Under procurement regulations, when the total value of a contract exceeds certain thresholds, the Royal Borough of Greenwich is obliged to advertise the contract to enable businesses to bid for the work.

The typical process has a number of stages that businesses need to understand and follow if they intend to bid for work from us.

The consultation process is the first stage in setting up or renewing a contract. It will normally occur some time before the contract start date.

On current contracts, existing service providers can be consulted with, as well as the receivers of the services.

For new contracts, leading service providers are invited to share good practice and views on our outline proposals.

This feedback is crucial and helps to set the standards and requirements that the specification demands and provides the opportunity for those who will both receive and provide the service to provide a balanced view on the type of service to be delivered.

This allows the contract to be practically designed to the required standard, enabling the provider to fully understand what is to be delivered and to make it as easy as possible to achieve the requested standards in performance.

The process also informs how the contract is packaged in terms of length, size, standards, development opportunities and financial structure.