A procurement Framework is an agreement put in place with a provider or range of providers that enables buyers to place orders for services without running lengthy full tendering exercises.
Frameworks are based on large volume buying. Aggregating different buyers' potential needs means individual buyers can source services at lower prices, or with special added benefits and/or more advantageous conditions.
The National LGPS Frameworks are multi-provider, allowing several qualified providers to be on the Framework.
Procurement Framework Agreements are Public Contract Regulations (2015) compliant, This removes the need to independently undertake a full procurement process, as this has already been done as part of setting up the Framework.
Agreed terms and conditions are provided so LGPS Funds can simply ‘call-off’ the Framework to meet their own local requirements.
How do they work?
When an LGPS Fund needs to buy a service from the Framework Agreement, they simply ‘call off’ the Framework by running a Further Competition, which usually takes 4-6 weeks. This enables Funds to locally define their requirements.