Before using this agreement you must have internal approval from your organisation.
Central government organisations and ALBs will need to secure Cabinet Office approval before committing to advertising, marketing and communications (AMC) expenditure of £100,000 or over. If you have any questions about the AMC spend control process, email the GCS team.
Charge for central government
Government bodies using this agreement must pay the Government Communication Service (GCS) management charge. This is 1% of the total net contract value.
This charge is a set contribution from all government communications spending through the agreements and funds the GCS. It has been in existence since 2013/14 and is approved by the Civil Service Board, Ministerial Board and with the agreement of all Directors of Communications.
Further competition
Before using this agreement you should read the customer guidance document. To appoint an agency you will need to run a further competition.
You can use your own eSourcing system or you can use our eSourcing tool to run your further competition. If this is your first time using our eSourcing suite, you will need to register an account
Read guidance on using CCS’s eSourcing tool
We encourage you to take part in pre-market engagement before running a further competition. It’s a good opportunity for you to define your needs and it allows agencies to consider the opportunity before the competition begins.
To run a further competition you will need to:
- undertake pre-market engagement with agencies (recommended but optional)
- identify the lot that can meet your needs and develop your brief
- make sure your brief is detailed and includes timescales, budget and scope
- complete your further competition documents, we have helpful templates in the document section below
- invite all agencies from the relevant lot to submit a tender in writing
- set a time limit for agencies to submit tenders
- make sure you take into account the time needed to create and submit tenders and the complexity of your needs
- include face-to-face or virtual pitches / presentations (optional but recommended)
- keep each tender confidential until the time limit set out for the return of tenders has ended
- make sure you evaluate all agency responses equally and fairly
- award your call-off contract
- provide unsuccessful agencies with written feedback on why their tenders were unsuccessful
- where appropriate, notify of the award on Find a Tender Service
