Academy schools group implements social value with cleaning contract

Updated: September 2023

Ark is an education charity based in the UK, working to improve educational achievement in areas of disadvantage. Ark also develops ventures that benefit teachers, pupils and the education system as a whole. Their work extends beyond the classroom to help transform lives by collaborating with their suppliers to deliver world-class services in a way that positively impacts the wider community.

Social value

Ark were looking to award a contract to provide cleaning services at 5 of their schools in London and the South of England. Ark sought a supplier who would align with their values and collaborate to achieve social value.

Social value is the positive impact on a community and considers economic, social and environmental aspects. Ark and the successful supplier, Churchill, were able to work together to deliver a range of measures to achieve social value. This was made possible through Ark’s procurement using CCS’s Building Cleaning Services commercial agreement.

Example 1: Real living wage

We all know money isn’t everything, but a little extra can go a long way. The national living wage was £8.91 per hour for 2021/22. In 2022, the real living wage was £9.90 across the UK and £11.05 in London. It reflects the true cost of living.

For employees, it means greater financial security, reduced stress of affording bills and being able to spend more time with family. For employers, it means increased motivation and productivity of staff, improved relations between managers and staff, and increased staff retention.

Ark Schools made the real living wage mandatory in their requirements specification, securing social value for the cleaners staffing the school and their families. It also means more money is spent in the community, boosting the local economy.

Ark’s Head of Procurement, Paul Carlisle, said:

The pandemic highlighted cleaners’ vital role in keeping our schools safe. While moving to the real living wage meant some schools had to find additional funds for their cleaning, they were happy to support their cleaning staff in this way and ensure that they were properly recognised for their essential work.

Specifying the real living wage also meant that we did not need to worry about the procurement becoming a ‘race to the bottom’, with bidders competing on how poorly they could pay their staff. We focused our evaluation on the efficiency and added value the different bidders could bring and encouraged them to bring forward new initiatives in areas such as staff wellbeing and environmental sustainability.

Example 2: Environmental sustainability

Churchill implemented the use of water-soluble sachets in biodegradable packaging and reusable containers for their cleaning detergents. This offers several environmental and safety benefits:

  • reduced single-use plastic waste
  • reduced transport emissions by adding water only at the point of use, not transporting
    water in pre-diluted chemical solutions
  • reduced risk of injury due to using lightweight products
  • reduced risk of chemical spillages or leaks from stored containers

Daniela Eigner, Environmental Sustainability Manager at Churchill said:

Reducing single-use plastics has become a key part of our sustainability journey and has been led by Churchill’s shift to water-soluble sachets. This has saved over 24 metric tonnes of plastic waste across the business over the course of 12 months, the equivalent weight of 4 full-grown elephants.

Example 3: Wellbeing

The wellbeing and resilience of individuals, communities and society in general, is a big part of social value. Ark Schools partnered with a supplier who cares about its customers and employees.

Tonka Valkinova, Account Director at Churchill Group, said:

We have implemented our Modus platform which not only digitalises the quality audits to monitor the standards at each site, but it is also a great platform for our staff. Modus gives our operatives free access to the House of Wellbeing, including over 80 audios that offer impactful techniques for overcoming any unwanted beliefs, behaviours and negative thought patterns. The platform gives our staff access to professional audios to help succeed in their career, as well as audios focused on coping with isolation.

The procurement solution

Our Building Cleaning Services DPS offered a flexible solution for Ark Schools to meet their cleaning and social value needs. It provided access to pre-agreed contract terms and a pre-vetted list of contract cleaning companies. This enabled the school to procure their cleaning contract efficiently and compliantly, matching their requirements with the best possible supplier. Additionally, they could maximise the social value that the contract provided to the local area.

Let us bring power to your procurement

Our Facilities Management and Workplace Services agreement and DPS have replaced the (now expired) Building Cleaning Services agreement. This new agreement offers you a flexible way to source cleaning services that suit your organisation’s needs, including meeting your social value goals. To find out more:

Changes to our agreements in April

Welcome to our monthly framework update to help you with your procurement planning. We will publish it online each month and also share it in our newsletters and on our social media channels.

The update provides a brief summary of what has been awarded, extended or expired during the previous month. It also outlines what is due to expire in the next 3 months.

You can also get an overview of all of our live frameworks in our interactive digital brochure.

Agreements awarded in April  

  • No agreements were awarded in April

Agreements extended in April

Agreements that expired in April 

  • No agreements expired in April

Agreements due to expire in the next 3 months

Further information

If you need further details about any of these agreements please get in touch.

You can also find out what new procurements we are working on by exploring our upcoming deals page.

If you don’t currently receive our monthly customer newsletter why not also subscribe to receive these updates and more directly to your inbox? Just fill in this short form.

