Cumberland Procurement Summary

The role of Procurement

Procurement involves the purchasing of goods, works and services. The councils' Procurement team work to create and award contracts that deliver value for money while maximising the social, economic and environmental outcomes for residents and communities in Cumberland.

Including Social Value in everything Cumberland procures is very important to us.

You can find details of our Social Value toolkit on the Cumberland Council website.

Premier Supply Service

We also offer a Premier Supply Service. This is an early payment programme that gives suppliers the opportunity to be paid earlier than contracted terms.

The Premier Supply Service provides the option to be paid as soon as the invoice is authorised, ahead of your 30-day terms.

Cumberland Council buys from external suppliers to provide a wide range of commercial opportunities

For more information see our Contract Register (SharePoint - Updated 27.11.24), Contract Pipeline Details and Spending by the Council page.

For more information of How To Do Business With The Council, visit the Cumberland Council website.

How does Procurement Work?

All public procurement is governed by the Public Contract Regulations 2015, which sets out the rules that must be followed, according to the total value of the contract.

The Procurement team provides advice and support to the councils' departments on all aspects of commissioning, pre-procurement, procurement and contract and supplier management. The Procurement team leads larger value projects.

To ensure that the councils' procurement activities are undertaken in a fair and transparent manner, we follow Contract Standing Orders, which have been adopted as part of the councils' constitutions.

Procurement Library:

In our Procurement Library, you will find templates, documents and guides. If you don’t find what you are looking for, you can contact the Procurement team:

Send a message.

Business Transformation and Change
Cumberland Council
Cumbria House,
117 Botchergate
Carlisle
CA1 1RD
United Kingdom

Types of Procurement Procedures

There are several types of procurement procedures, but the most common process used at Cumberland is:

'Open', meaning any organisation can submit a tender

The total value of the contract also determines the type of procedure that must be followed, as detailed below:

Total Contract Value	Procedure
Up to £2,000	Responsible Officer must use a process which obtains best value for money. One oral quotation (confirmed in writing where the quotation exceeds £500). Include Local Supplier if appropriate
£2,001 - £50,000	2 written quotations. Invitation to submit a quotation in writing to at least 2 candidates, Include Local Suppliers if appropriate
£50,001 - £100,000	3 written quotations. Invitation to submit a quotation in writing to at least 3 candidates, Include at least 2 Local Suppliers if appropriate
Exceeding £100,000 but below relevant Procurement Threshold	Written Tender. The tenders must be advertised on Contracts Finder and via the councils' e-tendering system
Procurement Threshold and above	Written Tender. The tenders must be advertised on Find a Tender System (FTS), Contracts Finder and the councils' e-tendering system
"Call offs" from relevant framework or Collaborative agreement Procurement from an Approved List	In accordance with the terms of the Framework Agreement, Collaborative agreement or Approved List.
Contracts the budget for which has been approved in the Capital Programme	Quotes or Tenders as described above depending on the estimated Total Value; or Call off from an approved a Framework Agreement/Collaborative agreement. As appropriate to the procurement method used.
Establishment of an Approved list	In accordance with the terms of approval

Framework agreements

Framework – Call off or Competition from an existing compliant Framework

There are some exemptions from following these procedures, such as when a framework agreement is used. Framework agreements are contracts which have already been advertised and tendered by another public body for other public bodies to use. A number of organisations provide these frameworks and Cumberland have many of their own.

Details to follow soon.

Evaluation

What is procurement evaluation?

Evaluation in procurement is the process of assessing the suitability of goods or services before awarding a contract. It involves comparing proposals from different suppliers and selecting the option that offers the best value for money.

The evaluation section in our ITT documents includes examples of how to score your tender. Please edit it to make sure it is weighted to how you wish to score your tender.

Award Criteria and Evaluation Criteria

The Evaluation Criteria depend on the nature of the Services being procured. It is important to disclose every criterion and sub-criterion. If your scorers have model answers, these should also be disclosed.

If you are using references, presentations or reference site visits to evaluate criteria or to moderate scores, these should be clearly identified in the Tender Evaluation Model.

If you are applying a Threshold to any of the Evaluation Criteria, you should ensure it is not set too high for risk of being forced to discount an otherwise robust Tender.

Method Statements

As part of their tender response each Tenderer shall develop and submit method statements that respond to the council's requirements. The method statement descriptions provided below are intended to provide an indication of the information that is required and are not intended to be a comprehensive or exhaustive list.

Example:

MS1: The Tenderer shall provide an outline draft of their proposed Environment & Sustainability Study (to include a delivery timetable) that clearly demonstrates how they shall:

(a) Undertake x, y, z.

(b) Provide detailed findings of x, y, z.

MS2: The Tenderer shall provide an outline draft of their proposed Plan (to include a delivery timetable) that clearly demonstrates (x), (y), (z)….

MS3: The Tenderer shall provide … as detailed in the Specification;

Social Value: Social Value means getting the best outcomes for the people of Cumberland from the money we spend; this includes economic and environmental considerations. We require the successful Contractor(s) to work towards developing ways to improve the economic and environmental well-being of Cumberland at every stage of its operations.

The Tenderer shall provide details of how they will provide solutions to meet our requirements.

Method statements then need to be saved within the appendix of the ITT.

Pricing Evaluation

Contracting authorities may be nervous of specifying a contract value for fear of attracting bids which are above, at or just below that value. However, this figure must be disclosed if bids are to be evaluated against it.

There are two common methods of evaluating price, though these two basic models have many variants:

The Authority sets a benchmark price, usually a maximum or optimum price, with all bids scored on a comparative basis against that price.

