Customer newsletters for August

Welcome to our monthly newsletters. You can read the latest news most relevant to the sector you 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.

We can help local authorities with their refugee resettlement needs

Local authorities have taken on the responsibility for 2 specific and substantial refugee resettlement programmes since April 2021: the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Programme and the Homes for Ukraine Scheme.

These vulnerable individuals often need help at very short notice which can be challenging for local authorities to manage. That’s why our local government team has taken the time to understand these challenges and highlight how our solutions can help.

Funds distribution and voucher scheme aggregations

It can be difficult for local authorities to get funds to refugees where cash may be their preferred option.

Funds disbursement involves a range of options, including vouchers, barcodes and SMS, either direct to individuals or through distribution points. It is a great solution for the most vulnerable and for citizens needing access to restricted funds.

If you are looking for a voucher scheme that can provide access to a wide range of retailers, then the voucher schemes agreement is ideal for you. You can choose and manage the shops the vouchers can work in, from groceries to clothing. The framework enables direct award of a contract to a supplier who could set up a scheme and start delivering vouchers in as little as 10 days.

We are planning to run 2 national aggregations through our funds disbursement and voucher schemes agreements. We run aggregations to combine purchases of similar procurement needs across multiple organisations, resulting in significant savings for those involved.

If you would like to learn more, or register your interest in either of these aggregations, contact us.

Language and learning solutions

If you have refugees that need assistance with the English language, or are lacking a basic education, we are able to provide solutions that can be put in place to make life easier.

Our Language Services agreement offers services that include translation, machine translation, interpretation and remote interpreting options. This may be particularly helpful for supporting refugees to integrate into the community, as well as reading and completing important forms and documents.

For local authorities, this agreement also has a regional lot structure providing access to a range of local suppliers – an important consideration if there is an urgent need for services.

The Learning and Training Services agreement can help refugees who would like to receive an education, including learning the English language and maths to increase their ability to integrate and contribute to society. As well as standard training, this agreement also provides access to niche training options from a large group of pre-qualified training providers, all in one place.

Accommodation

Accommodation for refugees may be in short supply, whether social housing or in the private rented sector. This can be a particular challenge when needing to house vulnerable citizens. We have 2 agreements that can support the accommodation of our refugees.

The Modular Buildings agreement provides a simple, low-cost way to address short and long term needs. You can buy or hire buildings and they are well suited to provide accommodation for those in urgent need. Read the Reading Borough Council modular buildings case study.

Often with very short notice and lacking documentation, it can be challenging to find short term accommodation for refugees. The Travel and Venue Solutions agreement can help local authorities to support refugees through a managed provider service. You can source and book overnight accommodation, as well as find specialist services for those with specific needs, like an additional visa or crisis management services.

Prepaid cards

Another way to support refugees financially can be through lot 2 of our Payment Solutions agreement. Prepaid cards are an alternative to cash and allow for a predetermined amount to be loaded onto the card. Controls can be placed on the card, for example transaction types can be blocked. Spend parameters can be controlled by the local authority that provides them.

Get in touch

Our commercial solutions are here to help local authorities face the challenges of today and tomorrow. To find out more about how we can help you provide refugee support:

National aggregation opportunity for distribution of the Household Support Fund and other funding initiatives

As our local authority customers know, significant challenges can occur when trying to disburse payments quickly and efficiently to people through government initiatives like the Household Support Fund.

The pace at which payments happen has meant some local authorities simply have not had the time or resources to find a supplier that can help them make payments. For suppliers, the sheer volume of requests is also creating challenges.

How we can help local authorities

We have a number of frameworks in place to enable disbursement of funds, either as cash, prepaid cards, or vouchers. To reduce the time and resources required to use these solutions, we would like to develop an aggregated contract solely for local authorities, to be delivered through a single supplier. This will result in a continuous, compliant contract and the combined volumes will allow us to achieve a competitive price based on economies of scale. If you haven’t purchased this way through us before, find out more about our aggregation service.

Even if you have a temporary arrangement already in place, you should still consider taking part in the aggregation as there is no obligation to use. As long as your organisation is named on the contract, you can transition across on a date that suits you.  

Next steps

The next round of funding is expected in October 2022 so we need to move quickly to put an arrangement in place.  

If you are interested in learning more please contact Gemma Watters by Friday 19 August 2022.

We are living in the age of the Playbook

We are living in the age of the Playbook.

The publication in March of the Digital, Data and Technology Playbook added another aspect to the Government’s vision of procurement best practice in the UK – a field which has seen major interventions over recent years in some of the most significant spend areas for public sector procurement.

