Dear Sir or Madam,

Common Purpose - tenders and contracts

Please supply:

1. Details of the general procedures involved in selecting external
training providers for your organisation

2. Details of the tendering procedures involved in selecting
external training providers for your organisation

3. Copies of the tenders issued for all training courses which were
eventually won by Common Purpose

4. Copies of any and all contracts between your organisation and
Common Purpose

5. Details of how your organisation audits the integrity and value
of courses run by external training providers

By "Common Purpose", I mean the training organisation of that name:
http://www.commonpurpose.org/home.aspx

Yours faithfully,

John Walker

Dear Mr Walker,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request, received by us today, August 11th.

Your request will be considered within the statutory timescale of twenty working days as defined by the Freedom of Information Act 2000. For clarification, our deadline for your request is therefore September 9th.

For your information, the Act defines a number of exemptions that may prevent release of the information you have requested. You will be informed if this is the case.

If the information you request contains reference to a third party then they may be consulted prior to a decision being taken on whether or not to release the information to you. You will be informed if this is the case.

There may be a charge payable to cover the cost of providing this information. This will be assessed and you will be informed of the charge payable if this is the case.

Should you have any queries regarding your request, please feel free to contact us at [Norfolk County Council request email] .

Yours sincerely,

Deirdre Sharp

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Dear Mr Walker,

In reply to your request, our response is as follows:

1. Details of the general procedures involved in selecting external training providers for your organisation

Our procedures for selecting external training providers and associated tendering processes include following the European procurement rules (for the public sector). This requires us to ensure a formal open tender processes for providers where the value is above 30k. A specification is drafted for this work and this is advertised externally in the Eastern Daily PRESS and relevant trade magazine.

Attached is a pdf copy of the Council's Contract Standing Orders.

2. Details of the tendering procedures involved in selecting
external training providers for your organisation

Our internal Procurement Guide is an interactive document, and it has not been possible to get it in a more manageable form within the cost limit and timeframe of this request. I will persevere however, and if I succeed, I will supply it later.

As for question 1.

3. Copies of the tenders issued for all training courses which were eventually won by Common Purpose

No tenders have been won by Common Purpose at NCC for work of this value. The formal tender process does not apply to lower value procurements.

4. Copies of any and all contracts between your organisation and Common Purpose

We do not currently have any formal contracts with Common Purpose. They are however an external organisation who run short courses which we access from time to time for our Norfolk senior managers.

There are no records of any old contracts.

5. Details of how your organisation audits the integrity and value of courses run by external training providers

We evaluate our external providers that run courses on our behalf mainly through questionnaires to participants. These questionnaires take the form of a Survey Monkey product. The results are then reviewed and evaluated. We have a Learning and Development Board which on a quarterly basis explores the impact of all our priority areas of development (both those run internally and through external providers). Any evaluation of Common Purpose courses is undertaken initially through individual participants and their line managers.

Yours sincerely,

Deirdre Sharp

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