---
title: "Temporary Staffing Neutral Vendor"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-0551d7"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-0551d7"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-0551d7.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-0551d7.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "NORFOLK COUNTY COUNCIL"
published: "2025-07-28"
---

# Temporary Staffing Neutral Vendor

Buyer: NORFOLK COUNTY COUNCIL  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-0551d7

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## Summary

Norfolk County Council, a public authority operating within sub-central government in the United Kingdom, has initiated a procurement process for a "Temporary Staffing Neutral Vendor" contract through a direct award method. This award, valued at £1,680,000 including VAT, covers critical temporary agency staffing needs, such as social workers and educational psychologists, which are vital for maintaining core council functions like statutory assessments for children and young people. The contract, commencing on 3rd July 2025 and set to conclude on 12th October 2025, serves as a bridging solution due to extreme urgency and prior procurement complications. Services under this contract will be utilised in various regions including UKH15, UKH16, and UKH17.

This temporary agency staffing contract provides significant business opportunities, primarily for organisations capable of managing large-scale, time-sensitive temporary personnel supply in the public sector. Companies specialising in skilled human resource services, particularly those that can offer educational and social work professionals, are well-suited to meet these requirements. By participating in such direct awards, suppliers like Magnit Global GRI Ltd have the potential to establish long-term relationships with public authorities, leveraging this collaboration to expand their market presence and portfolio in the public staffing sector.

## Notice

A managed service for temporary agency resources utilising the neutral vendor model. The top 5 required skillsets are: - Educational psychologist - Social Worker - Lawyer - Project Manager - Assistant Practitioner Current spend is just under PS400k per month.

### Procurement Information

Extreme and unavoidable urgency Introduction Norfolk County Council ('NCC') found itself in a unique position, where it needed to direct award to continue the provision of essential services (a managed service for temporary agency resources) awarded under a framework. It is essentially a "bridging" contract to allow services to be successfully mobilised to a new provider further to the commencement of a new framework award on 13th October 2025. The Direct Award will be for PS1,680,000 including VAT. The term of the contract under the Direct Award will be for 3 months and 10 days. The Direct Award to Magnit is critical in delivering core Council functions. For the reasons further set out here and in the Transparency Notice, if the contract is not awarded, there would be a failure to deliver statutory obligations including statutory EHC assessments for children and young people. Background The existing contract, which expired 2nd July 2025, was procured through a NEPO framework ref NEPO508. The current provider, Magnit, manages services for temporary agency resources. As the Framework was due to expire, then with due regard to the time required, and its obligations under the procurement legislation, NCC carried out an assessment of procurement routes and the decision was taken to undertake a further competition using a multi supplier ESPO framework. Tenders were not released through the ESPO MSTAR4 framework until 24 October 2024. Unfortunately, only two returns were received by the tender deadline of 25 November and to compound matters both bids were non-compliant having failed to meet mandatory accessibility requirements set by law, and so NCC declared it a failed procurement. NCC discussed the situation with the failed procurement as a matter of urgency with NEPO. The clear advice from NEPO was that it would be possible to extend the contract under the provisions of the Framework Agreement and extensive work was put in place by NCC with a view to extending the Framework from 2nd July to 13th October 2025. Unfortunately, on 17th March 2025 NEPO changed their position. They advised NCC that they had identified an unusual framework clause which prevented the award of any further contracts through the NEPO framework. All that NEPO could do was recommend their alternate framework with a different provider, Comensura, which had commenced on 1st May 2025. NCC worked extensively with NEPO to assess compliance of their solution and the transition period required. It was agreed between the parties that the very earliest Comensura can commence their services to NCC is 13 October 2025. Direct Award and extreme urgency A Direct Award was therefore essential, to bridge the period between 3rd July 2025 and 13th October 2025. NCC acted entirely and properly on the advice and guidance from NEPO. Had NEPO provided the correct guidance in the first instance, NCC would have been in a position to award to Comensura from 3rd July 2025, and not October 2025. NCC therefore considers that the resultant delay was wholly beyond NCC's control. Further, the unique situation and time constraints that have arisen from NEPO's incorrect guidance mean there is simply insufficient time for NCC to undertake a formal procurement to bridge the gap. There is also the question as to whether a formal procurement would even be successful, given the results from the previous failed procurement. The Direct Award to Magnit is critical in delivering core Council functions. If the contract was not in place the practical implications would be a failure to deliver statutory obligations including statutory EHC assessments for children and young people. The Council currently has 90 agency workers including social workers, residential care for children, lawyers, educational psychologists. Without these posts in place the Council will be unable to respond quickly as needs arise in situations where planning in advance is not possible, for example covering unplanned staff absences. Further, during discussions with Comensura, it became clear that their minimum onboarding process is 12 weeks and with staff absences in this time, 14 weeks was agreed. Again, this would be insufficient time for NCC to undertake a procurement to bridge the gap. In conclusion, for the reasons set out in this Contract Details Notice and the transparency notice, NCC undertook a Direct Award to Magnit from 3rd July 2025 to 12th October 2025.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/043518-2025 |
| Notice type | UK7 - Contract Details Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Direct |
| Procurement method details | Direct award |
| Tender suitability | Not specified |
| Awardee scale | Large |
| All stages | Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 28 Jul 2025 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 23 Jun 2025 |
| Contract period | 2 Jul 2025 - 12 Oct 2025 |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | £1,400,000 |
| Contracts value | £1,400,000 |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Complete |
| Awards status | Active |
| Contracts status | Active |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | NORFOLK COUNTY COUNCIL |
| Locality | NORWICH |
| Post town | Norwich |
| Postcode | NR1 2DH |
| Country | England |
| ITL 1 | TLH East (England) |
| ITL 2 | TLH5 Norfolk |
| ITL 3 | TLH51 Norwich and East Norfolk |
| Local authority | Norwich |
| Electoral ward | Lakenham |
| Westminster constituency | Norwich South |
| Delivery location | Not specified |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 1 |
| Supplier names | MAGNIT GLOBAL GRI |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 79 - Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security

### Codes

- 79620000 - Supply services of personnel including temporary staff

## Release History

- 28 Jul 2025 at 13:40 - Award - UK7 - Contract Details Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/043518-2025
- 28 Jul 2025 at 13:25 - Award - UK6 - Contract Award Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/043501-2025
- 23 Jun 2025 at 13:35 - Award - UK5 - Transparency Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/034427-2025

## Documents

- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/043518-2025
  28th July 2025 - Contract details notice on Find a Tender
- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/043501-2025
  28th July 2025 - Contract award notice on Find a Tender
- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/034427-2025
  23rd June 2025 - Transparency notice on Find a Tender

## Notice URLs

- https://magnitglobal.com/
- https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/54/contents

## Provenance

This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-0551d7. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-0551d7.json.