Northumberland County Council saves £3.8 million on new fibre network

The requirement

Northumberland County Council, acting on behalf of the North of Tyne Combined Authority, was awarded funding for a local full fibre network (LFFN) project by Building Digital UK (BDUK). A key outcome of the project was to provide gigabit capable fibre broadband to approximately 270 public sector buildings and sites in Northumberland.

North of Tyne Combined Authority submitted their business case to BDUK – part of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) – who helped them further refine it. The outcome was a project to deliver a solution that was both compliant with the key commercial principles of the grant and met the fibre build timeline. The contract needed to be awarded by 31 March 2020.

The solution

Our Gigabit Capable Connectivity Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) was established in partnership with BDUK in late 2019. It offers standard terms for gigabit communication infrastructure and a rapid, compliant, flexible route to market.

We worked closely with Northumberland County Council to support their procurement activity by becoming an extension of their project team. Throughout the project we provided procurement support and technical advice through category team lead, Tim Orton. Phil Hodgson from our regional customer experience team delivered local on the ground project support. 

We also worked closely with BDUK to ensure effective commercial assurance and delivery of the DCMS/BDUK grant funding agreement.

As the DPS was relatively new at the start of the project, we actively promoted it to potential new suppliers with regional capability, providing assistance as they navigated the onboarding process. This approach ensured the right supplier mix was available. Dominique Volante from the sourcing team attended a market engagement day to advise local and national suppliers how to join the DPS and gave follow-on support throughout the application process.

The results

BT Enterprise was awarded a contract for £8.2 million for a fixed price commitment, within the required timescale. The collaborative project led to a successful outcome in just 3 months, achieving £3.8 million of savings against the original estimated cost of £12 million – a 30% saving. 

Public sector sites across Northumberland can now look forward to a better connected experience, opening the door to transformation of the way services are delivered. Additionally, the increase of fibre infrastructure means more rural areas are being reached, making it easier for suppliers to offer fibre broadband services to the wider community. This creates a more inclusive community and increases the potential for economic growth. 

Paul Armstrong, Chief Digital Officer at North of Tyne Combined Authority, said:

The Gigabit Capable Connectivity DPS provided us with a fast and effective route to market allowing us to achieve a successful award for our very complex requirements in 2 months. The flexibility allowed us to open this opportunity to a wider range of suppliers who could easily join at any point and bid for this work whilst maintaining a standard set of terms and conditions which ensured best value. We received fantastic support from Phil, Tim, Dominique and the team throughout the process and have since used the DPS for other connectivity procurements and will continue to do so in the future to further widen the reach of fibre connectivity throughout our region.

Justin Leese, Programme Director, The UK Fibre Programme, BDUK, added:

The Gigabit Capable Connectivity DPS has now proved an effective procurement portal for delivery of fibre infrastructure (both dark fibre and lit services) to standard terms to a fixed price, providing the contract certainty and safeguards required. I am further reassured that North of Tyne Combined Authority continues to use this DPS portal and capability for fibre build using their own funding to increase gigabit capable infrastructure.

The DPS now has 30 suppliers (August 2020) registered and I look forward to seeing more suppliers competing in these procurements as the public sector pipeline develops. Creating a competitive market for regional fibre build of public sector hub sites, whilst ensuring timely delivery and value for money, is key to the delivery of our DCMS strategy.

The DPS establishes standard terms that favour the customer and align with DCMS commercial requirements. This award in Northumberland confirmed that the market is prepared to accept these terms. These include the option for suppliers to bid either a fixed price or a price subject to survey. On this occasion the market decided to accept the risks associated with survey outcomes and chose to bid a firm price. This represents a substantial change in supplier behaviour which benefits all parties. This ensured all deployment risk is managed by the supplier with no ‘subject to survey’ clause. 

Help keep your communities connected

Make smart buying decisions for the supply of gigabit capable network services with our Gigabit Capable Connectivity DPS (RM6095).

To learn how the DPS can support your initiative, view the web page or complete our online form and our team of commercial experts will be in touch.

Housing maintenance and management services – creating a contract that works for you

Purchasing housing services through CCS has never been easier. Modular in design, you can build your own specification and buy the following services from the above lot:

Planned maintenance services e.g. Mechanical and electrical engineering, fire detection and fire fighting systems, air conditioning, lifts, security, access systems and building fabric maintenance.

Responsive services e.g. Repair of mechanical and electrical systems, gas or water leaks, roofing, cctv system, fire detection and fire-fighting equipment, access control systems, lift faults, lighting, roads and pathways, glazing and replacement locks, including lock-outs.

