Doing business with the Council

Information for suppliers following the end of the Brexit Transition Period

From 23:00 on 31 December 2020, a new e-notification service will be launched by government for the publication of new procurement notices. The new service is called Find A Tender and will replace the Official Journal of the European Union's Tenders Electronic Daily (OJEU/TED) for the publication and viewing of new procurement notices. 

How does it affect you?

If you want to access public sector contract opportunities in the UK where the procurement is launched after 23:00 on 31 December 2020, you need to do this via Find A Tender. This does not affect access to other domestic portals such as Contracts Finder, MOD Defence Contracts Online, Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI; these can be used in the normal way.

If you want to access public sector contract opportunities in the EU, or information about procurements launched by UK contracting authorities before 23:00 on 31 December 2020, you can continue to do so via OJEU/TED.

If your organisation makes use of OJEU/TED data outputs, you will be able to access publicly available data outputs for Find A Tender. Data is available for testing now. For support, contact the Crown Commercial Service Helpdesk on 0345 410 2222 or info@crowncommercial.gov.uk 

How we do business

Our Commissioning and Procurement Plan is an accessible guide to how we work. It sets out our aims and priorities for the things we buy and explains how we build maximum social and financial value into every contract opportunity.

On this page you will find links to live contract opportunities, our upcoming commissioning intentions, our contract list, and information on how you can find support to bid for contracts.

Find live contract opportunities

Open opportunities over £25,000

We publish all of our competitive contract opportunities over £25,000 on the NEPO portal along with the other North East local authorities.

If you would like to work with the Council you can register on the NEPO portal. You can then receive automatic alerts each time a new contract opportunity is published in an area you are interested in.

Consultancy and training opportunities of any value

If you offer a  consultancy or training service our live opportunities are published on the Bloom website. You need to register with Bloom to bid for these opportunities.

Commissioning intentions

Every six months we publish a list of the most significant commissioning and procurement exercises that we intend to carry out, with details of how you can get involved in the early stages of commissioning design.

Commissioning Intentions - September 2021

Commissioning Intentions - March 2021

Commissioning Intentions - September 2020

Commissioning Intentions - March 2020

Commissioning Intentions - October 2019

Commissioning Intentions - March 2019

Contract list

Our commissioning intentions are taken from our wider contract list where you can see details of all existing contracts expected to come to an end in the next three years.  As requirements may change over time, information in the contract list is only ever an indication but gives a good sense of what is likely to happen and when.

• Contract list 2018-19
• Contract list 2019-20

Awarded contracts

You can view our awarded contracts on the NEPO portal.

Support to bid

You can access a range of support through the Council's business support partners to help improve your chances of bidding successfully:

• The NEPO Business Club offers free training and networking events for local organisations in areas such as bid writing, understanding procurement, and developing social value in your business
• Our Business and Intellectual Property Centre (BIPC) offers free support on intellectual property, and provides training events on things like content marketing, and developing innovative practice

Find out more about the support offered and book training via their websites at the links above.

Services we offer

Our information and communications technology (ICT) service is now an approved supplier to the Everything ICT framework, delivering high quality services to schools and public sector organisations.

Find out more at:

• Everything ICT