Selling to the Council

Introduction

Rochford District Council spends around £7 million each year on a wide range of products, services and work programmes. This represents some significant opportunities for a wide range of organisations across all sectors.

The Procurement Agency for Essex (PAE) has developed an online guide entitled 'Selling to the Essex Public Sector' for organisations that wish to sell to its members. This guide outlines the rules, regulations, policies and requirements of organisations that wish to sell to its members.

Useful information can be found on the Procurement Agency for Essex (PAE) website, found in the Related Content.

Rochford District Council Policy and Procedures

Rochford District Council has an agreed Procurement Strategy for 2015-2020, the aim of which is to obtain best value through planned and skilful procurement in respect of all goods, works and services sought by the Council.

The Council's Contract Procedure Rules govern the process for obtaining quotations and tenders and entering into contracts for work, goods and services.

Useful information can be found in the Rochford District Council Procurement Strategy and the Rochford Council Contract Procedure Rules 4.63, found in Related Content.

e-Procurement

Contracts Finder

In 2015 the Government introduced some new Procurement Regulations, part of these is for the Public Sector to advertise all opportunities over £25,000 on a portal called Contracts Finder. Rochford District Council follow this, we also sometimes use the portal for lower value Contracts as well.

Follow this link and register for free to access UK wide Tender opportunities

Online Procurement System

Rochford District Council has recently installed a new electronic ordering system called Focalpoint. This system enables us to place orders with suppliers by email, it is also linked with our finance accounting system so allows for close budget control which is a huge benefit. This minimises paperwork and speeds up the processes of placing orders and paying invoices therefore making trading simple and cost effective.

The Council also prefers to make all payments to suppliers online by BACS.

Please ensure all correspondence to Rochford District Council in relation to purchase orders i.e. invoices, delivery notes, credit notes etc. clearly show the purchase order number.  This will ensure timely payment of your invoice within our standard payment terms, failure to comply will delay payment of your account.

If you are asked to complete works / services or deliver goods without a purchase order, please remember that this could result in non-payment of an invoice. For any queries regarding this please contact the Procurement Team.

If you would like to know more about trading online with Rochford Council, contact procurement@rochford.gov.uk

Email us if you would like to know more about BACS payments from Rochford Council.

Approved Supplier List

The Council currently have a limited amount of works during the year.  This is due to the fact that we do not have any housing stock and our leisure building maintenance is the responsibility of our leisure management company.  For this reason we do not maintain our own select suppliers list.  

Instead, as soon as the Council is advertising tenders for a high value project, information regarding the opportunity is posted on the Contracts Finder website, with full details of the contract requirement. Suppliers will be able to register their interest for this Tender. Any contact with the Council regarding one of these Tender opportunities should be solely through Contracts Finder.

Rochford District Council is always keen to build relationships and work with local businesses. As such, the procurement team welcome introductions from suppliers via our contract enquiry form.

Smaller value contract opportunities

When there is a need for smaller value works, goods and services, the procurement process is determined and carried out departmentally by an officer who has the authority to make procurement decisions.  These officers are called ‘responsible buyers’.  

Rochford District Council publishes a list of responsible buyers, which can be found in Related Content.  The responsible buyers guide provides the officers name, department and full contact details and states the type of works, services and products that they would normally purchase.  This affords potential suppliers the opportunity to introduce themselves directly to the correct responsible buyer for their particular product or service.

The procurement team welcome introductions from suppliers via our contract enquiry form.  We will pass on any information to the appropriate responsible buyers at the time of contact, as well as storing it as a means of providing suitable suppliers for future contract opportunities.

Current Contract Opportunities

To find out if there are any ‘Expressions of Interest’ available, please see the Current contract advertisements in Related Content.

Work on a revised up to date Contract Register is ongoing and will be available in early 2025.

Future Contract Opportunities

If you would like to contact us about one of our future contract opportunities, please use the contract enquiry form.

Contracts let within the quarter

For details on contracts let in the last quarter, please see the link in Related Content - 'Contracts let in the last quarter'

If you would like to contact us about one of our contract let in the last quarter, please use the contract enquiry form.