CCS publishes its first SME action plan

Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has published its first SME action plan, outlining how the organisation is helping the public sector to meet the government’s aspiration to level the playing field for SMEs.

As well as setting out CCS’s continued commitment to take positive action to make sure that the SME sector is well represented in our agreements, the action plan reaffirms the organisation’s role in enabling customers to increase the proportion of their procurement spend that goes to SMEs.

The action plan also sets out how supporting the growth of the SME sector will generate opportunities to deliver greater social value through public procurement – helping the UK to build back better and more fairly.

Richard Denney, Director, Corporate Pillar said:

SMEs bring diversity and innovation to our supply chains, and levelling the playing field for businesses of all sizes will bring economic and social benefits and support the UK to build back better and fairer.

Our action plan sets out the work we’re doing to ensure we’re continuously creating those opportunities, supporting our customers to boost the value delivered through their procurement.

The action plan sets out how CCS is simplifying public procurement processes to make it easier for a diverse range of suppliers to win government contracts, improving market engagement and access, and digitising aspects of the user journey to remove barriers to SME participation.

Government spend with SMEs rising

Three quarters of suppliers on CCS’s commercial agreements are SMEs, but they currently receive only around 13% of total spend directly, though many also receive ‘indirect’ spend, by acting as subcontractors to larger suppliers.

Direct spend with SMEs through CCS agreements rose by £392 million in 2020/21, compared to 2019/20, reaching £2.5bn in total. The number of SME suppliers winning business through CCS agreements has almost doubled since 2018.

Figures released in May 2021 show that 26.7% of total central government procurement spending in 2019/20 went to SMEs – an increase of £1.3bn year-on-year.

The Government also published an updated ‘Selling to Government Guide’ on 4 December 2021, giving SMEs essential information on how to bid for and win government contracts.

Find out more

To find out more about how CCS is levelling the playing field for suppliers of all sizes, download our digital brochure.

Making every penny count on your mailing with franking services

A recent survey shows that post remains an effective way to communicate, with 87% of those questioned describing mail as “believable”. However, Royal Mail  increased the price of  stamps on 4 April 2022:

  • first-class stamps increased by 12% to 95p 
  • second-class stamps increased by 3% to 68p

You can mitigate the impact of these price increases by using a franking machine for your organisation’s post.

The benefits of franking machines

Franking is a pre-paid postage option where a franking mark is printed directly onto the envelope. It’s a flexible way to pay for postage, you can manage your spend and give your mail a professional image. Learn more about what franking is.

The Mailing Room (TMR) Executive Agency, offers low and medium volume franking machines, which can save you up to 29% when compared to buying standard stamps. For example, a Mailmark franked second-class letter could save you 21p per letter, so if you franked 100 letters per day, you could be saving approximately £800 on postage every month. 

How can CCS help?

Our Postal Goods, Services and Solutions framework provides you with access to TMR, through lot 1, helping you take advantage of pre-agreed discounted rates without the need to enter into a time-consuming tender. The framework also offers negotiated volume deals, whatever your order, whilst standard contracts reduce administration and costs.

If you need larger franking machines, you can access these through lot 2 of the framework which covers franking machines, mailroom equipment and associated consumables.  With a choice of 6 suppliers you can direct award or run a further competition. 

Find out more

Our postal team is on hand to offer advice and support to help you select the best option to meet your needs. To find out more about how our postal framework can help you:

You can find a full list of all the commercial agreements we offer, alongside details of how we can help you build policy considerations into your procurement, in our interactive digital brochure.

Aggregations and eAuctions: how to take advantage of the public sector’s national buying power

NB: This article was originally published on 25 April 2022. All information was correct at the time of writing, but may not be fully applicable following the introduction of the Procurement Act 2023.

How can collective buying help public sector buyers get the best deal on goods and services? What is aggregation? What are eAuctions?

What are aggregations?

Aggregation really just means ‘collective buying’. It usually involves bringing together more than one organisation with similar needs to buy common goods and services from suppliers. It helps you achieve savings that would not be possible through individual buying.

Aggregation usually works best when there is no urgent procurement need and timescales are flexible, as it can take some time to get enough customers together to maximise collective buying power.

How does it work?

Suppliers on a suitable framework are given the opportunity to take part in the aggregation, offering their best price for goods and services collectively identified by the group of customers. Any organisation that is eligible to buy through Government Commercial Agency (GCA – formerly CCS) can join an aggregation.

Customers can also request that GCA organises aggregations for many additional goods and services, including common technology solutions such as software licences, mobile voice and data connections, and IT hardware. 

What kinds of goods and services can be bought through aggregations?

Aggregations work best with common goods or services that will attract more than one customer and supplier. 

When customers with similar needs aggregate their buying power, it encourages a wide range of suppliers to take part, reducing the cost of goods and services that do not require complex, bespoke solutions. There are also time and cost savings for buyers as the aggregation is managed by GCA. 

