Recruitment Contracts and Tenders

Recruitment procurement covers the agencies public bodies use to fill roles: executive search for chief executives, directors and chairs, permanent and interim recruitment, temporary and contingent labour, supply teachers and education staff, and agency nursing and care staff. Buyers also buy recruitment advertising, applicant tracking systems and learner finder services for colleges.

Stotles brings together recruitment tenders and contracts from 100+ portals into one search, so you do not have to check each portal separately, and you can set alerts for new opportunities across the UK and Ireland.

If you want to search the government portals directly, Find a Tender carries higher-value contracts across the UK and Contracts Finder carries lower-value contracts in England. Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI cover Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Ireland's eTenders covers Irish public bodies, and many councils, NHS bodies and housing associations publish on their own e-tendering portals such as ProContract. Many recruitment contracts are called off from purchasing organisation frameworks such as ESPO's strategic HR and recruitment services framework, so those opportunities reach only agencies already on them.

Recruitment tenders are scored on quality and price, where price is usually the agency's fee or margin on top of pay. Quality sections cover how you source and vet candidates, how fast you fill roles, your reach into the buyer's sector, safeguarding checks and how you report on performance. Agencies usually win a place on a framework or preferred supplier list first, then compete for individual requests.

Agencies supplying temporary workers must comply with the Employment Agencies Act 1973 and the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003. Agencies placing staff with schools or care services must carry out the safeguarding and right-to-work checks the buyer requires. Tenders usually set minimum insurance cover, check financial standing and ask for evidence of similar contracts at selection stage. Under the Procurement Act 2023, suppliers can be excluded for certain criminal convictions, insolvency or failure to pay tax.

Mostly through frameworks and preferred supplier lists that buyers re-let every few years, with individual requests then offered to the agencies on the list. Executive search is more often tendered one role at a time, and government departments sometimes use ESPO's strategic HR and recruitment services framework.

The Government Commercial Agency's executive and non-executive recruitment services framework and its supply teachers and education recruitment framework are the two national routes that appear in recruitment call-offs. The executive framework covers executive search and non-executive and public appointments, and bodies such as the Ministry of Justice, HM Revenue & Customs, the Gambling Commission and NHS Property Services have called off from it by further competition or direct award.

The supply teachers framework covers supply teaching staff and wider education recruitment. Academy trusts such as St Clare Catholic Multi Academy Trust and Stamford Park Trust have called off from it by direct award, often appointing several agencies at once.

Government departments, regulators and arm's-length bodies buy executive search and permanent recruitment, councils and housing associations buy agency staff and trade operatives, and multi-academy trusts and councils buy supply teacher services. Universities, colleges and NHS-linked bodies also tender for agencies.

Most recruitment contracts run for around a year, and some agency frameworks and preferred supplier lists run for three years. Executive search for a single role is shorter.

Track the expiry dates of existing agency frameworks and preferred supplier lists and preliminary market engagement notices, which show recruitment work coming due ahead of a notice. On Stotles you can track those signals and the buyers behind them, then follow a notice from pre-tender through to award.

The core codes are 79600000 (Recruitment services), 79620000 (Supply services of personnel including temporary staff) and 79610000 (Placement services of personnel). Agency nursing contracts carry 79624000 (Supply services of nursing personnel).