Stephensons is pleased to be appointed to the UK’s biggest public procurement organisation. We are appointed as a legal services provider on the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) RM3788 Wider Public Sector Legal Services framework.
We have been appointed under Lot 1 Regional Service Provision covering a wide range of legal services including property and construction, social housing, child law, education, debt recovery, litigation/dispute resolution, intellectual property, and employment.
There are many benefits of using CCS for buyers. As a supplier to CCS we are reviewed regularly. This saves you time finding suppliers and checking their reliability. Suppliers are asked to improve value and service over time. CCS contracts comply with public sector procurement regulations with standardised contract terms reducing administration. In 2019/20 CCS across all their different agreements helped more than 18,000 customers achieve commercial benefits totalling over £1 billion of public money.
Specifically, in relation to the Wider Legal Services Framework, some of the benefits buyers benefit from include:
- Access to good quality legal services including specialist lots covering property and construction, social housing, child law, education, debt recovery, licensing, litigation/dispute resolution, intellectual property, employment
- Delivery of legal services across all regions in England and Wales
- Flexible call off terms available using both direct award, and further competition
- Highly competitive hourly and daily rates with options for fixed fees and/or alternative fee arrangements for direct awards and further competitions
- Streamlined and simplified supplier selection through to contract award using a bespoke digitally enabled award support tool (to be implemented at a later date. An interim solution is currently in place)
- Value added benefits are available including two hours free legal advice
- Simplified tender documents templates and standard panel terms and conditions agreed by all panel suppliers
For further information about the framework please visit Crown Commercial.
Stephensons has a wealth of experience assisting local authorities and housing associations.