Office supplies

Tender description

Commercial Services is one of the largest trading organisations of its kind in Europe with a turnover in excess of £600 million and employing over 700 people from its base in Kent. Tracing its roots back to 1902, as an education stores department for Kent County Council, Commercial Services has subsequently grown organically to supply an ever-increasing range of best value goods and services to other publicly funded organisations. These include local government, education establishments, the care sector and the emergency services. KCS is a trading unit of Commercial Services and provides a purchasing, warehousing and distribution service to a wide ranging customer base within local government and associated public bodies in Kent, neighbouring counties and across the UK. Kent County Council (the Council) is the largest local authority in England covering an area of 3 500 km². It has an annual expenditure of circa.1 000 000 000 GBP on goods and services and a population of 1.5m. The Council provides a wide range of personal and strategic services on behalf of its residents, operating in partnership with 12 district councils and 289 parish/town councils. In accordance with best procurement practice, EU and UK Procurement Directives and Regulations, KCS has created a Framework Agreement (the Agreement) for the provision of Stationery and Office sundries. The procurement process adopted by the Contracting Authority was based upon the ‘Open' Procedure, as detailed in the ‘Public Contract Regulations 2015' Other public bodies will have access to this Agreement but may only do so with the agreement of the Contracting Authority. Those organisations who may wish to access this Agreement will be members, affiliates and associates of the Police Service, the Fire Service, the NHS & NHS Trusts, third sector organisations, academic centres (including Academies), publicly funded organisations and publicly owned private companies, operating within the geographic boundaries of the United Kingdom, Channel Islands and Northern Ireland. The Agreement will also be open for use by all other local authorities and public sector bodies. Full details of the classification of potential Contracting Bodies and End User's geographical areas and organisation classifications are detailed as follows: Regions in England: Main Regions:- East Midlands; West Midlands; East of England; South East; South West; North West; North East; Yorkshire & Humber; London or to individual administering Councils. See link: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Dl1/Directories/Localcouncils/index.htm Northern Ireland: Administered across 26 Districts of Northern Ireland. See link: http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/local-councils-in-northern-ireland Scotland: Administered across 32 Council areas. See link: http://www.cosla.gov.uk/scottish-local-government Wales: Administered across 22 Council areas. See link: http://wales.gov.uk/topics/localgovernment/?skip=1&lang=en Classification of End User Organisations Local Authority Councils: County, Unitary, District, Borough, and Metropolitan Councils. (Parish and Community Councils are also permissible users). See link: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Dl1/Directories/Localcouncils/index.htm Members of Procurement Consortia may also have access. Consortia includes: CBC — http://www3.hants.gov.uk/cbc ESPO — https://www.espo.org YPO — http://www.ypo.co.uk Pro5 — http://www.pro5.org Educational Establishments: Nursery School, Primary School, Middle or High School, Secondary School, Academy, Special School, Pupil Referral Unit (PRU), Further Education College, University. See links: http://www.schoolswebdirectory.co.uk/index.php http://www.ukschoolsdirectory.net/ www.education.gov.uk/edubase www.hefce.ac.uk http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/aboutus/members/Pages/default.aspx Police, Fire & Rescue & Maritime & Coastguard Agency Emergency Services: See links: http://www.police.uk/forces.htm http://www.fireservice.co.uk/ http://www.nifrs.org/ http://www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/mcga07-home.htm NHS Bodies, the HSC (Northern Ireland) and Ambulance Services: See links: http://www.nhs.uk/ServiceDirectories/Pages/AcuteTrustListing.aspx http://www.hscni.net/index.php?link=trusts http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/organisations http://www.scottishambulance.com/AboutUs/HowWeOrganised.aspx http://www.wales.nhs.uk/nhswalesaboutus/structure Central Government Departments & their Agencies: See link: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Dl1/Directories/A-ZOfCentralGovernment/index.htm Registered Charities: See links: http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/About_us/Regulation/Registering_charities_index.aspx http://www.oscr.org.uk/ http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/index/contacts/contacts-az.htm/housing-associations-contact Registered Social Landlords: Government-funded, not-for-profit organisations that provide affordable housing. They include housing associations, trusts and cooperatives. See link: http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=7175736 http://www.nhfdirectory.co.uk http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Dl1/Directories/Localcouncils/index.htm Northern Ireland: Administered across 11 Council areas. See link: http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/local-councils-in-northern-ireland Scotland: Administered across 32 Council areas. See link: http://www.cosla.gov.uk/scottish-local-government Wales: Administered across 22 Council areas. See link: http://wales.gov.uk/topics/localgovernment/?skip=1&lang=en Suppliers are advised that the Contracting Authority, its affiliates and/or authorised users, reserve the right to supply the tendered products, services, and commodities to companies that have a majority public sector ownership by any of the public sector bodies referred to above during the Agreement period as stated in this document, for the purpose of selling to other public, private and third sector organisations.