Selling to Stroud District Council
How a business can supply goods and services to Stroud District Council.
Procurement Act 2023 – Supplier / Business Information
You may already be aware of the upcoming changes to public procurement rules and procedures for the Public Sector. The new regulations have been approved and the new Procurement Act 2023 will be launched on Monday 24th February 2025 and focuses on simplifying public procurement for public benefit, transparency, scrutiny and value for money.
This new legislation will change the way Stroud District Council and the wider public sector undertake the procurement of works, goods and services.
The existing Public Contract Regulations rules will continue to apply for existing contracts and for tender opportunities that are already in progress, however, for all new procurements commenced from the 24th February 2025 (excluding call offs from existing framework agreements), it is important that you understand the changes.
You should start to assess how these changes will affect you if you are a supplier who already work with or are interested in working with us.
The Cabinet Office who are leading the Transforming Public Procurement Programme that is implementing the act has a website that provides information and guidance for suppliers includes a selection of short videos (Knowledge drop videos) and guidance (landing page) designed to provide a high level overview of the changes to the procurement regulations and aimed at those who have regular interactions with procurement.
All businesses wishing to sell their goods or services to the council after 24 February will need to register at Find a Tender (it will be called the Central Digital Platform) on GOV.UK to bid for new tenders.
A key objective for the Procurement Act is to make it easier for suppliers to do business with the public sector, as such there are some core benefits for suppliers once the new regime goes live in February, including:
· A central place (known as the Central Digital Platform) to register and to store your core business details, such as company registration details, so that they can be used for multiple bids.
· Embedding transparency throughout the procurement lifecycle and access to information, with all public procurement opportunities in one place via Find a Tender, making it easier to search for and set up alerts for procurements of interest to your business.
· Improved visibility of Public procurement plans.
· Greater visibility for large public sector contracts above £5 million, and the details of those public contracts.
· A range of new procurement procedures available including a new ‘competitive flexible’ procedure.
· Opportunities for the Public Sector to create more flexible Frameworks.
· A new duty on the Public Sector to have regard to the barriers facing SMEs and VCSEs, and to consider what can be done to overcome them.
· Strengthened provisions for prompt payment throughout the supply chain.
· A stronger exclusions framework will take tougher action on underperforming suppliers.
In the meantime, if you would like to discuss any aspect of the new Procurement Act please contact the dedicated Transforming Public Procurement helpdesk at procurement.reform@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Advertising contracts
Stroud District Council has joined the Supplying the South West Procurement Portal, this is an electronic procurement system. This allows potential suppliers to view all current contracts, receive notification of upcoming tenders and formally register their interest in opportunities to supply the participating councils.
We will publish the majority of our contract and tender opportunities on the Supplying the South West portal, alongside many other authorities in the South West region.
Registration and use of the Portal is completely free of charge, and you will be able to update your own information as required.
You can register online at www.supplyingthesouthwest.org.uk. Registering on this portal means you no longer need to send unsolicited mail or produce expensive sales literature – we will alert you when a relevant opportunity is advertised. One registration will cover all participating authorities.
Where the estimated value of a contract is expected to exceed £25,000, it is also advertised on the Governments Contracts Finder Website, along with other opportunities from the government and its agencies.
Where the estimated value of a contract is expected to exceed the relevant Public Contracts Regulations 2015 financial thresholds, currently at £213,477 (including VAT) for goods and certain services, and £5,336,937 (including VAT) for public works contracts, it is also advertised on the Find a Tender Services (FTS) website.
Information we will need from you
When you respond to a tender notice, you will normally be asked to complete a Supplier Questionnaire (SQ).
This enables us to assess an organisation's suitability for delivering a particular service, supply or works. This short-listing process saves both our time and yours in effort being unnecessarily spent on completing tender documents by companies who do not meet the selection criteria.
The information we ask for in the SQ is to verify that an organisation can be identified as a legitimate discrete trading organisation i.e. address of office, registration number and company group information has acceptable levels of economic and financial standing and promotes good practices in areas of racial equality, environmental protection and health and safety. Because longer-term partnership working is becoming increasingly important to us, it is essential that we have a full understanding of our likely partners. The areas usually assessed can be summarised as follows:
Financial information
In this section, you are asked for certain financial information relating to your company for each of the last two years. The information is used to assess the financial position of your company in relation to the size of the contract. We also require information to check you are registered (if appropriate) for tax and that you will comply with our insurance requirements.
A banker's reference and/or Dun & Bradstreet (or equivalent) report is often requested.
Sustainability
We are committed to the sustainable development of the district, a fundamental objective of which is the protection and enhancement of the environment. Please see the 2030 Strategy. We expect organisations that we deal with to have similar levels of commitment.
Equalities
We strongly support equal opportunity, equal access, and positive outcomes for all sections of the community. We strive to ensure that the standards we expect internally are supported by organisations who carry out work for the council and we assess a firm's compliance with Equality legislation in this section, you are asked to respond to questions about how you include equality in your employment and service delivery practices.
Health and safety
All organisations are required to submit a Health and Safety Policy signed by a senior person, which refers to Health and Safety legislation
Experience and technical ability
We ask about your relevant experience and technical ability to carry out the categories of work or type of service that you wish to provide. You will be asked to provide a minimum of three references. We will also normally ask further questions tailored to match the needs of the individual contract. Your responses and supporting evidence will be used to assess whether you have the required level of skills and abilities to tender in relation to other interested firms.
Best value
A well-trained and motivated workforce is vital to the provision of Best Value services. We will use our influence to ensure, so far as possible, that those who work for the authority, whether directly or indirectly employed, are adequately and fairly rewarded and trained.
Social Value
The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 introduces a statutory requirement for public authorities to take into account the "economic, social and environmental well-being of the relevant area" in its procurement activity. At Stroud District Council, we require all procurements over £75,000 to include social value metrics as a part of the scoring and evaluation process.
We use Stroud Themes, Outcomes and Measures (TOMs), a tailored version of the National TOMs Framework, to capture social value and to ensure offers can be evaluated in an open, fair and transparent way.