Changes to our frameworks in November

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 our live frameworks with our new interactive digital brochure.

Frameworks awarded in November

Frameworks extended in November

Please note: the expiry dates on the framework pages will be updated shortly

Frameworks that expired in November

No frameworks expired in November.

Frameworks due to expire in the next 3 months

Further information

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

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.

Changes to our frameworks in October

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 our live frameworks with our new interactive digital brochure.

Frameworks awarded in October

Frameworks extended in October

Please note: the expiry dates on the framework pages will be updated shortly

Frameworks that expired in October

  • Journal Subscriptions (RM3797)
  • Standby and Emergency Generators DPS (RM6063)
  • Utility Management Software, Metering and Ancillary Services (RM3800)

Frameworks due to expire in the next 3 months

Further information

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

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.

Changes to our frameworks in September

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 our live frameworks with our new interactive digital brochure.

Frameworks awarded in September

Frameworks extended in September

Please note: the expiry dates on the framework pages will be updated shortly

Frameworks that expired in September

  • Office Supplies for the Wider Public Sector (RM3703)
  • Apprenticeships Training and Related Services (RM3823)

Frameworks due to expire in the next 3 months

Further information

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

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.

The Contract Management Pioneer Programme – boosting commercial capability across the public sector

Crown Commercial Service (CCS) and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities are investing to boost commercial capability across local government through a new contract management training programme.

Over the next 12 months almost 200 local government officers who are required to manage contracts as part of their duties will complete the Contract Management Pioneer Programme.

The training programme supports the Government’s agenda to build back better by ensuring that contracting authorities are able to effectively manage the key stages of commercial delivery.

It is funded by CCS, the UK’s largest public procurement organisation, and the Local Government Commercial Team in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, in collaboration with the Local Government Association. Training is delivered through the Cabinet Office and the Government Commercial College.

Six cohorts of local government officers with contract management responsibilities have begun training, with the first group having started in November 2021.

Simon Tse, CEO of Crown Commercial Service says: 

We are making this investment as part of the Government’s broader strategy to level up the country, boosting commercial capability and ensuring that local government has the tools and expertise it needs to get the best deal for the taxpayer.

With the opportunities presented by public procurement reform on the horizon, we are determined to help our partners across the public sector to play their part in building back better.

Olivia Cooper, Service Manager, Contract Management and Quality Assurance at Warwickshire County Council says:

Warwickshire County Council has been pleased to be part of the Pioneer Programme for the last six months. It combines knowledge and skills development through a structured learning programme with significant networking to drive the sharing of best practice and peer support. 

The stepped approach to learning has allowed us to roll training out to a number of colleagues at a level appropriate to their involvement with contract management, and we are also seeing a number of benefits from increased skills, knowledge, and peer support.

Developing commercial capability

Boosting the commercial capability of the public sector is at the heart of the Government’s National Procurement Policy Statement.

The statement requires all contracting authorities to consider whether they have the right policies and processes in place to manage the key stages of commercial delivery it sets out, where relevant to their procurement portfolio.

During 2020, the Local Government Association identified 32 local authorities most in need of contract management learning and development support – including some that have faced challenges recently over their management of commercial affairs.

These authorities were offered the opportunity to apply for training that would inform and drive organisational change around contract management. Identifying good practice, sharing evidence-led best practice, and embedding stronger behaviours for local authorities that manage contracts worth billions of pounds every year.

The programme

There are four elements to the Contract Management Pioneer Programme. 

  • Each attendee will complete the Government Commercial College Practitioner or Expert Level Accreditation in Contract Management
  • The learners will apply this knowledge to their own local authority – identifying what works, why it works, and how it works, in how they currently manage commercial contracts
  • All delegates will join a learner’s network to support their peers across local government
  • A Senior Responsible Owner from each council will join a network tasked with embedding learning, providing challenge, and helping the findings of the programme to be shared across local government

Following the programme, the Cabinet Office’s Capability team will select a sample of contracts from participating councils, negotiated after its completion, and monitor how closely and successfully processes are being followed.

