How PfH Scotland helped East Lothian Council bring a local contractor on board

Supporting local procurement: How PfH Scotland helped East Lothian Council find the right scaffolding contractor

East Lothian Council manages just under 9,000 homes across the south east of Scotland and takes its commitment to local, sustainable procurement seriously. When an independent attempt to procure scaffolding services for a property refurbishment programme didn’t go to plan, the Council came to us for a better route to market. What followed was a straightforward process that ended with a local contractor winning a meaningful public contract.

THE PROBLEM

An unsuccessful procurement exercise and a contract that needed to get moving

The Council had already tried to procure scaffolding services on their own to support an ongoing property refurbishment contract. That process hadn’t worked out, and they needed a reliable, compliant route to market for a three year contract. They reached out to us to explore what options were available.

THE SOLUTION

A compliant route to market, with local suppliers ready to bid

We gave the Council access to the scaffolding Lot within our Capital Works Dynamic Purchasing System. Before the tender went live, we ran an engagement exercise with scaffolding companies local to the East Lothian area, onboarding them onto the DPS so they were ready and eligible to bid when the documentation was published.

From there, our team supported the Council through their tender documentation, advertisement and commercial evaluation, so they weren’t navigating any of it alone.

As Mikel Vallejo, Senior Procurement Officer at East Lothian Council, put it: “The PfH Scotland DPS allowed us to engage with local suppliers to be added on their framework. The DPS functionality enabled the option to consider small and medium local suppliers to have the opportunity to bid for public contracts.”

THE RESULTS

A local contractor appointed on a three year contract

Following the tender process, local contractor KC Scaffolding was successfully appointed on a three year contract worth £150,000 per annum. The Capital Works DPS is built for exactly this kind of outcome, giving smaller businesses a genuine opportunity to compete while keeping the process simple and compliant for the council.

“KC Scaffolding managed to win our mini competition, which is bringing value to our Council and also supports the sustainable procurement agenda.”

Mikel Vallejo, Senior Procurement Officer, East Lothian Council