For example, we run quarterly aggregations for water and wastewater services. They are open to all public sector, non-residential premises in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Hundreds of customers take part, and have benefited from savings of up to 10% on their water bills.

We also run regular aggregations for technology goods and services. For example, last year 8 customers achieved an average of 81% savings (about £1.4 million) by joining a quarterly mobile voice and data services aggregation. A further 28 customers saved on average 36% (more than £7 million in total) on IT hardware in a local authority hardware aggregation.

More complex requirements, such as a contract for architectural services, may not be suitable for aggregation, since each customer will have distinct needs that are unlikely to be the same as other customers. 

In that situation, it makes more sense for customers to set out their individual needs to a range of suppliers on a framework.

What are eAuctions?

An electronic auction (eAuction) is an online procurement tool that allows potential suppliers to compete against each other to win contracts to supply goods and services. Suppliers bid against each other, in real time using web-based software, to offer the best price. 

eAuctions bring together similar needs from lots of public bodies and encourage suppliers to offer the most competitive pricing to win higher volumes of business. For instance, several schools could sign up to buy laptops through the same eAuction, through a GCA framework. Suppliers have multiple opportunities to bid, whereas a traditional tender only provides one opportunity.

Suppliers compete on price alone during an eAuction. Other criteria, such as quality and services levels, are agreed during earlier stages of the procurement. In some eAuctions a supplier’s quality and technical scores are combined with their bid price to determine the overall result.

During the auction suppliers know their ranking but not who they are bidding against. The eAuction typically lasts between 1 and 3 hours, but can last longer. Constantly updated screens show supplier rankings which are automatically recalculated as bids come in. Once the auction closes a contract is then signed with the winning supplier.

GCA manages eAuctions from start to finish, with a dedicated and experienced team on hand to guide you through the process. 

Find out more about our aggregation programme

We run dozens of aggregations every year, and it is free to take part. You can find out about upcoming aggregations on our website, as well as reading about the experiences of other customers who have taken part. For more information on taking part in aggregation opportunities contact our customer services team on 0345 410 2222 / info@gca.gov.uk. 

How our latest IT hardware aggregation saved customers up to 23% on tech products

The increase in working from home has caused a rise in demand for IT hardware for organisations across the public sector.

The pandemic has meant that budgets have been stretched like never before, that’s why it’s important for us to help our customers make the most of every penny they spend. Our aggregation team’s regular bulk buying opportunities allow us to provide you with the technology you need at the best price possible.

We benefit from competitive prices, discounts and favourable terms from suppliers. After taking the aggregated requirements to market, we can provide customers with contracts following a fully compliant tender exercise.

Contracts are delivered through further competitions using lot 2 of the Technology Products and Associated Services Framework.

This autumn’s IT hardware aggregation required the bulk buying of many different technologies such as: laptops and desktops; mice and keyboards, and tablets and iPads. In addition, services such as asset tagging were included.

The solution

Before the aggregation, we reached out to the public sector to understand the level of interest in the upcoming opportunity. From this, we were able to identify the minimum savings and ceiling prices that our customers could expect. Customers were then able to confirm how many items they wanted to buy, along with any required services, and state whether the items were necessary or optional by signing a call-off order form and letter of intent. We then ran the aggregation, identified the supplier who offered the best quality and price, and presented each customer with a standalone contract.

It normally takes around 6 weeks from customer confirmation to award.

The results

The total customer saving for this aggregation was more than £200,000, with an average saving of 15%. Despite the average, one customer benefitted from savings of over 23% on their equipment.

By bringing together a range of customers with similar needs, our aggregations help organisations harness bulk buying power to unlock greater savings.

Add power to your procurement with CCS

Taking part in an aggregation means we handle many of the usual procurement steps, saving you precious time and resources. We will draft all documentation, build the specification and run the procurement.

This is a fully managed service, provided and funded by us. It is a tried and tested approach that has delivered significant savings to the public sector.

Our next IT hardware aggregation (NFC148) is now open for expressions of interest from customers. You have until mid-June 2022 to submit your requirements, with a formal contract award set to take place in July 2022.

If you would like to take part, please complete our enquiry form quoting ‘NFC148 IT Hardware Aggregation’ in the comment box and a member of our team will be in touch.

Learn more about the framework on our Technology and Associated Services framework web page.

To find out more about aggregation with CCS, visit our aggregation web page or watch our Microsoft Licensing Aggregation webinar.

New partnership construction framework awarded with NHS

Construction Works and Associated Services 2 / ProCure23, recognises the importance of public sector construction as a key driver of economic recovery, providing health bodies in England with a new route to market for construction works and associated services, helping the UK to build back better. 

