Find Staffordshire council contracts for FREE

13/2/2023

Doing business with the council

The UK Government has committed to support small businesses and start-ups by increasing the visibility of tenders and contracts.

Management Consultant Naomi Clews conducted her own research into how easy it is to do business with the council in Staffordshire.

Read on to find out what Naomi Clews uncovered through her research and which council in Staffordshire came out on top.

The Staffordshire councils included in my research

For the purpose of my research I reviewed all the council websites in Staffordshire:

Cannock Chase District Council
East Staffordshire Borough Council
Lichfield District Council
Newcastle Under Lyme Borough Council
South Staffordshire District Council
Staffordshire Moorlands District Council
Stafford Borough Council
Staffordshire County Council
Stoke on Trent City Council
Tamworth Borough Council

Lichfield City Council was excluded from the research as it is a parish council and works in partnership with Lichfield District Council and Staffordshire County Council to provide and supplement local government services within the city.

The basis of my research

My research was based on the visibility of tenders and contracts information on the above councils website.

I accessed all 10 council websites on the 10/02/2023 and cross referenced the information I found on each council website with my key criteria below:

Information was easily accessible from the home page.
All information was contained in one webpage.
The information provided was written with the supplier in mind.
Procurement contact information was clearly visible on the page.
There was a clear link to the contract database that could be downloaded in an open and accessible format.
Information provided was current.
Links are provided to both Government tendering websites: Contracts Finder, Find a Tender and the councils own e-tendering portal.
Current opportunities are clearly visible on the page or via a link to another page.
A procurement pipeline or a link to a procurement pipeline is clearly visible on the page.
Additional information is provided e.g. prompt payment information, T&C’s, procurement strategy, how to tender guides etc

I awarded each council a point every time the information on their website met the requirements of my key criteria.

I then allocated a score out of ten to each of the councils and ranked them in order from the highest score to the lowest score.

And the winner is

Congratulations to Staffordshire Moorlands District Council who came top in my research by scoring an impressive 8 out 10.

I also want to highly commend Tamworth Borough Council with a runner up score of 7 out of 10.

Key findings and recommendations

My research highlighted that it was not always easy to find information about tenders and contracts on the Staffordshire councils website.

I would recommend that tender and contract information be easily accessible from the council website home page and if possible all information be contained within one webpage.

Procurement contact details should always be clearly visible on the webpage and a contract database should be provided in an open and accessible format.

I would like to see links to paid for tender search companies removed and replaced with information about how to find tenders for FREE on the Contracts Finder and Find a Tender Government websites.

I did not find any evidence of a procurement pipeline, this is something I would like to see added to every Staffordshire council website.

Overall council placings

1st - Staffordshire Moorlands District Council
2nd - Tamworth Borough Council
Joint 3rd - Lichfield District Council and Stafford Borough Council
Joint 5th - Stoke on Trent City Council, Newcastle Under Lyme Borough Council and Cannock Chase District Council.
Joint 8th - Staffordshire County Council and East Staffordshire Borough Council
10th - South Staffordshire District Council.

Analysis of council websites against key criteria

Cannock Chase District Council

I found the procurement tab on the home page, and navigated to a page called “selling to the council”.

The page provided a very easy to navigate drop down guide to tendering that included a link to Contracts Finder and a link to Staffordshire County Council’s Procurement Website.

It also provided full contact details for the procurement department.

Ease of information verdict 5/10

East Staffordshire Borough Council

I could not find a link from the home page. I used the search bar to find the Procurement page.

The page provided several useful links:

Current procurement opportunities
Tendering Guide
Doing business with the council
FAQ’s

There was a clear link to the contract register and I liked that all data was combined into one document that was downloadable and could be saved in multiple formats.

I found a page of current opportunities but I also found links to paid for tender search companies.

I could not find the contact details for the procurement department. All contact details were for the private sector e-tendering company.

The information provided across all pages was very comprehensive but in my opinion it was written by procurement for procurement.

The information would not be relevant or easily understood by suppliers.

Ease of information verdict 4/10

Lichfield District Council

I could not find a link from the home page. I used the search bar to find the Tendering to provide goods and services page.

The page contained a link to Contacts Finder, TED and the councils e-tendering portal that took me directly to the current opportunities that were live.

I liked the opportunity to download multiple T&C’s, a supplier code of conduct and the Procurement Strategy (2020 – 2024).

