4 ways to engage with government and ready for contracts

I can often be found saying; ‘in order to be chasing payment, small firms first need to have secured a contract’ and one of the places to look for work is in the public sector. This is because the Procurement Act that came into effect in February 2025 is intended to boost the number of contracts going to SMEs from central government. Here are four ways in which you can engage plus news of SME developments in the pipeline.

Register on the Central Digital Platform – now known as ‘Find a Tender’, this is where you can search for contracts and upload your details as a supplier. The official definition:

‘Find a Tender is the place for suppliers to find out what opportunities are coming along that they might wish to bid for, as well as details on contracts that have been let, how contracts are being changed and other useful information. Additionally, suppliers register, input and then share their commonly used information as part of the procurement.’

Take the next step here -> https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Search

Plus two brief explainer videos here ->

Follow contracts and attend Meet the Buyer events – you may have a specific department to which you would like to sell (see point below) and, if so, follow their posts on social channels and watch out for news of events at which commercial buyers will be present. The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has its own procurement channel on X and Department for Transport hosts a number of in-person events across the UK with ones upcoming in Birmingham and Colchester – email GCDSMELead@dft.gov.uk for details. They offer opportunity to meet government buyers and connect with large tier one suppliers who are being asked to onboard SMEs into their supply chain.

Look for SME Champions and Action Plans – each central government department has what’s known as an SME Champion who is the lead person for that department’s SME spend target. Speaking of targets, in the past two weeks I have spoken with departments who have shared their targets as published in respective SME Plans being; a minimum total (direct and indirect) SME spend of 33% for Department for Transport and 40% for Department of Science Innovation and Technology. Track down Champions and Plans to be informed on departmental priorities.

Consider MoD as your next client – in late January, the Ministry of Defence launched an Office for Small Business Growth to make it easier for SMEs to sell their products and services into the department. As per an interview with Richard Tyler of The Times,: ‘The minister said the MoD spent about £5 billion a year with the 12,000 small and medium-sized enterprises that operated within the UK’s defence sector, and wanted to increase that by 50 per cent by May 2028.’ Details of the Office here -> https://www.digital.mod.uk/sme-dosbg/about-us

There is more to come with plans for an Innovation Marketplace that will connect companies with buyers, the appointment of Procurement Innovation Champions in government departments, and publishing ‘Advanced Market Commitments’ where government agrees to purchase a product at a future date, if someone can invent and produce it to meet certain criteria. A survey is out in the market that will inform this work – view and respond here.

Recommendations to go even further were included in a report produced by FSB in December 2025, including enhancing the Central Digital Platform with an AI-powered opportunity matching service and creating a dedicated ‘Tech for Tendering’ support programme within the Business Growth Service.

There is support to make the most of these opportunities with Enterprise Nation’s Supply Connect and, at a regional level, specialist support and connections such as the West Midlands Supply Chain Transition programme and Together Gloucestershire.

I hope you will consider the public sector for one of your future contracts.

Helpful links