right systems it can be. This always requires discipline and a responsive approach.

A delays cost time and therefore money. Therefore, maximise your communication tools, understand how to ensure your client need to contact your team, armed with the up to date information the next visit is successful in meeting that need.

Effective communication tools add value to the offer and can reduce the face to face time a client requires.

Access to assistive technologies is often understood to be the answer to prayer, however, access to additional community support is where the real added value occurs.

Our Offer to Social Care providers

Recently registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), want to get on the Dynamic Purchasing List and then win the mini-competitions?

Our social care setup tools enable you to gather the right evidence, provide information on the level of experience and competence, get the finances right. This includes understanding how to calculate your hourly rate, project income based on knowledge of the sector funding and contracts. Our team of experienced project manager ensures you are ready to tender.

We ensure that you remain competitive and we will help you through the first tenders as part of the tender readiness process.

Win Contracts

To win the strategy is simple:

• Preparation
• Clarity
• Cost sensitivity
• Realistic plans
• Let your work speak

New start-up or years in the sector these tools are designed to streamline your tendering process, contracting arrangements and ensure that your business remains competitive.

Contact Us for information about all our bid and tender writing services.

Experienced Practitioners

The first contact remains the most challenging in any business relationship. We talk of “first impressions”, the importance of those first few seconds and the reality is: “we like to do business with those we know, like, and trust”.

This can limit our access to specialist support. Therefore, having worked with many great freelance practitioners it is the aim of this website to introduce Mark P Trotter’s business services and access to the skilled support I call on when my customers need additional help.

Marketing / Content

Often when we work alone it is easy to over-complicate things. A few hours of a skilled marketing professional’s time can be invaluable.

Creating unambiguous copy for your website is vital, or just structuring your thoughts for a blog. the network of freelance support in the UK is a treasure trove for all small businesses.

Providing access to skilled and very talented practitioners often save time and therefore money.

It easy to become the most expensive form designer, customer service rep and admin worker in your own business, the same applies to marketing material and content writing.

MT Management maximizes your access to that pool of skilled freelancers

Social Care

UK Councils are discussing the need to cut contracts and reduce prices. For many smaller care businesses that should be great news.

However, because of contract pressure, these service providers only have time to react to the proposed change. Access to a specialist service can make all the difference. For example:

Care Quality Commission (CQC)

KKS Management provide all the support required for a successful application.

Content Creation

Corporate Communication

pippin Consulatncy – Catherine provides Compelling Content for Annual reports, corporate responsibility brochures, staff handbooks, …

Tender Management

Mark P Trotter

Specialist business support including comprehensive tender writing services. Winning contracts prepared by experienced bid writers

The advantage of working with skilled freelance practitioners is financial, you pay for what you need, task-driven and highly professional individuals focused on delivering high-quality products.

MT Management is a site in development so for more information follow the links to KKS Management and Pippin Consultancy or Contact us

Preparation! Winning Tender Writers build a foundation for successful bidding. Therefore, the preparation time is critical.

The Gift

“O wad some Power the giftie gie us

To see oursels as ithers see us!”

Robert Burns

This is the gift described by Robert Burns and business owners can do something about what the Buyer sees.

Although, the public image isn’t the first step in the due diligence process our public reputation can pose a problem.

An example: A Care Provider presents evidence in their bid document that states they respond to and resolve every complaint.

Based on the information they have presented it would appear correct and complete.

However, the local care providers database has a clear complaint about the service, it has been read frequently. The Care Provider has ignored the complaint. Therefore, public evidence contradicts the bid.

As a buyer reviewing your evidence would I be confident that the information presented was accurate?

Consequently when preparing to bid set aside some time to review your public profile. Always do something about outstanding criticism.

Evidence

Proof of competence requires preparation. Take time to gather real evidence.

All of us have encountered academically skilled individuals, however, they lack competence at point of delivery.

On paper, the qualification looked right, in practice, there was still a distance to be traveled.

Therefore, our evidence needs to be gathered over time and from a variety of independent sources. Focusing on Care Providers, one round of surveys provide a snapshot. However, effective preparation ensures access to a wider data set.

Winning Tender Writers know how to present the evidence “what you do”, “why you do it”, “what your existing clients think”. The evidence comes from your customers.

Preparation Never Ends

The key to winning tender writing is constant preparation. Gathering, collating, and presenting evidence of competence of service is never rushed.

The Offer

The team at Mark P Trotter focuses on ensuring that your business is tender ready.

The document review is a simple step but important. (I’ll explain why in another blog”) Public profile, again straightforward enough. Evidence of what you do is relatively easy.

However, combine and present that information for Winning Tenders and the challenge has changed.

Having a social conscience in business is often used to demonstrate that an individual is “giving back” to society. Many are rewarded and applauded for doing so. Truthfully the accolade is the driving force for many from all sectors of business and the public sector.

However, to truly “give back” we have to invest something of ourselves without seeking a reward. Using our talents in ways that enable and empower Charities and Not for Profits.

“The 3rd Sector”

“The 3rd or Voluntary Sector and not for profit organisations” are certainly awful labels for organizations that reach into the challenging areas of modern life and support individuals.

These institutions have never been somehow second rate or less than brilliantly resourceful. Often pioneering and innovative, their reliance on “living social capital” to support those needing investment is exemplary.

Most are served the scraps from the table. Lottery, large appeals like Children in Need and Comic Relief or Cancer Research appear to make the sector appear well funded.

The History of Modern Charity

In 1998 the team of consultants working in Plymouth for an organization called Plymouth Community Partnership was asked to explain the history of Charity.

That research took us through a range of formulae and structure, trusts and charters, covenants and arrangements. All required benevolence and philanthropy from those engaged in the service. However, with the development of the National Lottery, the Modern Charity (Community Project) with its professional staff materialized.

Oh, what damage this has caused. The so-called professional gives personality to the words of Alexander Pope: “A little learning is a dangerous thing; … There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,”

As a society, we are blessed with the Internet and Google, a digital presence, social media and just giving pages. How these tools are abused and how misinformation creates a false picture of the sector really saddens those with social values.

Abuse of Trust

“IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY, MONEY, MONEY”

A Lyrical endictment

As CEO of Charity and senior management with management years of paid and unpaid work in the sector, it saddens me to report that the larger charities have abused the public.

How can a charity that accepts donations from pensioners and those limited incomes use funds to pay “professional” staff £100,000 and more? Why do trustees get away with poor governance practice and a lack of accountability? The Charity Commission is an excellent public sector tool but over the years its relationship with external institutes have emasculated the role it plays.

This is an abuse of trust. Don’t take my word for it check the charity register and if you support a charity find out how much the CEO is paid. As one of my colleagues once said: “as we have to ask for – donations and grants, it can’t end up in our pockets”.

Staff are needed and they need to be paid a living wage, rewarded for their hard work, so the challenge to charities is: “fund the frontline staff properly!”

Why Can We Say this?

Our team of consultants are experienced advisors, fundraisers and trainers, we have clear values and provide the support needed.

We provide services that many charity trustees find challenging to cover, for example, governance updates, advice and support, accounting and reporting, fundraising management. These services are designed to fit the structure of the charity and the purse.

Presenting monthly accounts reports takes very little time once we have all the information, for a treasurer this whole process can take hours. We enable the trustees to use their resources effectively.

Are we professional charity workers? Yes and No, we earn the bulk of our income working with commercial operations, however, we keep some time aside for organizations in need of our help, our professional skills.

Please contact us for more information.