Tackling single use plastics in the workplace this Plastic Free July

Plastic Free July, a global movement to tackle plastic pollution, serves as a reminder of the harmful role plastics play in our increasingly fragile natural environment.  The government has stated it is committed to taking appropriate action addressing CSUP waste through a range of initiatives. The 25-year Environment Plan aims to eliminate avoidable plastics by the year 2042. To achieve this, public sector staff and the supply chain need to work ever more closely together. 

CCS is supporting this ambition. We have worked with suppliers – establishing steps which can be taken to remove CSUPs from new and existing contracts at neutral cost, either through direct savings or as a result of savings elsewhere in the supply chain or waste management process.

Our Facilities Management suppliers have identified key items for phased replacement, and they fall into three broad categories:

Cleaning – e.g. wipes, brushes, scourers, soap, consumables, dishwasher tablets, bags

Catering – e.g. condiment containers, sachets, tea bags, shrink-wrap, milk bottles, bags

Tableware and Takeaway​ – e.g. cups, cutlery, stirrers, straws, takeaway boxes

In order to remove such items from the workplace, suppliers have also identified practical alternatives including:

  • bulk concentrates of cleaning substances which are diluted and decanted into reusable pump-spray bottles
  • foamer soaps in dispensers which go up to 10 times further than liquid soaps
  • reusable and launderable cloths to replace disposable wipes
  • glass milk bottles in smaller catering settings, or large milk bladders in bigger operations
  •  metal, bioplastic, wood and cardboard tableware in canteens
  • a ‘latte levy’ to incentivise reusable cups in canteens

Our agreement is designed to let all public sector bodies take advantage of these solutions and help eliminate CSUPs from public sector purchasing. CCS aims to help public sector bodies navigate the facilities procurement landscape by supporting them to make cost-effective, compliant procurement decisions that benefit their local communities.

For more information and guidance on how your organisation can change the way it sources single use items, download our free whitepaper: The elimination of consumer single use plastics today.

Expert support for your telecoms procurements

With a broad range of services available and many technical complexities, we understand that for buyers with a limited technical background, telecoms can be one of the most complex things to procure.

Often, contracts cover a broad range of services with a high level of technical complexities, and it can be challenging to gain an understanding of the existing estate.

To help overcome this hurdle, experts in our Network Services team can provide assistance with your technology and telecoms procurements to help evaluate how your organisation could save on telecoms. In short, a mini consulting piece, free of charge, to help you complete your procurement through our Network Services agreements. 

This expert support covers:

  • developing an understanding of your current telecoms estate 
  • helping develop a statement of requirements
  • advising on the procurement process

Agreements in our Network Services category include:

  • Network Services 2 
  • Health and Social Care Network (HSCN) Access Services
  • Technology Expense Management
  • Gigabit Capable Connectivity
  • Crown Hosting
  • PSN Core Services

Find out more about our offering on our website.

If you need additional technical support with an upcoming or ongoing networking or telecoms procurement, please complete our form stating ‘Network Services procurement support offer’ along with any further details about your requirements in the comments box and a member of our team will be in touch.

CCS and ESPO partnership puts customers at the forefront through innovative tech offering

Since 2012, we’ve been working alongside ESPO to help and support customers, predominantly within the local government and education sectors.

Our latest partnership will allow us to offer maximum value to customers who want to buy hardware and software like laptops, desktops, screens and software licenses. 

This is offered as part of our Technology Products & Associated Services (TePAS) framework and through our Education Technology framework, which is expected to appeal to ESPO’s school customers. 

With remote working more important than ever, both frameworks are key routes to market for the technologies and services needed to ensure staff can operate effectively, in and out of the workplace.

Education Technology and TePAS customers can also expect to benefit from access to expertise, guidance and support from our expert teams, alongside in-depth sector knowledge and a wide selection of products and services.

By working together, we believe that we can help more public sector customers than ever before to get even better value through a wider range of innovative products and services.