Digital, data and technology joins consultancy and construction as areas where the Government is leading and shaping our commercial approach as contracting authorities.

These playbooks set out how departments should approach procurement and programmes of activity, and their application is assured through Cabinet Office controls. They also outline the Government’s expectations for how contracting authorities and suppliers should engage with each other.

At Crown Commercial Service, we’ve made significant progress building the substance of the Government’s playbooks into our products right now – enabling better outcomes for our 20,000 customers across the public sector.

Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT)

The 11 key policy reforms set out in the DDaT playbook cover everything from the development and publication of commercial pipelines to effective contracting, open and interoperable data and code, and supplier assurance. CCS can support contracting authorities’ strategic planning in these areas in a number of ways. 

We hold a wealth of market intelligence and commercial expertise in technology procurement, including in the specialist fields of cyber security, big data, AI and cloud computing. Our technology frameworks see billions of pounds-worth of spend on DDaT products and services every year, including significant direct spend with SMEs. Our range of Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with major suppliers standardise and optimise pricing across the whole public sector, and our commercial agreements provide firm foundations for meeting the Playbook’s recommended contractual baseline of commercial, technical, security and legal principles.

Construction

Having led the drafting process, covering early supplier engagement, outcome-based specifications, effective contracting, risk management, long-term planning and the overall procurement process, CCS continues to be part of the steering group supporting and overseeing the Construction Playbook’s implementation.

Our Construction experts are instrumental in shaping the public sector’s approach in the field, most recently launching our new partnership construction agreement with NHS England, which is both playbook-compliant and meets the new construction Gold Standard. This brings together our own construction procurement offer with the next generation of the ProCure agreement – helping to rationalise the number of public sector construction frameworks in operation, as recommended in the Playbook.

Consultancy

The Consultancy Playbook recommends that commercial teams should first consider whether there is a suitable CCS agreement to go to market through. Using CCS’s consultancy frameworks ‘provides an efficient route to market… allowing users to reduce cost, mitigate risk and maintain delivery assurance.’

Since its launch, CCS has worked closely with partners including the Government Consulting Hub, Cabinet Office’s Markets and Suppliers team, and Crown Representatives to increase the Government’s in-house capacity and expertise, boost collaboration, and ensure that, where external expertise is required, the public sector makes better decisions based on firmer data.

The age of the Playbook – find out more

You can find a full list of Crown Commercial Service commercial agreements and details of how to build policy considerations into your procurement in our interactive digital brochure.

Noreen Winhall, Commercial Director, Buildings at Crown Commercial Service

This article was originally published in Public Sector Executive.

Changes to our agreements in July

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 July  

Agreements extended in July

  • No agreements were extended in July

Agreements that expired in July 

  • No agreements expired in July

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.

Crown Commercial Service announces a new 1 year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Salesforce

The new MoU will enable the UK public sector to continue to achieve better value for money and help accelerate the delivery of digital public services.

Salesforce, which includes Mulesoft, Tableau and Slack, has been implemented across numerous public sector organisations in the UK and around the world, helping them to streamline public services, maximise cost effectiveness and, ultimately, improve the citizen experience.

Our new agreement will allow all eligible public sector customers to benefit from a baseline of Salesforce pricing and discounts. The agreement represents significant savings for customers. It will be available for customer enrolments from 1 August 2022 onwards.

Philip Orumwense CBE, Commercial Director and Chief Technology Procurement Officer at Crown Commercial Service said: 

I am delighted that we have been able to reach agreement on this MOU. It will allow UK public sector customers to access a competitive baseline of pricing by recognising our aggregated public sector spend; and ensures a cost effective marketplace with access to best of breed solutions for each requirement.  The Agreement will further ensure increased collaboration and aggregation of government and wider public sector spend to achieve increased automation, forecasting, reporting and customer engagement management tools.

By treating the UK government and wider public sector as a single client, this new MoU allows access to preferential commercial terms. It is designed to support principles from Digital, Data and Technology and The One Government Cloud Strategy. 

The MoU is not a route to market, however it shows our commitment to support the public sector, as the pricing and discounts are available through any route to market. We recommend using Back Office Software RM6194 but customers can access the same pricing through competitor frameworks.

Let us bring power to your procurement 

If you would like to discover how your organisation could benefit from this new MoU, you can register for our monthly customer webinars:

To benefit from extra Salesforce related support such as strategic advice on how to achieve the best value from your software estate, as well as best practice procurement activities, or to find out more, please complete our online form quoting ‘Salesforce MoU’ and we will be in touch.

This MoU will be added to our webpage publishing all our Technology Memorandum of Understandings.

