Hi Ian

I recently attended a workshop held by Becta, where discussion of
'reasonable adjustments' overlapped with guidelines for procurement and
educational labelling. Adrian Higginbotham led the event, and other
organisations represented included SEMERC, the ACE centre and AbilityNet
as well as Pete Rainger. You may wish to contact Adrian directly to have
a chat about it, if you haven't done so already.

Best wishes
Ruth

-----Original Message-----
From: IT-include@yahoogroups.com [mailto:IT-include@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Ian Litterick
Sent: 10 November 2006 19:04
To: it-include@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [IT-include] FW: The changing UK marketplace for educational
resources - your part in what BESA is doing

Ruth et al

BESA is looking at educational procurement with/for its members. It
occurs to me that the accessibility agenda should be represented. I
wondered if any other members of the list were BESA members or had
relevant ideas or papers.

Ian Litterick
Executive Chairman
www.iansyst.co.uk <http://www.iansyst.co.uk/>
www.dyslexic.com <http://www.dyslexic.com/>



________________________________

From: Andrew Everest [mailto:andrew@...]
Sent: 10 November 2006 16:35
To: Ian Litterick
Subject: The changing UK marketplace for educational resources - your
part in what BESA is doing



Dear Ian

At the AGM on Wednesday I went into detail about some of the issues we
see affecting our marketplace in the next few years, which is the focus
of BESA's new business plan.

At one level it is the advent of e-procurement - and trying to ensure
that this is an opportunity to drive down the cost of sales rather than
a recipe for losing the direct links between members and customers.

At another level it is the Government's desire for value for public
money - and trying to ensure that this is in positive partnership with
the membership, recognising what a great asset our industry is to UK
education, rather than a 'squeeze industry' agenda.

It is equally about challenging Government on issues such as state aid -
most notably so far in relation to BBC Jam, but now rearing its head
afresh with the proposal for Government to publish its own materials for
phonics.

There is also the framework contract concept, beloved by Becta in
particular.

In discussion with members it is clear that there is an even wider range
of concerns and opportunities. The Executive Council, with the clear
support of the AGM, wants BESA to develop consensus approaches on the
full variety of these procurement issues and then to lobby fiercely to
ensure a fair and positive deal for members in all areas.

We have therefore defined a process which this email starts and I have a
series of requests and information points:

1. For the foreseeable future we will have one of more email groups
and/or chat rooms for members about the full range of procurement
issues. So that we are talking to the right person or persons within
your company, **please reply to this email with the name(s) and email
address(es) of those who you would like to have input and be kept
informed**. Although we will still cover these issues in Insight, the
list formed from replies will be those who we will consult and inform on
a regular basis.

2. I have raised issues above in a general sense. There will be others
and for individual companies there will be a variety of specific
concerns and ideas. We need to capture all of these so that we can
understand the full range of what needs to be addressed. **Please will
you or your nominated contacts email back by next Friday, 17 November**
with thoughts, comments, papers, proposals or whatever you have that
will best explain your interests and concerns.

3. We will hold a **general meeting on Thursday 23 November**; currently
we are planning to run from 11am to 3pm. If the numbers wishing to
attend are below 26 it will be at the BESA offices. Otherwise it will be
at another London venue. If you are interested in your company being
represented please reply with the name of the person you wish to send.
**We will guarantee a place for any name emailed to us by next Wednesday
15th November** (when we will make our venue decision). We will send
out final details for attendance no later than Tuesday 21 November.
Please look out for them.

4. At or shortly after the meeting we will set up a task force which
will meet as necessary to steer a work plan which will be developed from
your responses to bullet 2 above and the meeting.

You will appreciate that this is a major initiative and is critical to
how the market will function in the future. Your early response would be
greatly appreciated.

Dominic


Dominic J S Savage OBE

Director General

Email: dominic@...

British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA)

20 Beaufort Court

Admirals Way

London

E14 9XL

UK

Tel: +44 (0) 207 537 4997

Fax: +44 (0) 207 537 4846

Web: www.besa.org.uk


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