Our Chief Executive, Simon Tse, said:

CCS and ESPO share an understanding of just how important the customer experience is at every stage of their procurement journey.  These agreements have been designed in collaboration with those who use them, and we’re really proud to be offering them to the market in collaboration with ESPO – an organisation we have a long and successful history of working closely with.

Maurice Campbell, Assistant Director – Commercial and Procurement at ESPO, added:

This latest collaboration comes at a crucial time as many people continue to navigate new ways of working remotely. These solutions ensure the best possible service and outcome for our customers and the wider public sector, allowing quick, easy and compliant access to a wide range of technology hardware and software. We’re pleased to be continuing our work with CCS in our ongoing efforts to meet the needs of our customers.

Visit our website to find out more about our TePAS and Education Technology frameworks or complete our online form to speak to one of the team.

Charter travel services for the university sector in response to COVID-19

In response to the travel restrictions coronavirus (COVID-19) has brought, there is increasing interest from the university sector in chartering air and other travel solutions to help safely bring international students into the country.

At CCS, we can facilitate access to experienced suppliers who can navigate the unique needs and complexities of the travel sector at this challenging time. 

Our suppliers can offer end-to-end travel solutions – from chartering international flights to sourcing travel once in the United Kingdom – that can be accessed through 2 of our frameworks, both of which offer direct award for quick access: 

  • RM6016 – Public Sector Travel and Venue Solutions – Lot 4
  • RM6164 – Public Sector Global Travel and Venue Solutions – Lot B  

During the COVID-19 response, many of these suppliers supported the government with their charter travel needs, demonstrating their capability in, at pace, designing robust and flexible travel solutions.

When putting together a solution to suit your requirements, our suppliers can:  

  • Provide dedicated travel specialists to manage groups
  • Negotiate directly with carriers to ensure on-time and on-budget delivery
  • Coordinate your charter aircraft schedule – regardless of passengers numbers or point of origin and destination
  • Liaise with regulatory authorities to secure all landing permits and approvals 
  • Provide an online platform to support students’ self-service registration, including payment services and health screening
  • Manage flight manifests, ensuring accurate passenger information is provided to the required authorities 
  • Offer 24/7 booking support to students 
  • Prepare operational and financial reporting to support your business needs
  • Facilitate access to other travel services such as accommodation and visa support.

Once students arrive in the United Kingdom, you may be looking to book vehicle with driver services, such as taxis and coaches, to support their safe transportation to campus. 

Both RM6016 and RM6164 offer this service as part of their end-to-end solution. However, if you would like to contract directly with suppliers for this element of your requirements, our Public Sector Passenger Transport Services – Taxi & Coaches (RM6121) framework offers a Dynamic Purchasing System. 

Learn More

If you want to learn more about how we can help you safely welcome international students into the United Kingdom you can get in touch with our category experts via email or this online form.

You can also find out more about each of our frameworks by following the links below:

  • RM6016 – Public Sector Travel and Venue Solutions 
  • RM6164 – Public Sector Global Travel and Venue Solutions
  • RM6121 – Public Sector Passenger Transport Services – Taxi & Coaches

Virtual training with Managed Learning Services

Like so many sectors, the impact of COVID-19 has forced learning and development suppliers to rapidly innovate.  

Knowledgepool is the single supplier on our Managed Learning Services framework. They have been working hard with their supply chain to replace classroom and face to face training with virtual training solutions.

Over 90% of the courses on offer through the framework catalogue are now available in digital learning formats. What’s more, many of the suppliers offering these courses are SMEs spread across the UK, helping ensure you can also contribute to your local social value commitments. 

What’s on offer?

You can now access almost 2,300 virtual training courses from the safety of wherever you are working right now. We have seen an increase in demand in the following areas:

  • continuous professional development (CPD): as people take the opportunity during lockdown to update and progress their development
  • critical thinking: customers in the health and social care sector, in particular, are looking for bespoke and specialist coaching focused to help them deal with the impact of COVID-19 and develop new processes and procedures 
  • resilience training is also proving popular

Learn more

To find out more you can visit the framework page.

