18 March 2020 
Ashley Shelbrooke, HEPA and Project Specialist
Coronavirus is already having a significant impact on procurement, with indications that the situation may not improve for some months and disruption to supply chains likely to continue throughout 2020. Colleagues across the Higher Education sector have been working hard to provide you and your team with resources, guidance and analysis to help you act and plan:
In addition to this, firms such as Mercer are running a ‘dealing with the impact’ webinar series in relation to COVID-19. The next webinar is running tomorrow, 19 March, and registration is available here; you can listen to a recording of the first webinar in the series from 12 March here.
KPMG have a ‘building resilience through disruption’ series which you can access here.
The HEPA Learning & Development Group has a programme of training in the pipeline based on the needs of our members: you and your teams. The face to face delivery of training over the coming months has been affected by Coronavirus, but do not forget that everybody in your institution has access to our wide range of e-learning courses that can be undertaken remotely.
Last month we issued a challenge to members to have completed the Criminal Finances Act e-learning module by the end of the academic year. It is fantastic to see the module completions rolling in, and congratulations in particular to Swansea, Bath, Dundee and Oxford who have all made amazing progress over the past few weeks!
Many thanks to all those who have registered their interest in the ‘buying from the family’ webinar. The team are putting the finishing touches to the slides, and dates will be set for next month – April – in the coming weeks. The webinar will cover what a framework is, direct award, further competition and so on, and will be of use to colleagues right across your institution. To receive joining instructions please just drop Ashley an email.
You can read more about the Learning & Development Group on the HEPA website, and view the forward programme of courses that we have in development.
You may have seen in the Budget last week the announcement that VAT is to be removed from e-publications from 1 December 2020. The Government will consult on the detail over the coming months, and BUFDG will work with our members and other sector bodies such as JISC, RLUK, SCONUL, SUPC and APUC to respond to the consultation. More information is available in Amanda’s article and on the HEPA discussion boards.
We are not sure where this leaves the current legal proceedings resulting from the Upper Tribunal News Corp decision, so keep in touch with your tax manager (if you have one), and an eye on the discussion board and BUFDG website.
Last night the Government announced that IR35 rules due to be implemented in April 2020 aligning private and public sector requirements will be delayed until April 2021. The effect of this on the public sector remains to be seen – more information is available in Julia’s article, who is in touch with the HMRC sector head to clarify the position. Again, keep an eye on the website for further updates.
The Deputy Chair of HEPA, Veronica Daly, Chief Procurement Officer, King’s College London, has written a fabulous two-part blog covering Socially Responsible Procurement and Social Enterprises. Part one of the blog looks at the wider corporate context and the embedding of Socially Responsible Procurement at King’s, and can be read on the HEPA website. Look out for part two next month!
Social Value UK are running a webinar on 8 April looking into ‘embedding the principles of social value in procurement’. You can register for the webinar here, which will cover how the principles of social value can be embedded throughout an organisation from functional strategy all the way down to detailed procurement operating practices.
Finally, a reminder that the Tuition Fee Fraud Summit, which was due to take place in Manchester on 25 March, has been switched to a webinar format as opposed to face to face. There is still time to register for the webinar through WPM here.
Whilst the slow-down of international student applications may slow down the fraudsters, we should be under no illusion that they will find a way to exploit any situation. Please pass this Digest on to your colleagues in the international office, or in the income section, so that they are as up-to-date as possible.
