Procurement

The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames annually spends in excess of £100 million on goods, works and services.

About the Corporate Procurement Unit

The Council has a central procurement function to co-ordinate procurement activity within the borough, ensuring that all staff concerned with procurement and tendering follow best practice. The Corporate Procurement Unit offers advice and guidance to all staff on best practice and ensures the procurement processes are compliant.

Contracts for the supply of goods, services and works for the Council are advertised on an ongoing basis and we encourage as wide a selection of contractors as possible to submit bids. Most of the council's day to day purchasing is devolved to the service Departments

Local authority tendering and contracting is strictly governed by Contract Standing Orders, Financial Regulations and the relevant EU Procurement Directives.

Procurement Portal

The Council's Procurement Portal offers suppliers the opportunity to view our contract announcements in real time. The Council uses BiP Solutions' e-notice service Project to advertise EU and non-EU public notices, and publishes these on the Portal.

Providing adult services - Are you ready?

The Council has undertaken a consultation exercise on the priorities for commissioning and providing adult services (Universal and Preventative services), and is now in the process of drawing up a list of services that will be commissioned up until October 2012.

We are working with Richmond Council for Voluntary Service (RCVS) on a programme of training and support to assist any organisation that may be unfamiliar or need a refresher on the commissioning and contracting/tendering processes.

A series of training sessions are planned throughout October and November 2011 to cover commissioning. See the following document for more details and how to book a place:

Providing adult services - Training sessions(pdf, 24KB)

Tender Opportunity for Children's Services

The Education, Children’s and Cultural Services Directorate, on behalf of the borough’s Single Quindrat Commissioning Board (SQCB) is undertaking an open tendering round in order to procure twelve services to support children and young people across four distinct delivery areas:

• Three services for the provision of Early Years Services for Young Children and their families
• Seven services to provide short break opportunities to disabled children / children with additional needs and their families
• A reducing risk taking behaviour programme for young people
• A mental health service to children, young people and their families

All services will commence from April 2012 and will run for between 12 month and 24 months with an option for a further 2 periods of 12 months (up to 4 years maximum)

To learn more and express interest in this opportunity, please view the Tender advert(pdf, 46KB).

Selling to the Council

Corporate Procurement have produced a Selling to Richmond Guide(pdf, 88KB) which we hope will offer useful guidance to potential contractors/service providers. We are aware that dealing with the public sector is a minefield for some companies and third sector organisations. This guide should help companies understand more about how we procure goods, works and services.

Contract Standing Orders

Download a copy of the Council's Contract Standing Orders(pdf, 173KB)

For the purchase of goods and services, the Council's Standing Orders require that quotations and tenders be obtained according to the value of the contract as follows:

• Up to £1000 - No specific number of quotations required
• £1001-£10 000 - three written quotations required
• £10 001- £50 000 - four written quotations required
• Over £50 000 - at least four tenders (5 if EU regulations apply)

(EU directives apply if over appropriate threshold.)

Approved list

The Council only maintains an approved list for the provision of construction and related services. Our approved list is maintained by Exor Management Services.

All Contractors are vetted both financially and technically before being included on the list. The number of contractors permitted within each category of works is limited.

For works or services for which there is an associated category on the list, only contractors included on the list will be invited to tender. However please note that this is only applicable up to the OJEU Threshold. Above the threshold formal advertisements will be issued inviting companies to submit an expression of interest.

For further details on applying to join the list please contact Exor Management Services.

Equality and diversity in procurement

The Council has produced a Guide to Integrating Equality for Contractors and Project Officers(pdf, 127KB).

Procurement Strategy

Download a copy of the Council's Interim Procurement Strategy(pdf, 143KB).

Contracts Register

The London Centre of Excellence recently led a project for a London wide contracts register. Only contracts with a value in excess of £50 000 are included on the site. Richmond currently has over 100 contracts on the list. Please visit the London Contracts Register website for more details.

www.londoncontractsregister.co.uk

Agency staff

The Borough operates a Neutral Vendor for the day to day management of our Agency Staff. Staff can only be booked through the service provider. Companies who wish to supply agency/interim staff are advised to contact Comensura. Please visit www.comensura.co.uk for more details.

Glossary of procurement terminology

We have put together a glossary of commonly used procurement terminology(pdf, 50KB) which you may find useful.