It adopts the principles of the Construction Playbook, rationalising frameworks in an innovative and collaborative approach between ourselves at CCS and NHS England and NHS Improvement.

Lots 1-3 are specifically for healthcare projects in England, while lots 4 and 5 are available to all public sector bodies in the UK. The agreement will run alongside our existing Construction Works and Associated Services agreement which helps deliver a wide range of major and minor building and civil engineering projects of all values for the public sector,  helping our customers build everything from new schools and hospitals to prisons and houses.

This agreement will also support government policy of using construction of infrastructure and building to drive the market recovery following COVID-19.

John Welch, Deputy Director for Construction at CCS said:

The principles of this agreement continue on the same path as our existing ‘gold standard’ approach, increasing supply chain collaboration, boosting innovation, supporting the Government’s Carbon Net Zero target, and focusing even more strongly on building safety. I’m pleased that we’ve been able to collaborate successfully with our partners at the NHS, to help support Trusts in delivering their capital programmes as we build back better.

Simon Corben, Director of Estates and Facilities and Head of Profession at NHS England and NHS Improvement, said:

ProCure23 builds on almost two decades of success of ProCure as a route to market for NHS capital projects. The framework has been split into 3 lots to enable greater reach into all aspects of the NHS’s capital requirements, such as increasing our estate’s capacity through new builds, addressing backlog maintenance, or reconfiguring spaces to better meet the health and care needs of our local communities.

Let us bring power to your procurement

To find out more about our Construction Works and Associated Services 2 / P23 framework, please visit our the framework page. Or to speak to a member of our expert team, please complete our online form or call us on: 0345 410 2222.

You can also visit our construction webpage to learn more about our complete construction offering and check out our handy resources; from webinars, podcasts, to interactive guides – we’ve got you covered. 

8 customers save £1.4 million on mobile voice and data services

The requirement

Buying mobile voice and data services is often a routine purchase for many public sector customers. Varied contract end dates can often create a barrier to switching suppliers. 

Through our regular bulk buying opportunities, our aggregation team helps customers to achieve savings by combining their mobile voice and data requirements with other organisations. 

The contracts are delivered through further competitions run via lot 6 of Network Services 2 framework. 

The solution

In November 2021, 8 customers took part in our mobile voice and data aggregation, which are run 3 to 4 times per year. 

For each aggregation, we engage with the market to gauge interest in upcoming mobile voice and data aggregations. Based on approximate volumes, we identify minimum indicative savings and ceiling prices. These are guaranteed minimum savings that customers can expect to receive.

Our aggregation team runs the aggregation, identifies the supplier who is able to offer the best quality and price for the requirements, and presents each customer with a standalone contract.

The results

8 customers saved £1.4 million through joining the mobile voice and data aggregation – an average saving of 81%. 

5 of these customers had joined a previous aggregation, and despite the large savings achieved through their first aggregation, were still able to save a further 77%. 

Add power to your procurement with CCS

Taking part in an aggregation means many of the usual further competition procurement steps are handled by CCS, saving you time and resources. We draft all documentation, build the specification and run the procurement. 

This fully managed service is provided and funded by CCS and is a tried and tested approach which continues to achieve significant savings for the public sector. 

Our next mobile voice and data services aggregation (NFC145) is now open for expressions of interest from customers. You have until 3 May 2022 to submit your requirements, with a formal contract award set to take place in June 2022. 

Visit our aggregation web page to find out more and view our customer webinar. 

If you would like to take part, please complete our online form quoting ‘NFC145 mobile voice and data aggregation’ in the comment box and a member of our team will be in touch. 

Learn more about Network Services 2 via the web page.

Customer newsletters for April

Welcome to our monthly newsletters. You can read the latest news most relevant to the sector your work in by selecting the appropriate link below:

If you don’t currently receive our monthly customer newsletter, you can sign up by completing this short form. Each month, we’ll send you the newsletter most relevant to you, based on your organisation.

You will also find a full list of all the commercial agreements we offer, alongside details of how we can help you build policy considerations into your procurement, in our interactive digital brochure.

Changes to our agreements in March

Welcome to our monthly framework update to help you with your procurement planning. We will publish it online each month and also share it in our newsletters and on our social media channels.

The update provides a brief summary of what has been awarded, extended or expired during the previous month. It also outlines what is due to expire in the next 3 months.

You can also get an overview of all of our live frameworks in our interactive digital brochure.

Agreements awarded in March  

Agreements extended in March

  • No agreements were extended in March

Agreements that expired in March 

Agreements due to expire in the next 3 months

Further information

If you need further details about any of these agreements please get in touch.

You can also find out what new procurements we are working on by exploring our upcoming deals page.

If you don’t currently receive our monthly customer newsletter why not also subscribe to receive these updates and more directly to your inbox? Just fill in this short form.