Register of Current Contracts

Contracts Register

The ODS contract register includes details of our live contracts, frameworks, purchase orders and other legally enforceable agreements valued over £5,000.

It is published in line with the Local Government Transparency Code 2015. 

The Code requires local authorities to publish certain information about themselves and their activities so matters may all be subject to public scrutiny. The Code defines exactly what is meant by a “a local authority” by setting out a comprehensive list of relevant bodies. This list includes no reference to any private limited company, whether or not owned by a local authority, so as Oxford Direct Services Limited is a fully independent entity, legally separate from the Council which owns it, it will not fall within the remit of the Code. ODSL is, therefore, under no legal obligation to comply with the Code.

In the interests of promoting public transparency, ODSL has sought, in regard to some relevant matters including its principal procurements, to make certain information available to the public by way of disclosure within its publication scheme.  In this way, ODSL goes beyond its legal obligations in regard to transparency, but does so in order to ensure that a helpful level of information is available to Oxford residents and the public at large.

The contract register is published at least quarterly and includes the following:

• Contract reference number
• Title of agreement
• Local authority department responsible
• Description of the goods and/or services being provided
• Supplier name
• Sum to be paid over the length of the contract or the estimated spend
• Value Added Tax that cannot be recovered
• Start, end and review dates
• Whether the contract was the result of an invitation to quote or a published invitation to tender
• Whether or not the supplier is a small or medium sized enterprise
• Whether or not the supplier is a voluntary or community sector organisation and where it is, provides the relevant registration number

In addition to the required information, ODS has included the following fields to enhance the navigation of the published data:

• Organisation name the register relates to
• Data effective date
• Contract type
• Last extension date
• Whether the sum to be paid is a fixed or estimated cost 

Access to information readily available does not affect statutory rights.

A list of our current contracts and spend data over £500 can be found below.

Our standard terms and conditions for the supply of goods and services are here.

Derivation of data

The data is taken from the Procurement system, housing management system  and the ODS accounting system.

Information to be published in the future

Whilst the published Contract Register only includes current and recent contracts, we hope to publish historic contract data in the future. Due to an IT system upgrade, historic contract data needs to be manually reviewed before inclusion on the register. However, purchase order information is only available in a usable format from May 2021 onwards and is already included on the register.

ODS are also aiming to include Proclass categories in the future.

Contract Value

Most of ODS’ contracts include an estimated value as actual spend depends on usage. Actual Spend is included in the expenditure over £500 data.

Contract Dates

ODS has a small number of rolling contracts with no set end date. These contracts are labelled in the last extension date column. Our rolling contracts can be terminated with a defined amount of notice and are reviewed on a regular basis.  

Purchase orders cannot be extended and are not reviewed in the same way as ODS’ contracts, so these fields have been marked N/A in the contract register where the information relates to a purchase order.

Where Purchase orders have no end date listed, they are still open in our systems and additional spend may be recorded at a later date. Additional spend will be updated at least quarterly in line with the ODS publishing schedule. Where Purchase orders are closed with no spend recorded, these Purchase orders may be removed from later iterations of the ODS Contracts Register.

Purchase order data

The contract reference number for purchase orders refers to the work order number taken from our accounting and housing management systems. This is in a different format to the Contract reference number for contracts derived from the Procurement team’s records.

Expenditure over £500

ODS’s expenditure records are available from April 2018, when ODS Limited was incorporated. They are published at least quarterly.

Applying to become an ODS Group supplier

We recognise the importance of having a reliable and skilled supply chain to support us as we strive to deliver high quality services. The effective selection of suppliers plays a vital role in the success of our business helping us to operate efficiently and add value to our customers.  

Our appointment of suppliers requires them to commit to our core values of paying a Living Wage to their employees, paying their suppliers promptly, carrying out its obligations to Corporate Social Responsibility, the environment, equality and Health & Safety issues.

We advertise many of our contract opportunities on a portal. New opportunities can be found on https://in-tendhost.co.uk/oxfordcc (Registration is free for suppliers and only takes a few minutes to do).

We also publish relevant opportunities over £25,000 on Contracts Finder and the Find a Tender service for Procurement exercises over the current thresholds in relation to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

For any further information please email: ODSProcurement@ODSgroup.co.uk

Submitting an invoice for payment

Supplier’s invoices must include:

The ODS group purchase order number

Provide full details of the supply or service provided

Contain the name of the client contact

Invoices can be submitted to: invoice@odsgroup.co.uk

For any further assistance in relation to invoice payments please email: invoice@odsgroup.co.uk