October 2023 newsletter
Welcome to October edition of our newsletter.
As always, we’ve included a list of current and upcoming tender opportunities and encourage you to register for alerts on .
We cover an exciting opportunity from The JET Academy with the aim of helping young people gain invaluable experience in the world of work. Work placements help upskill our future workforce whilst bringing benefit to an organisation through additional resource so please sign up if you can.
We “spotlight” a recently successful contract with excellent sustainability outcomes achieved through new technology / materials and is testament to the excellent outcomes that can be achieved through innovation and collaboration.
To support suppliers’ successfully bid for tender opportunities you’ll see we’ve highlighted new guidance on public procurement for SMEs and third sector suppliers which we hope you will find useful. We’ve also included a short article on records retention and the expectation on suppliers when contracting with ourselves.
As always, we want to build and maintain strong, effective relationships with our suppliers and are always keen to hear feedback from you as a potential or current suppliers as to how we can better achieve this. Should you have any comments or suggestions we would like to hear from you. Find , we look forward to working with you.
If you would like to receive our newsletter directly to your inbox, please email us and we will add you to our distribution list
supplierdevelopment@edinburgh.gov.uk.
Lynette Robertson
Head of Commercial and Procurement Services
Tender opportunities
You can find details of current and future contract opportunities with the Council on the . You will also find future opportunities for noting interest and engaging in the development where appropriate, we expect these will include the following.
Current opportunities
- deadline 9 October 2023
- deadline 18 October 2023
- deadline 20 October 2023
Future opportunities
- Edinburgh older people’s day opportunities estimated publishing date September 2023
- Supported bus routes estimated publishing date October 2023
- Address tracing and mortality screening – member data services estimated publishing date October 2023
- Passenger transport - escorted and unescorted estimated publishing date October 2023
- Accredited pathways for Education services estimated publishing date October 2023
- Funeral Director service estimated publishing date October 2023
- Winter festivals estimated publishing date October 2023
- Festive lighting estimated publishing date October 2023
- Cyber assurance framework agreement estimated publishing date October 2023
- Supply and delivery of aluminium street columns estimated publishing date October 2023
- Decriminalised Parking and Traffic Enforcement (DPE) services estimated publishing date February 2024
Guidance on public procurement for SMEs and third sector suppliers
The Scottish Government's procurement and commercial policy and strategy division has created new guidance on .
This includes the sources of support available for SME's and third sector to help bid for and win public sector contracts. The new guidance is available to view on the .
If you have any questions on this guidance, please email
procurement_development@gov.scot.
Public records and suppliers
The Council must outline and comply with its records management arrangements for regulatory approval and public transparency as per the Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011. This statutory obligation expressly covers records created and used by third-party suppliers when performing one of the Council’s functions. The act defines such records as public records that are the responsibility of the Council to ensure that third parties appropriately manage them.
Within the terms and conditions of contracts the Council expects suppliers to create accurate and comprehensive records for the goods, services and works it commissions. We expect suppliers to store and manage these records appropriately to be secure and accessible for as long as needed. Once the Council no longer requires the records, we expect suppliers to dispose of them securely and with an audit trail. Given many of the Council’s record retention rules extend beyond a typical contract period, suppliers must also be prepared to receive records from a previous supplier at contract start or to transfer records to the new supplier at contract end.
Council contract managers are required to discuss and agree with their suppliers on the appropriate arrangements for the public records being created and used under their contracts. We have records management clauses within the standard terms and conditions that will help frame those discussions.
View the Council’s records management arrangements. For more information and advice, please email the Records and Archives team
recordsmanagement@edinburgh.gov.uk.
The JET Academy
The JET Academy is looking for organisations and teams across the city to offer work placements on Fridays, from September to April, for our young people and future work force – can you help?
These young people, usually S4 pupils, are part of a vocational training programme that incorporates employability activity, including a long-term work placement. If you have capacity to host for more than one day a week, the team would also be interested in organising this for the JET+ programme, which is a more work-based offer.
This is a great opportunity, not only to add significant value to these young people’s prospects, but also to provide help for your service.
You would just need to supervise the young person with support from a JET project officer. They can be flexible in terms of the hours they work on the Friday.
Their vision is to enable our future workforce to have the skills and experience needed to gain employment in relevant sectors, introduce them to your industry and gain potential future talent.
If a work placement is something you can support, or if you would like more information or to speak with a member of the team, please email
Aggregate Industries Surfacing Solutions - A90 Cramond Bridge case study
Aggregate Industries was contracted by the City of 麻豆映画 to undertake a road reconstruction project in Edinburgh using sustainable practices, achieving efficient completion and a zero-waste approach while setting new environmental standards.
The project aimed to resurface a stretch of road on the Northbound A90 at Cramond Brig and was a collaborative effort including several subcontractors. One of the most notable aspects of this project was the use of Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) in an AC 20 HDM Binder 40/60, which is produced at lower temperatures compared to conventional mixes. This eco friendly approach saves carbon emissions, making it a more sustainable choice for road construction. By using Warm Mix Asphalt, the contractor, in partnership with the Council, demonstrated its commitment to reducing environmental impact. The lower temperature production resulted in decreased energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, the project adopted a zero-waste approach, where every tonne of road planings removed from the site, was sent back to Duntilland Quarry to be reused in this and future projects.
Working in partnership with the Council and implementing value engineering the contractor’s final valuation was below the initial tender cost. This investment not only improved the road infrastructure in Edinburgh but has also set a benchmark for sustainable road construction practices in the region moving forward.
Supplier drop in sessions
Monthly virtual engagement sessions run by Commercial and Procurement services. If you’re interested in working in, or becoming part of, the supply chain that delivers goods, services or works in Edinburgh or if you want to know what support is available, email us
procurement.delivery@edinburgh.gov.uk.
Useful resources
Feedback
We're keen to receive your feedback on how future newsletters might be improved. Email us with any suggestion for future articles