This guide is aimed at helping potential contractors, consultants and suppliers to tender for contracts with the District Council.  Whilst it cannot assure you of success in gaining work with the Council, it should provide you with sufficient information to help you understand the tendering process and to submit a tender.  

The Guide is divided into a number of sections. 

Please use the links below to access the sections that you are interested in:

It is a legal requirement for Local Authorities that all tenders which exceed the European threshold limit of £173,934 are advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). Access to this document is only available electronically and further information is available from the Tenders Electronic Daily (Ted) website.

The Council advertises all of its tender opportunities| on its website and Staffordshire County Council’s website.  At the discretion of the lead officer for the tender, opportunities may also be advertised in:

• Contracts Finder, the Government's national lower-value procurement portal;
• A local or national newspaper; and / or
• An appropriate professional or trade journal.

In most instances the Council uses an E-Tendering system to send out and receive tender packs.  Staffordshire Procurement administers this on behalf of Cannock Chase Council through use of their E-Tendering System.

Use of an E-Tendering system ensures a simple, secure, efficient, transparent auditable sourcing process, whilst eliminating time and effort for both buyers and suppliers.

In order to use the E-Tendering system you will need to ensure that you are registered.  Details can be found on Staffordshire County Council's Procurement website.

There are several ways in which you can apply for tender documentation. These include:

• applying to the email address given on the Council’s website, the advertisement or the OJEU publication; or
• selecting the contract area you are interested in on Staffordshire County Council’s  web page for tender opportunities and follow the instructions contained therein

Your tender will be evaluated against pre-determined criteria and will focus on the demands of the Client and how you propose to deliver the required specification. Selection of suppliers is based on those whose tender, in the opinion of the Council is the most economic in terms of price, quality, functionality, and service or other factors contained in the evaluation criteria. The evaluation criteria are detailed in the tender documents in order that tenderers are made aware of them and so can focus their bids accordingly.

You will be contacted by letter informing you whether you have been successful or unsuccessful. We will always endeavour to explain why the tender was unsuccessful and suggest improvements for future tender submissions. For tenders falling within the remit of the EU Procurement Directives, a formal debriefing is offered to all unsuccessful tenderers on request.

The public sector procurement process is often perceived to be very complex and leads to many small businesses either ignoring the market for government contracts or submitting poorly researched applications.

In light of this concern the Government has produced a guide entitled ‘Tendering for Public Sector Contracts’.  This guide aims to help in three ways – it will:

1. Tell you where to find opportunities within the public sector;
2. Explain how you can bid for work; and
3. Give you advice on further contacts that may help you.

Information about accessing lower value contracts can be found on the Government’s Contracts Finder website.  Contracts Finder lets you search for information about contracts worth over £10,000 with the government and its agencies. You can use Contracts Finder to:

• search for current contract opportunities
• find out what’s coming up in the future
• look up details of previous tenders and contracts

Contracts Finder is free to use.

There are no current tender opportunities.

Further information and contact details relating to contracts please visit Staffordshire County Council’s website.

The tendering for goods and services is handled on behalf of Cannock Chase Council by Staffordshire Procurement.

Staffordshire Procurement is the central procurement function of Staffordshire County Council.  They process over 100 tenders each year for a number of clients that include Schools, Metropolitan/District Councils, Corporate Offices, Universities/Colleges, Police, Fire and Rescue Service and a large number of charitable organisations.

Contact Point for Staffordshire Procurement:

Staffordshire Place 2, Stafford, ST16 2LP
email: sp@staffordshire.gov.uk| 
Tel: 01785 854657
Fax: 01785 854660

The Head of Governance act’s as the key contact point within Cannock Chase Council for general procurement enquiries and can be contacted as follows:

Civic Centre, Beecroft Road, Cannock. WS 11 1BG
Email: procurement@cannockchasedc.gov.uk
Tel: 01543 464411