Statutory services e.g. Gas systems servicing and certification, asbestos management, water hygiene, electrical testing, portable appliance testing (PAT), fire risk assessments, energy performance certification (EPC), lifts and buyer premise condition surveys.

Void property maintenance; suppliers will be responsible for maintaining and repairing void properties, and will also work in collaboration to minimise the period the premises remain vacant, minimising the loss of rental income and maintaining lettable standards.

Miscellaneous services; adaptations and disabled access equipment, insurance claims service, concierge, caretaker and security services, graffiti removal, refuse collection, window cleaning, pest control, redecoration and grounds maintenance.

Customers can add their own social value and community benefit requirements at call off providing the opportunity to align with your own organisational social value aims. All our suppliers are also actively mitigating modern slavery within their supply chains enabling customers to meet their own commitments. 

We have four suppliers on our framework, all with an established footprint within the housing sector and all with national reach:

Bell Decorating Services

Engie Regeneration

Mears

Wates Living Space

This framework runs until 24/01/2023 and is accessible via self-service call off. The call off documents and full specification can be found in the ‘documents’ tab on our web page.

Our expert procurement team at CCS can also offer an assisted service if needed. To find out more, please get in touch via our online form. 

New, improved apprenticeship training marketplace coming soon

About the marketplace

The marketplace will help you use your apprenticeship levy funds to access training solutions and meet your statutory apprenticeship targets. 

The electronic filtering system makes it simple to find suitable Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) registered apprenticeship training and end-point assessment suppliers. Suppliers can join or update their service offering at any time.

You will also be safe in the knowledge that you are compliant with both public procurement and ESFA funding rules.

Coming soon

We’ll soon be launching a more intuitive system to help users that don’t have procurement experience. You will find guidance and workflow prompts to help you at each stage of the buying process.

The system will tell you how many suppliers meet your criteria as you add filters, helping you refine your search accordingly. 

You will have the option to conduct a fully digitised end to end transaction, including desktop evaluation of suppliers, completing the order form and contract terms, digitally signing contracts and sending them to the supplier.

The system’s flexibility will mean you can also take the process offline at any stage, if you prefer. For example, you might want to run your further competition offline and / or complete the contract documents offline, if that suits your governance requirements better.  

Whichever option you choose, you can automatically publish your contract awards to Contract Finder. This is a requirement for all contracts over £10,000 for transparency.

You can also assign users different roles, so that activities can be completed by specific individuals based on their role in the procurement process. This can be useful if, for example, you need sign-off before you put the contract in place. 

Empowering you to make better buying decisions

These enhancements have all been designed to make buying apprenticeship training quicker and simpler.

We’re creating a recorded webinar to walk you through using the marketplace to help you get started. 

 Fill in our online form mentioning ‘apprenticeship training webinar’ in the subject box, if you would like to be updated when the improvements are live and be sent a copy of the recorded webinar,

You can also call us on 0345 410 2222 or email info@crowncommercial.gov.uk 

Harlow College secures speedy rollout of IT for staff and students through CCS

The college wanted to expand its existing estate of Apple devices for staff and students. However, they found that what they needed could not be supplied and supported through their usual purchasing route.

When they reached out to us for advice, our team of technology education experts recommended our TePAS framework, as it could help them find a solution to meet their needs.

Delivering outstanding service as standard

Using TePAS, the college was assured that all suppliers were pre-vetted by us and due diligence had been conducted. 

In addition, having access to the framework’s standard terms and conditions and pricing structure meant the college could spend less time researching vendors and negotiating contracts – without being exposed to any additional risk.

The college ran a further competition under lot 2 of the framework to find a reseller that could provide the devices, consolidate their device management solutions for mobile and desktop devices, and provide logistical support to ensure a cross-college rollout. 

Delivering a seamless rollout

Jigsaw24 who are a highly qualified supplier of Apple products in the UK and recognised as an Apple Authorised Enterprise Reseller, Apple Premium Service Provider and Apple Education Specialist, were awarded the contract. 

They worked with the college to ensure that all devices were delivered on time and to spec by an Apple-approved partner, and that there were sufficient staff present to support a speedy delivery and rollout. 

UK stock of the latest Apple devices was limited at the time as a direct result of COVID-19, but close ties with Apple and a strong stock position meant the supplier could source the devices within a week of winning the further competition, and pair with licences for Jamf Pro, the leading device management solution for Apple. 

We love working with Jigsaw24 as they always do a great job with solution delivery and support with Jamf and training. We are really pleased with the results for both our teaching staff and our learners.

David Higgs, IT Manager, Harlow College.

