Partnership hits 10 year milestone

NEPO and Bloom are celebrating ten years of providing the public sector with specialist professional services.

In 2012, NEPO developed an innovative new approach to procuring professional services, by using a neutral vendor to manage a dynamic supplier marketplace. The resulting solution was named NEPRO, and Bloom was appointed as the neutral vendor.

Since then, the two Gateshead-based organisations have gone from strength to strength, supporting over 400 public sector organisations to deliver in excess of 10,000 projects.

Steven Sinclair, procurement and commercial director at NEPO said: “When NEPRO launched ten years ago, we knew that it would meet public sector challenges around choice, value and compliance when appointing consultants and professional services. Our partnership with Bloom has taken this even further, and positioned NEPRO as an enabler for economic growth. Over our decade of delivery, we have welcomed over 4,000 accredited suppliers into our marketplace, of which 90% are SMEs, connecting them to public sector customers.

“More than £1bn of projects have been delivered through the solution with 70% of these projects awarded to SMEs and third sector organisations.  Social value is at the heart of what NEPO and Bloom do, and collectively our solution has generated £96m in social value. Throughout the past10 years we have seen SME partners grow, generating jobs and having both a local and national economic impact.”

Adam Jacobs, founder at Bloom, added: “Our partnership with NEPO makes a compelling case for how the public and private sector can achieve great things together. We are incredibly proud of our achievements over the past ten years, under NEPRO we have enabled outcomes that help police services tackle county lines, health services address child obesity and hundreds more projects tackling diverse and complex issues, all the while saving money for the public purse. We are committed to taking this further, our open access marketplace of 4,000 accredited suppliers continues to grow as we provide the UK public sector with the support to make positive change.”

Darren Knowd, head of procurement, sales and business services at Durham County Council, commented: “Durham County Council were early adopters of NEPRO, and were so convinced by its effectiveness that we mandated its use for all professional service arrangements. Together,NEPO and Bloom have created a solution that gives the public sector choice and speed to market, without compromising compliance and outcomes.”