Helping the public sector meet smart transport challenges

Transport is the largest emitting sector of greenhouse gases in the UK, contributing 27% of domestic emissions. Increasingly we are looking at technology to help decarbonise transport and deliver on the government’s net zero ambition.

Technology is helping the shift to electric vehicles, improving urban air quality, and protecting vulnerable road users. Our Transport Technology and Associated Services (TTAS) framework makes it easier for you to access smarter, cleaner and safer transport solutions.

Transport challenges and smart solutions

Our TTAS framework is playing a vital role in helping deliver net zero across the transport sector.

Decarbonising road vehicles

Public sector support for electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure will be essential if the government is to meet its vision around easy access to public charge points. Public investment is particularly important for on-street charging, in providing access in rural locations, and supporting the electrification of the public sector fleet. CCS supports deployment of EV infrastructure through TTAS and our Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Solutions (VCIS) dynamic purchasing system (DPS).

The TTAS framework includes pre-agreed rates and terms and conditions, approved and audited suppliers, and a catalogue option for direct procurement.

Our VCIS DPS solution provides a flexible route to onboard new suppliers and scope to negotiate terms that are appropriate to the size and scale of your project.

These agreements offer a range of solutions from hardware and managed services to a full end-to-end solution.

Developing place-based solutions to improve air quality

Road transport is a leading cause of air pollution in cities, directly affecting the health of residents and contributing to global warming. Tackling air pollution, increasing the efficiency of public transport, and encouraging the transition to cleaner modes of transport are key priorities for many urban cities and regions.

We are working with local authorities to provide market insight into new clean air zone technology. We are supporting the procurement of clean air zone and low emissions zone solutions that help to reduce use of the most polluting vehicles. Read the case study to find out how we helped Bristol City Council to meet legal limits for pollution.

Delivering market ready innovation – digital roads and open data

Adopting an innovative approach to sharing and analysing accessible data is enabling road operators and the public to make smarter decisions. It is opening up opportunities to provide new services.

CCS suppliers are leading the way with market ready solutions utilising real-time data analytics, helping you to meet your goals through:

  • dynamic management of traffic congestion reducing pollution hotspots
  • active junction and crossing solutions detecting and reacting to children and cyclists
  • analysis of existing data avoiding the need for new roadside hardware
  • use of simulation (digital twins) to underpin future city transport infrastructure planning

Ensuring safe and efficient network operation

Technology provides solutions to keep people and goods moving safely and efficiently including, across borders.

The deployment of thermal imaging cameras at airports helped mitigate travellers’ exposure to COVID 19. Transport operators are tackling congestion and pinch points through automated border control systems at UK entry points, by using cross-modal freight routing applications to improve efficiency, and through the application of real time telemetry technology.

Add power to your procurement with CCS

Whether you need consultancy, an end-to-end solution for EV charging, local enforcement of traffic offences, prioritisation of public transport, or the roll out of a clean air zone – we are here to help you.

To find out how we can help you get in touch or visit our smart solutions web page.

Purchasing platform changes for delivery to Northern Ireland

Our technology products team has been working with suppliers and our purchasing platform providers on the Technology Online Purchasing Content (TOPC) agreement to bring our customers a new category under the Delivery of Goods section. 

What has changed

Until now our customers have only been able to choose between standard or next day delivery. After speaking with our customers, we understood that a delivery option for Northern Ireland was an important requirement. 

Once agreeing that this was a necessity, our technology products team worked with our suppliers and purchasing platform providers to offer all public sector buyers the ability to select “Northern Ireland” as a delivery type, instead of “standard” and “next day”.

What this means

This means that when our TOPC customers are selecting their delivery type, they can now select Northern Ireland if they are arranging for delivery there. These new costs have also been updated within the platform and it now offers greater flexibility for our customer’s end users. 

Commercial Agreement Manager for Technology Online Purchasing Content, Rebekah Loades said:

Our purchasing platform has helped many of our customers find the technology online purchasing content they need. With the new update to our purchasing platform, we hope that our customers in Northern Ireland will find a greater ease in delivery.

Up next

The team is always looking for ways to improve, and over the next few months they are going to focus on continuing enhancements to the purchasing platform. For the opportunity to give feedback and play a part in the purchasing platform improvements, please get in touch.

We are also working on the next iteration of the TOPC agreement and what it will look like. If you have any questions, or would like to participate in its development, contact us at technologyproducts@crowncommercial.gov.uk and we will include you in any engagement sessions that the team runs.

Find out more

Visit our webpage to learn more about the framework and what it has to offer. Or, download our digital brochure for the latest information on our agreements and how we can help you add power to your procurement.