Want to find out more about the essential elements of effective contract management? Read our Procurement Essentials series.

Bristol City Council finds solution to improve city’s air quality

The requirement

Bristol is the largest city in the South West and one of the 10 ‘core cities’ in Great Britain. Bristol’s population is expected to reach half a million by 2031.

Like many urban areas, traffic congestion within the city contributes to concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a major source of air pollution. There is clear evidence from Public Health England that these emissions are damaging public health.

Regions and cities across the UK have a moral and legal obligation to improve air quality. In Bristol, efforts to improve the city’s air quality started in 2001 with its first air quality management plan. Despite this early intervention, the city’s residents have faced pollution levels that regularly exceed legal limits for NO2.

In 2019, Bristol City Council approached us to seek support in procuring key elements of a clean air zone to achieve compliance with legal NO2 limits.

A clean air zone is a specific location that aims to reduce public exposure to nitrogen dioxide through:

  • restrictions on the highest polluting vehicles
  • encouraging the use of cleaner vehicles
  • encouraging people to walk, cycle or use public transports

Solution

Our team of procurement experts supported Bristol City Council with early market engagement and recommended publishing a Request for Information (RfI) to engage with market leading suppliers and identify available solutions. Our Traffic Management Technology 2 framework (TMT2*) was selected. Market engagement through this framework provided council staff with valuable insight into the capability of new clean air zone technology. Information from the RfI, and a public consultation provided the council with the inputs they required to validate their project submissions and proceed with their funding and applications.

Following the conclusion of the RfI and the successful allocation of funding, the council published their Invitation To Tender (ITT). The exercise was conducted through our eSourcing tool, which simplified the customer and supplier experience by managing the ITT documentation.

The competitive process with further competition ensured that quotes provided the best value for money. The rigorous evaluation process led to local Bristol based company, System Engineering Assessment (SEA) Ltd contracted to support implementation of the city’s Clean Air Zone, with deployment of the company’s ROADflow Fusion technology.

*Our Traffic Management Technology 2 (TMT2) framework has been superseded by the Transport Technology & Associated Services framework (RM6099) – this new framework builds on the success of TMT2 with an expanded range of transport technologies and services for the aviation, road, rail and maritime sectors.

Outcome

Bristol’s clean air zone, which will go live later in 2022, will see installation of cameras for number plate recognition and identification of bus lane infringements, complete with an on-site maintenance package and a back-office data management system. The solution will also impact traffic signal timings to improve traffic flows and increase priority for buses at traffic signals.

No vehicles are banned from entering the clean air zone but older and more polluting vehicles have to pay a daily charge for travelling within the zone. Enforcement of restrictions on the highest polluting vehicles will encourage the use of cleaner vehicles and help motivate people to walk, cycle or use public transport more.

Niotia Ferguson, Category Business Partner – Services & Resources (including ICT), Bristol City Council, commented:

The use of the Transport Technology & Associated Services framework (RM1089) enabled us to reduce the timeline that would have been required if we had carried out an open tender process. Having approved suppliers on the framework that have already been robustly evaluated and selected gave us confidence that we would achieve our desired outcome.

James Williams, Head of Business Winning, System Engineering Assessment Ltd, commented:

Bristol City Council utilised the RM1089 framework for the competition. The framework enables a streamlined process to take place as SEA had already pre-qualified. This allowed our staff to focus on designing an innovative solution for the customer across technical and contract delivery, providing real value for money. The use of a common commercial framework (NEC3) meant that SEA were aware of the contract to be used ahead of the competition, which resulted in a smoother contracting process up to contract award.

Let us bring power to your procurement

At a time of rapid change in the transport sector – whether you work in aviation, maritime, rail, or road sectors – we aim to provide you with the insight, and the tools, to meet your organisation’s transport goals.

Our TTAS framework offers class leading suppliers for transport technology and allows customers to conduct the complete end to end procurement cycle in a comprehensive yet flexible way.

To find out how we can help you:

Customer newsletters for May

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.

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.