Become a Supplier for the Council

The Council is committed to achieving best value in its procurement activities. Contracts are awarded based on identified needs and the most appropriate procurement route for each requirement.  Here are the possible routes;

Tendering for opportunities with the Council

The Council may require new services, goods, or works, or may need to renew existing contracts.  To facilitate this, the Council will undertake procurement activities in accordance with established procedures.  These may involve using pre-established commercial arrangements such as frameworks or Dynamic Purchasing Systems, or conducting open market procurements in line with the Procurement Act 2023 and Procurement Regulations 2024.

For procurements conducted via the open market, the Council will issue public notices to inform potential suppliers.  These notices will be published either on the Councils website or via the Find a Tender Service platform.  Full details are provided below.

Supplier Registration Requirements

To be eligible to bid for Council contracts, suppliers must first register and complete their core business information on the central digital platform (CDP).  The CDP is a secure online portal that stores supplier details, enabling multiple public sector organisations to access this information via a unique share code.  This process only needs to be completed once.

Upon successful registration, suppliers will be issued a share code, which is required when bidding for public sector opportunities.

In addition, suppliers must also register on the Councils eSourcing portal platform in order to view and respond to procurement opportunities. Full registration details are provided below.

Where to find tender opportunities

Where an established frameworks, DPS’s, marketplace or gCloud arrangements are not suitable, the Council will publish notices to call for competition.  

Council opportunities on the open market are published on either:

Low-value contracts below £10,000 Council’s website 
Contracts above £10,000: Find a Tender Service

Below is an overview of the various types of call for competition notices that the Council may issue, along with an explanation for potential suppliers:

UK1 Pipeline Notice: Notification to the market of up and coming procurements within the next 12 – 18 months.

UK2 Preliminary Market Engagement: Engagement between buyers and suppliers.

UK3 Planned Procurement Notice: Advanced notice of a specific procurement to improve suppliers forward planning.

UK4 Tender Notice: A call for competition. The opportunity is open to suppliers to review and respond too by the deadline.

UK5 Transparency Notice: Notifies the market of a direct award contract to a supplier.

UK6 Contract Award Notice: Communicates the outcome of a procurement and starts a standstill period.

UK7 Contract Details Notice: Details of the awarded contract.

Further notices are published through the contract management stages that refer to the performance and spend of the contract.

How to respond to a tender opportunity

The Council uses the In-tend eSourcing Portal.   Registration is free and only required once.  
Portal Link: In-tend eSourcing Portal

Key Features

  • Some tenders will be ‘document exchange’ whereby you can download documents, complete and upload to the portal.  Some tenders may be ‘online response’ which means the bid response will be completed in the fields.
  • Supplier guidance available under the “Supplier Guidance” tab
  • It’s advised to register a generic email address as notifications are sent directly to registered email addresses
  • All communication regarding tenders must be directed through the portal.

Use the portal’s ‘correspondence’ functionality for all queries. Responses from the Council will be shared with all suppliers unless it’s specific to the suppliers company.  After the tender closes, communication remains open until the tender box is archived.

If you encounter technical issues:
Call: 0843 8498404
Email: support@in-tend.co.uk

Open Market Tenders

The council applies different procurement procedures based on the estimated contract value to ensure transparency, compliance and value for money:

  • Under £10,000: Direct quotations are obtained from suppliers.
  • £5,000–£10,000: Opportunities are advertised on the Council’s website.
  • Above £10,000: A Contract Notice is published and a Request for Quotation (RFFQ) is issued via the Councils eSourcing portal.
  • Contracts exceeding the UK public procurement Thresholds: The Council follows fully compliant public procurement procedures,  These may include open procedures, competitive flexible procedures, direct awards, user choice, framework agreements, open frameworks, dynamic markets, the Light Touch Regime and the Provider Selection Regime. 

Procurement Organisation Frameworks 

Framework agreements are pre-established by Procurement Organisations (POs) such as CCS, ESPO, YPO, and others. The framework agreements have been through an open market tender procedure established by the PO. The agreements are then open to the public sector to purchase from. These agreements define approved suppliers and standard terms for specific goods, services, or works.

Suppliers can apply to join frameworks when a Tender Notice is published. Frameworks can be divided into “lots” and will have multiple suppliers by product or service type. Public sector bodies, including the Council, can access these frameworks via direct awards or mini competitions.

There are also established marketplaces, gCloud routes to call for competition.

Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS)

A DPS is a flexible procurement tool for commonly available goods, services, or works. Unlike frameworks, suppliers can join a DPS at any time.

DPS opportunities are divided into categories (lots). The process includes:

  • Stage 1: Submission of a Selection Questionnaire (SQ).
  • Stage 2: Approved suppliers are invited to bid for specific contracts.

Rejected suppliers may revise and resubmit their SQ until they meet the criteria.