New IT partner helps Care Quality Commission raise user satisfaction to almost 95%

Background

The CQC is the independent regulator of health and social care for England. They wanted to prioritise their strategic plans to make it easier for:

  • providers to collaborate during inspections
  • the public to use CQC information
  • CQC’s own most critical resource – their mobile inspectors – to do their jobs 

Two thirds of CQC’s team do their job ‘on the road’ and cannot carry out the care and support required without effective mobile digital systems in place. In 2020, CQC focussed heavily on changing the IT service delivery model. The aim of this was to  make sure end users received not just good quality service, but consistent, proactive and excellent service that was delivered positively and empathetically.

The commission needed their IT partner to comprehensively understand their IT service requirements and respond quickly to its changing needs. Timescales were challenging and constantly moving. This meant CQC had to choose a provider that could rapidly establish the ongoing service delivery model using knowledge and experience gained from similar engagements, whilst supporting the transition and transformation to new technologies.  

Solution

With the support of the CCS category team, CQC chose the Technology Services 2 agreement. They awarded a 5 year contract to Littlefish to deliver and support the Digital Workplace programme through service transition and transformation into live service in June 2020 and onwards. As this took place at the height of the first COVID-19 national lockdown, delivery was executed remotely.

Littlefish’s approach was to act as an extension of the CQC IT team. They engaged regularly with CQC before, during, and after the service transition period to build an understanding of CQC’s working practices and business objectives, and to align their own behaviours in support of these. 

Littlefish also hosted ‘supplier days’ with CQC to transfer both business and IT knowledge and to give CQC a deep understanding of what Littlefish provides.  Mark Sutton, Chief Digital Officer at Care Quality Commission, commented:

“Littlefish demonstrated that they were really focused on the end users, and treat themselves as part of our team. They would empathise and they would care about what it was that people needed, making the transition to the new service really smooth. They delivered training to our team, so we had a deep understanding of what they do as an organisation, making them feel like an extension of our team.”

Challenges

CQC were keen to improve the quality of the IT service provision, particularly when it came to customer service, and it was important to Mark that CQC choose a provider that could focus heavily on excellent customer experience.  

Outcome

Prior to working with Littlefish, users were reluctant to call the CQC service desk. Since Littlefish took on the contract, they have helped CQC improve the first time fix rate to 85% and user satisfaction to almost 95%.

Selecting Littlefish as a service and transformation partner enabled CQC to radically redesign the digital experience of its employees through enhanced collaboration and productivity. It has enabled creative information sharing, both within CQC and across organisational boundaries with its partners, and has established a culture of continuously improving user-centric service delivery. 

CQC personnel now have a modern, mobile, connected working environment and a frictionless experience of using digital services that enables them to do a better job. Partnering with Littlefish allowed users at CQC to be more productive and less stressed, positively impacting their well-being. 

Mark added:

“I constantly get great feedback back from our colleagues about how empathetic and caring [Littlefish] are about getting people’s issues resolved.” 

How we can help you

To find out more about how our technology solutions could help to support you, you can:

Latest IT hardware aggregation saves customers 21%

The requirement

5 customers including a charity, a fire and rescue service, a local council, an NHS organisation and a central government department took part in our most recent IT hardware aggregation. 

They needed a wide range of IT hardware including: 

  • laptops and desktops
  • mice and keyboards
  • monitors
  • asset tagging services
  • image loading services

The solution

Based upon approximate volumes for the IT hardware items the customers needed, we were able to identify the minimum indicative savings and ceiling prices. These were the minimum savings that the customers taking part could expect.

The customers then confirmed how many items they wanted to buy, along with any extra services they needed. They did this by signing a call-off order form and letter of intent. Once the volumes were confirmed we ran the aggregation to source the supplier who offered the best quality and price. Each customer then entered into a standalone contract. 

The aggregation was run through lot 2 of the Technology Products and Associated Services framework.

The results 

We helped 5 customers save more than £900,000 in this aggregation. This was an average saving of 21%, with one customer achieving a 31% saving.

Add power to your procurement with CCS

By bringing together customers with similar needs, our aggregations help you harness bulk buying power to unlock greater savings. We run these aggregations regularly, to ensure as many customers as possible are able to achieve similar savings.

Taking part in an aggregation means many of the usual further competition procurement steps are handled by us, saving you precious time and resources. We 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 achieved significant savings for the public sector. 

Our next IT hardware aggregation is now open for expressions of interest. You have until mid September 2022 to submit your requirements, with a formal contract award set to take place in October 2022. 

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

Learn more about our Technology Products and Associated Services framework.

To find out more about aggregation with CCS, visit our web page.