Before using this agreement you should read the customer guide.
You must have internal approval from your organisation, regardless of the value to use this agreement.
Additional requirements for central government and ALB clients
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.
Excluding lot 4 of this agreement, government bodies using this agreement must pay the Government Communication Service (GCS) Management Charge. This is 1% of the total net contract value. It will be collected by the agency on GCS’s behalf.
This charge is a set contribution from all government communications serviced through CCS’s marketing and communications agreements. The charge is used to fund the GCS. It has been in existence since 2013 and is approved by the Civil Service Board, Ministerial Board and with the agreement of all Directors of Communications.
Direct award
You can direct award for lots 1 and 3.
To direct award under this agreement you should:
- complete the following documents:
- letter of appointment at framework schedule B
- the call-off agreement at annex B1 (you will need to sign it with the Media Services Agency)
- send these documents to the awarded supplier to review and sign to complete the contract
- publish your contract on Contracts Finder
Please note: call-off agreements must not extend after the duration of the RM6123 Media Services framework agreement which expires 13th December 2025.
If you are a new customer, email Claire Graham. Claire will provide you support in putting in place a call of contract.
Further competition
To appoint an agency from lots 2, 4 or 5 you will need to run a further competition.
You can use your own eSourcing system, or you can use CCS’s eSourcing tool to run your further competition. If this is your first time using CCS’s eSourcing suite, you will need to register for 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.
A further competition process can take around 4 to 6 weeks to complete, depending on the size of your need. You should keep this timescale in mind if you intend to use this route to market.
To run a further competition you will need to:
- take part in pre-market engagement with suppliers to help you define your needs (optional)
- identify the suppliers that can meet your needs and develop your client brief (make sure your client brief is detailed and includes timescales)
- complete your further competition documents, such as:
- invitation to tender
- evaluation criteria
- client brief
- invite all identified suppliers to submit a tender in writing (this could be by email or through your preferred e-Sourcing tool)
- set a time limit for the submission of tenders, (take into account the time needed to create and submit tenders and the complexity of your needs)
- keep each tender confidential until the time limit set out for the return of tenders has ended
- evaluate supplier responses (make sure you evaluate all suppliers equally and fairly)
- award your call-off contract by sending the following to the successful supplier:
- a completed and signed letter of appointment
- a completed and signed call-off agreement
- a completed client brief to be inserted at schedule 2 of the call-off contract
- publish your contract on contracts finder for transparency purposes