You can also email us or complete this short online form if you would like to speak to one of our category experts about your particular training needs.

Read more about how Knowledgepool has been responding to the current challenges.

The future of learning and development

Our Managed Learning Services framework has recently been extended until 3 July 2021. We are currently looking at what you need from our next learning and development framework, and how that might have changed as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

Respond to our survey

We want to make sure that we can support the learning and training needs of all public sector organisations, and would appreciate a few minutes of your time to complete our short survey and share your thoughts. 

eRostering, HR and payroll solutions join the Workforce Alliance

Having the right software systems in place can reassure staff that your trust is supporting them in the day to day challenges they face, whether that is eRostering or payroll or staff bank management. This is why lot 3a of our Data and Application Solutions (DAS) framework for Enterprise Applications for Health has joined the Workforce Alliance portfolio of health workforce solutions. 

What are Enterprise Applications?

Enterprise Applications are software solutions that provide business logic and tools to model business processes and help you improve productivity and efficiency. 

What can you buy?

Developed with input from the Department of Health and Social Care and the NHS, lot 3a of the framework gives you access to systems designed to meet the needs of NHS trusts. Solutions include:

  • eRostering systems
  • timesheet approvals 
  • staff bank management systems

How do you buy?

The time and resources needed to change systems sometimes outweigh potential savings. That’s why the catalogue route to market enables you to explore how you might update your existing systems without the need to conduct a further competition.

Different customers have different needs. Some want to retain their current software system with support from additional services, while others require new and innovative solutions or simply want to extend the life of their existing asset. All this can be done through the catalogue. 

If you’re looking for a brand new solution you can do that too – you’ll need to run a further competition though.

That’s why DAS has been created as a truly flexible procurement solution. It uses simplified terms and conditions written in a clear and concise manner to take away the complexity, alongside ICT-specific schedules which are more relevant to how procurement teams work.

If you would like to find out how the Workforce Alliance can help you with eRostering, HR or payroll software please email your local Workforce Alliance partner:

CCS – A helping hand towards Carbon Net Zero within Energy

The UK has legislated to end its contribution to global warming by 2050, in effect reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 100%. The Clean Growth Strategy outlines a pathway for the public sector to halve non-traded emissions from buildings (direct heat and power, plus any fugitive emissions from coolants or refrigerants) by 2032.

Finding the right path to work towards Carbon Net Zero (CNZ) is becoming increasingly challenging and brings together many aspects of an estate. We have created a guide for you to use to gauge where you are and how to make initial improvements towards CNZ. 

We recognise the challenges you may face, whether you’re a large estate or a single building. We have routes to additional and specialist support that can lead you through the steps to help you in achieving your CNZ goals. Our guide looks at how you can reduce your consumption, getting the best return on investment from just managing your energy more efficiently, before you even start to think about any capital investment such as retrofits.   

We have engaged with the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Office of Government Property (OGP) to ensure our interactive guide aligns to their ambitions and positively helps our customers on their CNZ journey.  

Visit our webpage to access our interactive guide, find out more and learn about the further support available.  

Register today for our webinar at 10am on 17 July. We will talk through the guide and what our agreements have to offer. 

NHS Lancashire Procurement Cluster save £25,000 on permanent recruitment campaign

The NHS Lancashire Procurement Cluster (LPC) is a collaborative procurement and supply chain service. They represent Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, East Lancashire NHS Trust and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. 

Last year they wanted to recruit 4 new procurement managers to support their ambitious, strategic procurement agenda.

LPC struggled to fill these roles through their standard methods, which included NHS jobs. So, they decided to appoint a specialist agency as their recruitment business partner.  

The solution

LPC used our Permanent Recruitment Solutions framework (RM6002) to help them find the right agency to meet their non-clinical recruitment needs.

The framework is also part of the Workforce Alliance suite of workforce support services for health HR and workforce functions.