Let us add power to your procurement

Our TePAS framework offers you a flexible way to buy IT hardware, off-the-shelf software and associated services to suit your organisation’s technology needs.

To find out how we can help you:

Sustainable IT hardware explained: what it is and how you can buy it

Sustainable IT is based on the circular economy model. This is a positive move away from the old linear product creation style of ‘take-make-dispose’, to a more sustainable ‘make-use-recycle’ route, making the most of our planet’s limiting resources. 

If you’re looking to buy your IT hardware such as laptops or tablets sustainably, there are a number of options that can help you. The main 2 options are buying remanufactured or refurbished, and leasing or buy-back, both of which can be done using our Technology Products and Associated Services (TePAS) framework.

1. Buying remanufactured or refurbished

Both of these options offer you assurance that you will pay an overall reduced price and the IT equipment will be recycled and disposed of compliantly. With leasing, high-end technology products such as servers and laptops, where the lease is put in place for 2 to 3 years, are usually the best value. To use TePAS for leasing or buy-back, you would need to put this requirement under the special terms when running a further competition..

Remanufactured means to rebuild a product, which uses both recycled and new components to replace the older parts. Refurbishing is for products returned to the manufacturer to be rebuilt and quality checked before resale. For ease of mind, purchasing either type of equipment will come with a full warranty. 

Buying remanufactured or refurbished products has many sustainability benefits, such as:  

  • reduces carbon footprint in relation to the supply of equipment, compared to the purchasing of new products
  • reduces toxins from seeping into the environment though disposal of equipment
  • lower electronic waste (estimated at 45 million tonnes per year) 
  • reduces the impact of labour and production including waste, air pollutants, and water pollutants
  • more cost effective – a customer of ours has previously purchased refurbished hardware and made a saving of 76% when compared with buying new equipment

To buy remanufactured products through TePAS, all you need to do is put this requirement under the special terms when running a further competition.

2. Lease or buy-back

Leasing IT equipment is an ideal option if you have a short term requirement. This gives you the required equipment for a set period of time, which could be as little as 3 months. 

Buy-back is an increasingly attractive option as it takes product disposal into account. The customer buys and owns the technology but there is a clause in the contract stating the supplier is to buy-back all or part of the purchased equipment after a certain period of time. That equipment can then be remanufactured and reused, in turn assisting the circular economy.

Empowering you to make sustainable buying decisions

You can find more information on the purchasing options in our TePAS buyer guidance, available in the document section on our website. 

Our experts are here to support you to make sustainable choices in your next procurement. Complete our online form to let us know your requirements and a member of our team will be in touch.

Secure and easy access to Facilities Management services online

The digital portal significantly simplifies the procurement of Facilities Management services for public and third sector organisations.

What is it?

The Facilities Management (FM) digital portal is an online tool that has been developed for public and third sector organisations, to securely and efficiently procure FM services online. The portal provides a simplified procurement route, removing the need for excessive paperwork and saving you time to focus on the priorities that matter most to your organisation. 

What can I buy?

The digital portal provides access to an extensive range of FM services, including but not limited to:

  • maintenance
  • catering services
  • cleaning services
  • security services
  • waste services
  • miscellaneous FM services
  • computer-aided facilities management (CAFM)
  • helpdesk services

How can I benefit?

Users of the portal can benefit from: 

  • a compliant route to market for both further competition and direct award (where applicable)
  • easy-to-use system that guides you through the process
  • ability to shortlist suppliers, by specific location, ready for further competition 
  • obtain an estimated contract cost 
  • ability to bulk upload your service requirements via smart spreadsheet tool 
  • storage of key information about your buildings, enabling easy updates for future procurements

If at any point you require further assistance, our dedicated FM team is on hand to help via phone or email. 

Next steps

Start seeing the benefits today – visit the portal to get started or register for our upcoming webinar which takes place on 25 March. 

Supporting urgent local authority staffing and social care needs

The government announced a new £120 million fund to help local authorities boost social care staffing levels on 17 January. This is in addition to the £149 million grant system announced in December to support increased testing in care homes.

The £120 million fund can be used to:

  • provide additional care staff where shortages arise
  • support administrative tasks so experienced and skilled staff can focus on providing care
  • help existing staff to take on additional hours, if they wish, with overtime payments or by covering childcare costs

Whether COVID-19 is creating staffing challenges due to absence, you need extra people to support the NHS Test and Trace and vaccination programmes, or you have a need specific to your authority, we can help.

