How do SCAPE frameworks ensure competition and procurement compliance?

Below, we explore these themes to provide greater clarity and insight into SCAPE frameworks, and to show what makes them effective and trusted.

SCAPE’s effective procurement process harnesses the buying power of the cumulative framework value, together with point-of-delivery market testing. This combination is delivering exceptional value for money for our public sector clients.

Fair competition: A framework is competitive by collating significant volumes of works, procuring on both cost and quality to create the Most Advantageous Tenders (MAT). This means that our process operates at scale and encourages healthy competition, beyond cost, to unlock economies not available on single project tenders or through mini competitions.

Value locked in: Our competitive framework tender process enables us to fix related costs over the duration of the framework (four or more years), meaning our clients are protected long-term against risk and rising market rates. This includes fixed fees, core staff and site set up costs, and pre-defined, competitive overhead and profit rates.

Market testing: Whilst we fix core costs outlined above with commercially advantageous rates (typically accounting for up to 10% of the project cost), for every project our process requires individual work package elements to be competitively tendered in the live marketplace, with value for money evidencing. Our market-testing of works packages is open book, ensuring complete transparency.

Two-stage tendering: Our two-stage tender process is open and collaborative, and involves both the delivery partner and the client pricing the project together.

SCAPE’s direct award frameworks are fully compliant in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016 and Procurement Act 2023.

The value of our direct award approach is in our clients’ ability to compliantly and immediately engage with the best, pre-selected delivery partners, with complete confidence that we have already fulfilled all public sector procurement regulations. This process is accelerating public sector projects across the UK.

SCAPE frameworks have been verified as Gold Standard because our approach to procurement, framework operation and governance is fully compliant and aligned with Central Government policy as set out in the Construction Playbook.