How easy is it to do business with the council?

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. 

​​We decided to conduct our own research into how easy it is to do business with the council in Staffordshire.

Read on to find out what we uncovered through our research and which council in Staffordshire came out on top.  

The councils included in our research 
​

For the purposes of our research we decided to review all the council websites in Staffordshire. Our research included the following authorities: 

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 our research 
​

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

​We accessed all 10 council websites on the 10/02/2023 and cross referenced the information we found on the council website with our key criteria below:
 

1. Information was easily accessible from the home page.​
2. All information was contained in one webpage.
3. The information provided was written with the supplier in mind.
4. Procurement contact information was clearly visible on the page.
5. There was a clear link to the contract database that could be downloaded in an open and accessible format.
6. Information provided was current.
7. Links are provided to all 3 Government tendering websites: Contracts Finder, Find a Tender and the councils own e-tendering portal.
8. Current opportunities are clearly visible on the page or via a link to another page.
9. A procurement pipeline or a link to a procurement pipeline is clearly visible on the page.
10. Additional information is provided e.g. prompt payment information, T&C’s, procurement strategy, how to tender guides etc

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

We 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 our research by scoring an impressive 8 out 10.

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

Our key findings and recommendations
​

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

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

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

​We 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. 

​We did not find any evidence of a procurement pipeline, this is something we would like to see added to every 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

We 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

We could not find a link from the home page. We 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 we liked that all data was combined into one document that was downloadable and could be saved in multiple formats.
 
We found a page of current opportunities but we also found links to paid for tender search companies. 
 
We could not find the contact details for the procurement department. All contact details were for the e-tendering company.
 
The information provided across all pages was very comprehensive but in our 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

We could not find a link from the home page. We 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 us directly to the current opportunities that were live.
 
We liked the opportunity to download multiple T&C’s, a supplier code of conduct and the Procurement Strategy (2020 – 2024).
 
We found the email address for the procurement team on the page.
 
We had to hunt for the contracts register but we eventually found it and downloaded it into an excel spreadsheet.
 
Ease of information verdict 6/10

Newcastle Under Lyme Borough Council

We could not find a link from the home page. We used the search bar to find the Council Contracts Doing Business with us page. 
 
We found the link to current tender opportunities and it took us straight to the councils e-tendering portal. But, we 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 we 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

We could not find a link from the home page. We 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 us to another page called tenders that contained PDFs. The first PDF we 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

We 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. We 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

We could not find a link from the home page. We 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 us directly to the tender notice on Contracts Finder, which we liked. However, the opportunity had past when we clicked on it.
 
Full contact details for the procurement department were clearly visible on the page.
 
We 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

We could not find a link from the home page. We 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.  
 
We followed the link to find the awarded contract information, but the results were confusing. We did eventually find the council spend data.
 
The contact details for procurement was not clearly displayed. We 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

We found a link from the home page called “supply the council”. This led us 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.  
 
We 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

We 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

At Naomi Clews Consultancy we are passionate about helping small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and small business owners to find and bid for more UK Government opportunities. Find out more here.