How we can help

Our Non Clinical Temporary and Fixed Term Staff framework can help you recruit staff quickly and easily in a range of areas including: 

  • administration and clerical 
  • caterers, drivers, security, estates and maintenance 
  • finance, accounts and audit 
  • IT technicians, analysts and technical engineer specialists

If you need experienced healthcare staff, such as social care workers and nurses, the Clinical and Healthcare Staffing framework can help you find suitable temporary workers. 

Both frameworks are open to all public sector organisations, as well as being part of the NHS Workforce Alliance portfolio. They are free to use and quick to access. There is no on-boarding process, so you can get started straight away and deal directly with your chosen suppliers. You can award a call-off contract directly or run a further competition, if you prefer.

Between the 2 frameworks you will have full coverage of all clinical and non-clinical roles. This includes access to suppliers who specialise in niche and hard to fill roles, and suppliers who specialise in the provision of high volume pieces of work.

Compliance is an important part of both frameworks. All suppliers are inspected annually by an external inspector, as well as a mandatory requirement for a yearly self-audit. This means you can be assured that the workers you recruit through our frameworks have had their compliance checks completed in a robust manner.

Getting started

Visit the framework pages and click on the documents tab. You will find a range of guides to help you get started, along with a copy of the overarching terms and conditions that all suppliers work to. 

If you would like a copy of the rate card for either framework, or further advice and support, simply email info@crowncommercial.gov.uk

You can also call us on 0345 410 2222 or complete our short online form. 

Crown Commercial Service and Amazon Web Services launch new MoU for cloud computing services

Our new agreement, which is called the One Government Value Agreement (OGVA), will make it easier for customers to take full advantage of a wide range of AWS’s cloud computing services at a significantly discounted rate. 

The OGVA has 2 tiers: foundation and enterprise. The foundation tier is aimed at supporting smaller organisations, or those at the start of their cloud transformation, and provides specialised training and accelerators to support the initial migration of services into the cloud. The enterprise tier focuses on large organisations, or those who already use the cloud, and helps to drive further value through optimisation and innovation of their established cloud environment.

By treating the UK government and wider public sector as a single client, the OGVA allows access to preferential commercial terms and supports the One Government Cloud Strategy initiative to make the transition to the cloud easier and more cost-effective.

Establishing new routes to market and supporting the digital ambitions of organisations across the entire public sector has been a strategic deliverable for CCS and this MoU marks a great milestone in delivery value and operational choice. 

Learn more about the agreement

If you would like to discover how your organisation could benefit from our new OGVA agreement, you can register for our complimentary customer webinar on 17 February at 10:00am.

You can  contact your existing AWS account manager by visiting the website, or alternatively, if you would like to speak to a technology expert at CCS, please complete our online form quoting ‘OGVA MoU’ and we will be in touch.

How to buy electronic tagging, tracking and monitoring software through CCS

Here at CCS, we are always looking at new ways to support our customers. A recent example of this has come from the launch of G-Cloud 12.

What you said

Our customer team has previously been asked about the availability of electronic tagging, tracking and monitoring software through our agreements as you can see below:

“Our current Electronic Tagging Management System is coming up for renewal, have you at CCS got a competitive route to market?”

“What electronic tagging suppliers do you have?”

“Is there an easy filtering system to help me find a supplier who best suits my electronic tagging requirements?”

“Are CCS able to help me in using the GCloud framework as I have never used it before?”

With the recent launch of G-Cloud 12, we now have a solution for you.

How can I find electronic tagging products?

Using a simple 6 step buying process, G-Cloud 12 offers you a quick and easy route to market for all of your tagging, tracking and monitoring software needs.

If you want to find out more information on procuring services under G-Cloud 12, we recently published an article containing everything you need to know about the agreement, including the simple 6 step buying process that you can follow.

What search terms should I use?

On the Digital Marketplace, when you reach step 2 of the buying process you are required to input your search terms, the best way to find tagging, tracking and monitoring software is to search for terms such as ‘offender + tagging’, ‘tagging + monitoring’, ‘offender + monitoring’ and ‘tracking + monitoring’.

Get in touch

If you want to find out more about procuring through G-Cloud, we run monthly webinars explaining how to use the framework. If you have any specific questions, complete our form and a member the team will get back to you to help with your requirements.

Minds matter – using social value to tackle mental health in construction

Updated: August 2023

Our Category Lead, Clare Chamberlain, discussed the importance of social value in your construction projects and gave top tips on how to ensure it’s not missed off the list.

Here, Jasmine Evans, Commercial Agreements Manager – Construction, as a mental health first aider, shows why it’s important to increase the awareness of mental health in the sector and how to incorporate it into the social value requirements of your construction projects.