No benchmark is set and the lowest bid price scores the maximum marks available for the price evaluation. All other prices are awarded scores depending on what percentage the lowest price is of their price.

The above wording will need to be amended to select the appropriate method, or deleted and an alternative method inserted.

However, various issues and inconsistencies can arise through the use of formulae and it is therefore important to run dummy scores through the proposed model to eliminate any anomalies.

Where the Authority has a fixed budget, it may want to state that bids exceeding a specified limit will be deemed non-compliant and will be rejected. Otherwise it must rely on the Award Criteria to ensure it does not end up with a technically superior, but unaffordable solution.

The risk of encouraging bids which come in close to the specific value can be somewhat mitigated by:

Weighting the Award Criteria more on price than on the technical solution.

Including Evaluation Criteria on efficiencies and cost reduction.

These criteria could either form part of the technical or the price evaluation, depending how they are phrased. The contract terms could also encourage efficiencies by operating a gain-share mechanism through which savings will be shared between the parties.

If the Authority is permitting any third-party organisations to use the contract (whether by procuring on their behalf or under a framework arrangement), the Authority must ensure the contract value specified in the ITT and the OJEU notice reflects that potential spend.

A further guide to the Process for Evaluation can be found on the Crown Commercial website.

Key Performance Indicators:

KPIs evaluate the success of an organisation or of a particular activity in which it engages.

KPIs serve two primary functions:

to identify shortfalls and opportunities in achieving your business outcomes
to set specific targets at all levels within your service delivery relationship/contract and organisation.

They are a good way to measure Social Value in a contract and should be included. Additional details about KPI’s and specific examples can be found here.

Cumberland’s Procurement Portal - The Chest:

The Chest is the electronic procurement portal used by Cumberland to advertise all our open tenders and requests for quote.

You can reach The Chest here. It is free of charge to register and to check for current opportunities.

Invitation to Tender

The invitation to tender is a request to suppliers to make an offer. Within the tender pack there will be as a minimum:

Letter of Invitation outlining details of all the documents in the pack and the

closing date for return of tenders

Terms of Contract
Specification
Pricing Schedule
Evaluation Criteria used to judge the responses

Specific requirements will apply to individual procurements as will the level of detail and information to be supplied.

Cumberland are keen to keep the information requested to the minimum required so we can formally evaluate suppliers equally and fairly. For example, the type of information requested may include the following:

Company details
Financial information
Management and business structure
Resources and staff training
Quality assurance
Social Value
Insurance cover
Equality & Diversity policies
Health & Safety practices
Experience and References

Supporting evidence may be requested where applicable. For certain opportunities, suppliers could be asked to undertake a presentation/ interview with members of the evaluation panel.

Should there ever be any doubts or queries during the tendering process, suppliers may contact the Procurement team to ask the question. This should always be directed as a notification on The Chest. The Team will always provide a response, which will also be sent to any potential suppliers participating in the tender process. This allows complete transparency in two-way communications for clarification while protecting parties involved from accusations of collusion.

How to respond to a Cumberland tender effectively

The follow tips are intended as an aid for suppliers when responding to tenders with Cumberland. Some of these tips may seem obvious, but contracts can be lost because the obvious things are overlooked. These apply to most public sector tender processes:

First steps

Don't be put off by the tender documentation. Read it thoroughly and if there is anything you don't understand please contact us(add eform link) for clarification. It is part of our job to assist you.
Understand your customer; look at the website and read the procurement information and guidance - it will help you understand the priorities, processes and requirements.

Filling in your return

Answer in full - do not assume anything is obvious, or 'goes without saying'. If you're only writing three or four sentence answers, you probably need to be providing more detail or examples.
Even if you have previously done some work for the councils or, even if you are the present contractor, your submission will be evaluated solely on what you have written in your response. This has led to disappointment more than once. So be sure to provide any relevant evidence that you think will help support your bid.
Think “added value”– what can your company offer towards Social Value in environmental, social or community benefits.
Make it clear which question your answer refers to - clearly numbered paragraphs are easier and clearer to evaluate than a page of unbroken writing. Make it easy for our team to give you points!
Work out the most important questions from the evaluation criteria weightings in the tender documents, and take extra care to answer them fully.
Be clear on your pricing model - state any assumptions you made when pricing (e.g. availability of resources, timing, etc.)

Ready to send it back to us?

Check that you have provided us with all of the information requested. If you are unable to provide all the information for some reason, contact us for advice.
Complete and return the documents by the date and time given. Check that you have signed everything you should have.
Don't include publicity or promotional material in your submission unless you are asked to do so.
Keep electronic copies of all submissions. You will be able to cut-and-paste your answers into future councils' Supplier Selection Questionnaires and Invitation to Tenders and save time.
Ask for feedback if you are unsuccessful, it will help you with the next tender.

Where a contract is procured via the Chest a simple question and answer function allows you to raise questions, with the answer then being copied to all interested parties

Procurement Fraud

Procurement fraud is any unlawful activity at any stage of the procurement cycle, from the decision to procure, to the conclusion of the contract. It includes the purchase and commissioning of goods, works and services by the council. It can be perpetrated by those inside or outside the organisation. Further details can be found on the Procurement Fraud page.

Contact Us:

eForm

Send a message .

Business Transformation and Change
Cumberland Council
Cumbria House,
117 Botchergate
Carlisle
CA1 1RD
United Kingdom

Debbie Heard	(Interim) Service Manager Procurement and Contracts
Barbara Watson	(Interim) Procurement Lead – Data and Community Impact
Hayley Samson	(Interim) Procurement Lead - Place
Nicola Bell	(Interim) Procurement Lead - Enabling
Jacqui Sullivan	(Interim) Procurement Lead - People