Trafford Council is a founding partner authority in STAR Procurement.
STAR is the shared procurement service for Stockport, Trafford and Rochdale Councils and issues the majority of requests for quotation and invitations to tender for supplies, services and works contracts required by the three Councils and their partner agencies. Everything that the Council requires which cannot be delivered in-house will be tendered with suppliers … from stationery and consultancy services, through FM and construction contracts to home care and health-related services are sourced from third party suppliers.
All open tenders are advertised on The Chest, the Councils’ e-procurement portal. You can register your company on this portal for free and it will enable you to receive alerts when STAR advertises a new opportunity. You will be able to easily register your interest in submitting a quotation or tender for any advertised opportunity that you would like to participate in.
To assist your company in registering on The Chest, receiving alerts, searching for advertised opportunities and participating in a tender process, STAR has produced a handy reference guide which can be downloaded from its website.
In addition, STAR advertises all opportunities in excess of £25,000 on the UK Government’s Contracts Finder website and it advertises all above-OJEU threshold tenders on the EU’s Tenders Electronic Daily website. Both of these can be accessed for free and contain information about other public sector tenders in your area
STAR has added a range of free-to-access resources to its website, which will assist companies wanting to supply to the Council. These include:
- Top tips for tendering
- Frequently asked questions in respect of public sector tendering
- A glossary of terms used in public sector tendering
- Guidance for addressing Social Value in quotation and tender responses
- Links to other web based procurement resources which will be of interest to suppliers
All of these resources are available in the Suppliers section of the STAR website.
Did you know that the Council publishes its Contracts Register online? This assists suppliers in understanding what the Council buys from third party suppliers. It also highlights when existing contracts are due to expire. STAR provides access to each STAR Council’s current Contracts Register in the Useful Links section of its website. The information is updated on a quarterly basis.
If you want to speak to somebody at STAR Procurement about potential future opportunities to supply to the Council, you can find contact information, including email addresses and contact telephone numbers for the STAR team on its website. Alternatively, STAR can be contacted on 0161 912 1616 or by email to procurement@star-procurement.gov.uk.