The lay of the land

The construction industry is vital to the UK economy. According to government statistics, the country’s 1 million construction firms employ 2.4 million people and the sector contributed £117bn in 2018 to the nation’s economy.

In construction, physical health is often seen as the most important thing, with signs everywhere reminding people to wear safety equipment and hundreds of hours are devoted to safety training. But mental health can be affected just as much as physical health through heavy workloads, long working hours, high-risk physical tasks, and often a lack of routine, frequent travelling, being separated from family, and working in isolation. As construction workers are also contract-based, anxiety can be triggered by a lack of job security or steady income.

Did you know…?

  • Depression and anxiety within the construction industry has increased by 10% from 2016-2017, with a fifth of all cases of ill health in the sector stemming from mental health issues. Consequently, over 400,000 work days are lost each year. [HSE: Construction statistics in Great Britain, 2018]

And according to a new report from the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB)

  • 26% of construction industry professionals thought about taking their own lives in 2019 – before the COVID-19 pandemic had hit the industry – and 97% recorded being stressed at least once since
  • Over 30% of all construction sites have no hot water, and no toiletry facilities for workers. All these things have an impact on mental health and wellbeing.
  • In a survey of over 2,000 construction industry professionals, stress (97%) was the most common mental health issue felt over the past year.
  • Many experience mental health problems due to late payment of invoices, affecting payment of their supply chain – as a result 80% had experienced stress, 40% experienced anxiety and/or panic attacks, and 36% experienced depression. 
  • 56% of construction professionals work for organisations with no policies on mental health in the workplace. 

Building minds up

Fortunately, the industry itself is becoming more aware of these issues and the mental health culture within workplaces is slowly starting to see change.

There are now employee assistance programmes such as the ‘Construction Industry Helpline’ that can provide instant help on a variety of issues around wellbeing via their phone and new mobile app. 

Initiatives such as Mates in Mind, is a recently-launched leading UK charity that enables UK construction organisations, of any size, to improve their workforces’ mental health and has the backing of the British Safety Council, the Health in Construction Leadership Group, and the Samaritans. 

Employers are also now signing up to Building Mental Health Charters to demonstrate their commitment to promoting awareness and understanding of mental health as well as lowering stigma, and training up mental health first aiders to support their employees.

But there’s more support that public sector organisations can show, whilst also tackling wider issues that impact us all.

Using your procurement practices to support – social value tackling health inequalities

The Social Value Act came into force in January 2013, and requires public sector commissioners – including local authorities and health sector bodies – to consider economic, social and environmental wellbeing in procurement of services contracts.

The recent policy note highlights changes that mean, from January 2021, public sector buyers are required to think differently about how they can secure social value from the goods and services they buy for their local area and/or stakeholders. One of the ways you can do this is to consider incorporating health into the social value requirements of your new construction projects.

Creating social value has clear connections with efforts to reduce health inequalities through action on the social determinants of health – for example, by improving employment and housing. It creates a new opportunity and potential to use local and national commissioning to support improvements in the health and wellbeing of local people and in the longer term reduce the demand on health services and other services.

Public Health England (PHE) commissioned the UCL Institute of Health Equity (IHE) to assess the potential of the Social Value Act to support action to reduce health inequalities and has produced guidance around this which seeks to encourage, support and improve implementation of the Social Value Act in relation to reducing health inequalities and provide examples of it’s application in practice.

To implement these social value aims within your tenders and working practices, some initial ideas could be: 

  • contractors to sign up to the Building Mental Health Charter
  • contractors to aim to have the recommended minimum Mental Health First Aiders trained based on number of employees
  • contractor’s management tier to have all undertaken a form of Mental Health awareness training in order to look after their staff appropriately
  • contractors to have a dedicated Mental Health support program in place for their organisation ie Employee Assistance Programme 
  • urging Contractors to have in place a diverse workforce for their projects 
  • enforcing compliance with payment terms for the whole supply chain
  • mandate a standard level of working facilities for contractor workers to improve their working conditions 

For further ideas on how to incorporate mental health considerations into your project you may want to consider the new Social Value Model which has suggestions on how to further include it in your tender and offers useful evaluation metrics. 

Learn more about social value

Visit our social value webpage or get in touch with our expert team to find out more about social value and how it’s embedded into our agreements.

More: You can now find all of our Procurement Essentials articles in one place on our website.

Next steps

For more advice and guidance on tackling social value in construction projects please fill in our short online form and one of our commercial experts will be in touch. 

You can also explore our full range of construction frameworks on our dedicated construction web page.

Further policy advice and guidance on social value can be found on GOV.UK.