Note: The Council’s DPS will remain open until 24 February 2029.

Last updated : 23 September 2025

Suppliers Guide to Transforming Public Procurement 2024

In March 2024 the Procurement Regulations were laid in Parliament to replace the Public Contract Regulations 2015 following the exit of the EU. The new public procurement legislation will ‘go live’ on 24 February 2025. Whilst we’re in this transitional period the Council will follow the PCR 2015. All projects after the go live date will follow the new legislation, so here’s some guidance to assist.

Overview

The Government aims to improve the way public procurement is regulated to promote a simpler more flexible, transparent and compliant route to contract that is open to all suppliers. A short guide on the changes can we viewed online.

The transition period between April 2024 and the go live date, the public sector and suppliers will be assisted by the Government through knowledge drops, animations, webinars and online guidance.

What are the Key Changes?

The Procurement Act objectives are to deliver value for money, maximise public benefit, share information and act with integrity. To deliver this the key changes are;

  • Transparency has been enhanced throughout the commercial lifecycle of the contract, from pre-procurement pipelines, procurement notices, through the contract amendments to payments.
  • Procurement Procedures have been streamlined to three processes, the open procedure, the competitive flexible procedure and direct award, making it easier to bid and communicate with the Public Sector.
  • Frameworks, open frameworks and Dynamic Markets will support approved suppliers for goods, services and works with more flexible processes and timescales.
  • Enhance Contract Finder for contract notices, contract management notices and payment notices for all values.
  • A Central Digital Platform for a one stop shop for suppliers to add their basic company information, reducing the need to submit it for every bid.
  • Most Advantageous Tender Award criteria emphasizing optimum price and quality ratio.
  • KPI’s will be included on contracts above £2m.
  • Conflicts of interest assessments to be introduced to all procurements.
  • Enhanced duties of the Public Review Service.
  • Procurement Review Service will have enhanced duties to take action when Suppliers under perform.

Benefits to Prospective Suppliers

The Government document sets out how the new regime will deliver benefits to suppliers. The new regime will remove historical barriers and make it easier for Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Voluntary, Community, and social Enterprises (VCSEs) to bid for public sector opportunities. 

As a contracting authority we will have regard to;

  • Being proportionate with the requirements
  • Realistic timescales to bid
  • Transparency of notices to reach a wide range of suppliers to ensure a diverse representation of businesses for the opportunity
  • The Council will try to be as inclusive as it can to all categories of suppliers during the procurement process.
  • Strengthened the prompt payments with suppliers and their supply chain to 30 days.

To read the full benefits the Procurement Act lends itself to prospective Suppliers.

What to do to prepare

The Government have launched the official learning and development Knowledge Drops and animations to introduce the Act and support Suppliers. These are a high level overview of the changes to the procurement regulations and are aimed to supplier including SME’s and VCSE’s.

We encourage you to receive regular Government updates when new guidance is released.

There are also factsheets (.pdf Size: 360Kb)  which outline the key benefits, the new Procurement Act and the next steps. 

Keep up to date with what we buy with the Council’s Contracts Register (.pdf Size: 1250Kb) . 

Get yourself registered on the Find a Tender Service. This is where all UK tender notices are published. 

The Governments next phase (Launch date TBC) of the Procurement Act is to deliver a Central Digital Platform (CPD). This will be a new supplier information system where suppliers can register and submit the basic company information. The CPD will be a single place where Supplier information can be accessed by Public Sector organisations to support bids. This will reduce the burden of Suppliers completing the same basic company information in every bid.

News and information

Keep yourselves up to date with the Governments news feed on the Transforming Public Procurement. 

Central Digital Platform 

The Procurement Act has also introduced the Central Digital Platform (CDP). The CDP is the new platform to facilitate publication of notices and store Supplier data making it easier for Suppliers to see Public Sector opportunities and reduce the burden of supplying the same information in multiple bids. 

Suppliers will need to register to the CDP to bid for opportunities after 24 February. TTP have put together guidance for the CDP on how to register, how to add your company information and how to use the system.  Please read through the guidance and this will answer a lot of your questions as well as who the information will be visible too. You’ll need to update your information in the CDP when natural changes happen to ensure the Public Sector evaluates your bids accurately. The easy read TPP guides are attached below but they are also available online:

On a DPS?

If you’re an approved Supplier on a DPS nothing will change until the natural end date of the DPS. However, all DPS’s must automatically come to an end by 23 February 2029. The Council will be transitioning all the current DPS’s to a new Dynamic Markets in line with the new Procurement Act. Further details will be posted through the individual DPS.

Download the Procurement Act 2023 – a short guide for suppliers (.pdf Size: 360Kb) .

Download the supplementary information: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises definition (.pdf Size: 629Kb) .

Last updated : 18 June 2025