I found the email address for the procurement team on the page.

I had to hunt for the contracts register but I eventually found it and downloaded it into an excel spreadsheet.

Ease of information verdict 6/10

Newcastle Under Lyme Borough Council

I could not find a link from the home page. I used the search bar to find the Council Contracts Doing Business with us page.

I found the link to current tender opportunities and it took me straight to the councils e-tendering portal. But, I could not find a link to Contracts Finder or Find a Tender.

A link was provided to the contracts register which was a downloadable PDF, that was neither open nor accessible.

A copy of the councils T&Cs was available to download.

Each page provided lots of details about procurement but i felt it was written by procurement for procurement and would be over complicated for suppliers to understand.

Ease of information verdict 5/10

South Staffordshire District Council

I could not find a link from the home page. I used the search bar to find the “selling to the council” page.

The contact details for procurement were clearly visible on the page.

The page provided a link to a document called Local Transparency - A Practitioners Guide to Publishing New Contracts and Tenders Data that described the procurement process the council follows.

The page provided a link to the contract register in a PDF format, which was not open or accessible.

The page provided a link to current opportunities that took me to another page called tenders that contained PDFs.

The first PDF I clicked on displayed a tender opportunity that expired in 2017, the last PDF expired in 2020.

The page also contained a link to an out of date Procurement Plan (2012 – 2016).

Ease of information verdict 3/10

Staffordshire Moorlands District Council

I found the tenders and contracts page from the home page.

The page was very comprehensive, it provided clear links to the following documents:

How to do business with us guide
Procurement Procedure Rules
Procurement Strategy
Council T&C’s
Contract Registers (downloadable and organised by year)

A clear link was provided to current opportunities. The page explained how all RFQ's over £5000 are published on the website and all interested suppliers can respond to the RFQ directly from that page. I thought this was excellent.

The page also proudly displayed that the council pays all undisputed invoices within 30 days - 95% of times.

A contact email address was provided for procurement and also the address for invoices.

Ease of information verdict 8/10

Stafford Borough Council

I could not find a link from the home page. I used the search bar to find the How we buy goods and services page.

The page was very comprehensive, it explained the procurement process and provided links to Staffordshire County Councils website.

There was a clear link to current tender opportunities, Contracts Finder and TED.

The link took me directly to the tender notice on Contracts Finder, which I liked. However, the opportunity had past when I clicked on it.

Full contact details for the procurement department were clearly visible on the page.

I had to dig around for the contract register. It was in a PDF format that was neither open nor accessible.

Ease of information verdict 6/10

Staffordshire County Council

I could not find a link from the home page. I used the search bar to find the Selling to the council page.

The page provided a clear link to Find a Tender, Contracts Finder and the councils e-tendering portal.

There was information for suppliers on how to tender and how to contact the e-tendering organisation.

I followed the link to find the awarded contract information, but the results were confusing. I did eventually find the council spend data.

The contact details for procurement was not clearly displayed.

I found one email for the commercial team, but it was not clear if this was for reporting issues with the e-tendering portal or to contact procurement.

Ease of information verdict 4/10

Stoke on Trent City Council

I found a link from the home page called “supply the council”. This led me to the procurement page that provided further information on multiple pages.

There was a clear link to current opportunities with clear links to view further tender details. There was also an opportunity to view closed opportunities.

There was a direct link to Contracts Finder and a direct link to the councils e-tendering portal. But there was also a link to a paid for tender alert service.

There was the opportunity to download the awarded contract information, but this would be very time consuming as there was a spreadsheet for each month of the year rather than one spreadsheet per year.

I could not find any guidance for suppliers on how to tender.

The procurement contact details were visible on every page.

Ease of information verdict 5/10

Tamworth Borough Council

I found the Tenders and Contracts page under the business tab on the homepage.

Everything was on one page, providing a simple explanation of the procurement process.

There was a clear link to the e-tendering portal but there was not a clear contract opportunities link.

The contact details for the procurement department was clearly visible on the page.

Suppliers could download the councils T&C’s.

There was a clear link to the combined contract register in a downloadable document in multiple formats.

The councils spend information was also present on the page.

Ease of information verdict 7/10

About the author

Naomi Clews

Naomi Clews, management consultant and owner of boutique procurement advisory firm Naomi Clews Consultancy Limited has 18 years public procurement process knowledge, experience and skills. Find out more here.

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