Castlefield Recruitment was awarded directly due to their reputation for filling niche, hard to fill positions. They also offered LPC their premium service at a highly competitive price.

The results

Following a high profile recruitment campaign Castlefield Recruitment maintained their 100% success rate filling all 4 positions, as well as an extra 5th position:

  • 2 senior procurement managers 
  • 3 procurement managers 

In addition to the successful delivery of the project, LPC saved £25,000 by accessing the competitive rates available through the framework.  

Mike Doyle, Deputy Director, NHS Lancashire Procurement Cluster commented:

Castlefield Recruitment was highly methodical and consultative, providing a diverse and detailed shortlist with expert knowledge on each candidate, from which we appointed all roles first time round. They added huge value with a well-controlled aftercare service and smooth onboarding process which resulted in a 100% offer to acceptance rate.

Find out more

If you would like to find out how the Permanent Recruitment Solutions framework can help you with your vacancies visit the framework web page.

For further advice and guidance please email us or complete this short online form. 

For NHS customers, please email your local Workforce Alliance hub:

Digital Inclusion and Support DPS launches to help online service users

Designed to help public and third sector organisations educate service users about accessing and using their services online, as well as developing digital skills, the new agreement builds on the existing Digital Training and Support framework. Following reviews of the core service elements required by customers, engaging with suppliers and without overlapping existing CCS frameworks, the new agreement focuses on 2 core areas:

  • assisted digital – providing support to anyone who can’t access government digital services independently to help them find information and complete transactions
  • digital inclusion – helping users gain basic digital skills so that they can access government digital services independently and make the most of the internet

The new DPS will give freedom and flexibility for customers to define their requirements to meet assisted digital and/or digital inclusion users’ needs, providing access to expert suppliers of these services and helping to deliver social value outcomes, particularly inclusion and diversity. 

The DPS allows customers to find and shortlist suppliers who can offer services relating to: 

  • support – this includes the delivery of support to assist users through all or part of a public and third sector digital service
  • design – which covers services relating to the design of a digital inclusion training course, product or intervention for any channel
  • delivery – includes the delivery of digital inclusion training through any channel

Customers can then hold a mini further competition to find the most suitable supplier and will be able to award a contract for up to 5 years.  

Visit the website to find out more, or complete our form to speak to one of the team.

CCS support Leeds City Council’s Clean Air Zone solution

The requirement

In 2015, the government revealed plans to improve air quality in cities, with the introduction of five Clean Air Zones (CAZ), to be operational by 2020. One of these Clean Air Zones was to be introduced in the City of Leeds.

Improving air quality is a government priority; The Royal College of Physicians and of Paediatrics and Child Health estimates that 40,000 premature deaths a year in the UK are linked to poor air quality.

The solution

Leeds City Council procured the design, implementation and operation of CAZ monitoring and enforcement solution for the city using the Traffic Management Technology 2 commercial agreement. They received help throughout the procurement process from Danielle Carvell, Commercial Agreement Manager.

The solution will involve the deployment of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras at more than 100 junctions.

The cameras will be used to identify and register every vehicle that enters the city’s charging zone. It will query against the government’s planned database of the more heavily polluting vehicles such as taxis, coaches, private hire and heavy goods vehicles. They will then be subject to a charge aimed at discouraging them from entering the area. Private cars, vans and motorcycles will not be charged.

The money raised will only be used to cover the operating costs and for other schemes to improve air quality.

The results

The Clean Air Zone will reduce air pollution and protect the health of everyone in Leeds. Councilor James Lewis, Leeds City Council’s executive member for resources and sustainability, said:

Having received government approval for the clean air charging zone, the council is working hard to ensure the successful and timely introduction of the scheme. Being able to identify and charge non-compliant vehicles driving within the zone’s boundary is essential to encouraging businesses to switch to less polluting vehicles.

For further information

To find out more about the Traffic Management Technology 2 commercial agreement, you can:

View the commercial agreement page

Complete this online form

Call us on 0345 410 2222