The system optimises for defensibility, not speed
A public buyer is spending someone else’s money and can be challenged on the decision. Every element of the process that frustrates a small supplier exists to make the award defensible: standard questionnaires, weighted scoring, audit trails, financial standing checks, mandatory transparency notices. The buyer’s worst outcome is not paying slightly too much. It is an award that gets overturned, or a supplier that fails mid-contract.
That risk calculus quietly favours the established supplier. Track record, turnover thresholds, insurance levels, certifications and referenceable deployments all serve as proxies for safety. A three-year-old company with an excellent product and two customers scores badly on proxies even when it scores well on substance.
Where the friction actually sits
Financial standing. Buyers routinely test turnover, accounts and solvency. Early-stage companies with investment-funded losses can fail these tests before anyone reads the technical answer.
Track record and references. Frameworks and tenders often ask for comparable contracts of comparable size. A new entrant has none, which is the classic circularity: no contract without a reference, no reference without a contract.
The cost of bidding. A serious tender response consumes senior time over several weeks, with no guarantee of an award. Larger competitors have dedicated bid teams; a small company spends its scarcest resource.
Fragmented buyers. In healthcare this is acute. Research with SMEs in the Liverpool City Region found that high market entry costs, complex regulatory and procurement frameworks, limited access to decision makers and fragmented decision-making inside trusts combined to stall adoption (Weaver et al., PLOS One, 2025). Selling to “the NHS” means selling repeatedly to hundreds of separately governed organisations.
Framework lock-out. Much public buying runs through frameworks and dynamic markets. If a framework is closed when you are ready, you may wait years. NHS Supply Chain has signalled a move toward more selective frameworks, which rewards demonstrable performance and may raise the bar further for newer entrants (Med-Tech Insights, 2025).
Adoption timelines. Even after a decision, spread is slow. One widely cited estimate put routine NHS adoption of new diagnostic technologies at roughly ten years (Forbes, 2025).
What the Procurement Act 2023 changed
The Act came into force on 24 February 2025 and replaced the previous EU-derived regime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Several changes matter directly to smaller suppliers:
– A duty on contracting authorities to have regard to the particular barriers SMEs face, and to consider removing or reducing them (Procurement Act 2023 guidance, GOV.UK).
– A single Central Digital Platform where suppliers register once and opportunities are published, improving visibility.
– Strengthened 30-day payment terms through public sector supply chains, which matters more to a company managing runway than to a multinational.
– From April 2026, contracting authorities are expected to set three-year targets for spend with SMEs and voluntary, community and social enterprises, and report against them annually (Social Value Portal, 2026).
An SME here means fewer than 250 staff and either turnover of £44 million or less or a balance sheet total of £38 million or less.
These reforms improve the odds. They do not change the underlying logic: buyers still need to justify choosing you.
How smaller companies actually win
Get in before the tender. Pre-market engagement is where requirements are shaped. By publication day, the specification usually reflects conversations that already happened.
De-risk yourself explicitly. Answer the buyer’s unspoken question. Who else has deployed this? What happens if you run out of money? Where is the data held? Escrow arrangements, quality certifications, named clinical safety and data protection leads and clear support commitments all convert an unknown supplier into a manageable one.
Choose the right route. Below-threshold contracts, dynamic markets, innovation funding and partnership with a prime supplier are all legitimate first steps. The first contract is often small on purpose.
Build the evidence that procurement asks for, in advance. Financial accounts, insurances, policies, security certifications and reference deployments should be ready before the opportunity appears, not assembled in the fortnight before a deadline.
Qualify hard. The most expensive bid is the one you were never going to win. Reading the scoring weightings honestly is a commercial skill.
How FastForward can help
We work with health technology and software medical device companies that need public sector revenue but cannot afford an open-ended learning curve.
Route to market review. We map which buyers, frameworks and funding routes are realistic for your product now, and which are a distraction.
Bid readiness. We build the standing evidence pack that procurement processes demand, so you stop rewriting it under deadline pressure.
Stakeholder engagement. We help you reach and hold conversations with the people who shape specifications, well before a tender is published.
Bid strategy and review. We help you decide what to bid for, and pressure-test responses against how they will actually be scored.
To talk about a specific opportunity, email hello@fwdtech.co.uk.
References
Cabinet Office and HM Treasury, SME Action Plan 2025 to 2028, GOV.UK — https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cabinet-office-and-hm-treasury-small-and-medium-sized-enterprise-sme-action-plan-2025-to-2028/cabinet-office-and-hm-treasury-small-and-medium-sized-enterprise-sme-action-plan-2025-to-2028
GOV.UK, Procurement Act 2023 short guides: SME definition — https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-act-2023-short-guides/supplementary-information-small-and-medium-sized-enterprises-definition-html
Social Value Portal, The Procurement Act 2023 and social value (updated 2026) — https://www.socialvalueportal.com/news-and-insights/the-procurement-act-2023-social-value-what-authorities-and-suppliers-need-to-know
PLOS One (2025), Overcoming barriers to NHS adoption of innovative IPC products — https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0331688
Med-Tech Insights (2025), NHS Supply Chain plans to make procurement frameworks more selective — https://med-techinsights.com/2025/11/24/nhs-plans-to-make-procurement-frameworks-more-selective/
Forbes (2025), Improving the pathway from SME innovation to NHS adoption — https://www.forbes.com/sites/drkathmackay/2025/08/29/improving-the-pathway-from-sme-innovation-to-nhs-adoption/
Trowers & Hamlins (2026), UK procurement in 2026 — https://www.trowers.com/insights/2026/march/uk-procurement-in-2026-an-era-of-transparency-rigour-and-reform