What types of contracts are available?

There are four main types:

These are contracts to meet a specific need and will generally be short-term contracts to supply goods and services to meet an individual requirement, e.g. the supply of specialist scientific equipment for the Trading Standards Service or the supply of consultancy services for a particular project.

These are contracts for services required on a regular basis and are generally let over a longer period of time (1 5 years) and will be monitored on a regular basis, e.g. school meals, building cleaning, grounds maintenance.

This is an arrangement where the terms and conditions (including pricing methodology where possible) are agreed with the supplier(s) of goods and/or services, which allows call-offs to be made without the need to go through another formal tendering process. The suppliers are pre-vetted using similar criteria to those outlined in Stage 1 of the tender process. The contract length will usually be 2 or 3 years with a disclosed option to extend for a specified further period. Examples include stationery, furniture, computer equipment, vehicles, fuel and food.

This is where the County Council seeks to develop a relationship with a supplier based on "partnership principles" (but not a formal partnership) with a supplier thereby sharing the costs and risks involved, for example, civil engineering works and individual building schemes.