Business and Tendering Opportunities
To help suppliers to understand Wigan Council's procurement procedures we have produced a Selling to the Council (.pdf, 172kb) guide which explains how we procure goods, services and works from suppliers and provides a background to the legislation we must follow.
If you are interested to learn about this legislation and our internal procurement procedures you can view our Contracts Procedure Rules and the document EU Procurement Guidance: Introduction to the EU Procurement Rules (.pdf, 282kb). You should also review our General Terms and Conditions of Purchase as these apply to all our contracts with existing and potential suppliers of Wigan Council.
Suppliers can participate in business opportunities offered by Wigan Council via the following:
- Respond to tendering opportunities advertised in the local and national press, trade journals or on the internet. We now advertise our opportunities on The Chest (external link), a dedicated procurement portal used by public sector organisations based in the North West. Details of our tenders exceeding values specified by the EU (currently £173,934 for supplies and services and £4,348,350 for works) are advertised in a supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union (external link).
- Apply to join one of our select lists (.pdf, 26kb) to become a supplier for the category of goods, works or services you supply. To use this option you should obtain further details by contacting one of our named employees as having responsibility for the category list you are interested in joining.
- Supply your goods through the Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation (external link) or refer to the supplier zone of the Government Procurement Service (external link). We are one of thirteen local authorities who are members of the public sector supplies organisation Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation.
Note that we are now expected to ensure that suppliers to the council comply with equality and diversity legislation. Our suppliers are expected to provide relevant evidence of meeting this compliance when submitting tenders as detailed within the document Equality and Diversity in Procurement: Guidance for Contractors and Suppliers (.pdf, 241kb). This contains an overview of our equality and diversity policy, relevant government legislation and describes how we monitor compliance.
Procurement Resources
Local providers looking to work with Wigan Council's Skills, Education and Community service should refer to the Wigan Social Enterprise Toolkit for Children and Young People's Services (external link). This is designed to help providers to compete successfully for business opportunities in the areas of children's health provision, social provision and families support.
We are committed too to the highest standards of openness, probity and accountability. The council has developed a Whistleblowing Policy to enable employees and staff within contracting organisations to raise in good faith any concerns they may have without fear of reprisals. If you have concerns about malpractice, misconduct, corruption or mismanagement by the council or its representatives with regards to procurement or any other area, please speak out.
