Tilting the playing field

Here are two ways councils tilt the playing field:

1) Some local authorities follow the practice of using 'select lists' to restrict the bidders for telecare.

2) Recent local authority tenders have asked for Telecare Services Association (TSA) accreditation as part of the pre-qualification sifting process for acceptance onto a tender list. One of the criteria refers to satisfactory supply of services for two years before accreditation can be applied for! This effectively prevents new suppliers entering the market.