Guides for UK FM contractors
Step-by-step playbooks on bidding, compliance, and winning public-sector cleaning, security, and grounds maintenance contracts.
What you'll learn
Whether you're a local commercial cleaning company chasing your first council contract, or an established FM provider working through the shift from PAS 91 to the Common Assessment Standard, this hub is the path. Every guide walks the same procurement lifecycle: find the right tenders, pass the compliance gate, draft a Selection Questionnaire that scores, and price your bid without racing to the bottom.
We cover the entities the public sector actually scores you on. SSIP and Common Assessment Standard accreditation, CHAS, SMAS and Constructionline pre-qualification routes, the SQ under PPN 03/23, the National TOMs social value framework, BS EN 1276 and EN 14476 disinfectant standards for NHS work, and the live portals every English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish buyer is required to publish to.
- Compliance & SSIP
What is PAS 91? And what replaced it for FM contracts
PAS 91 was the standard pre-qualification form for FM and cleaning. BSI withdrew it in April 2023. Most public buyers now use the SQ under PPN 03/23. Here's how to handle the ones that haven't caught up.
27 Apr 2026 · 10 min read
- Bidding Strategy
What is a tender? Plain English for UK service businesses
A tender is a buyer asking suppliers to bid for a contract on fixed terms. UK public-sector tendering now runs under the Procurement Act 2023. Here's what that means for a small services firm.
27 Apr 2026 · 8 min read
- Bidding Strategy
How to bid for cleaning contracts in the UK public sector
Most small cleaning firms waste their bidding time. The first skill is binning the wrong tenders fast. Here's how to spot the right ones, get the paperwork right once, and write answers that score.
27 Apr 2026 · 11 min read
FAQs
Quick answers about UK FM tendering
- A cleaning tender is a public-sector buyer publishing the job on a portal (Contracts Finder, Find a Tender, Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales or eTendersNI), with fixed scoring rules every supplier has to answer against. A standard commercial cleaning contract is a private buyer awarding the work directly, often without a formal bid. Public tenders pay on 30+ day invoice terms, score quality and price separately, and almost always carry social value and TUPE obligations that private contracts don't.
- Yes for almost any council work and effectively all NHS cleaning. The Safety Schemes in Procurement umbrella has 15 Core Criteria that every member scheme (CHAS, SMAS, SafeContractor, Constructionline) tests against. Hold one and the Deem to Satisfy passport rule means a buyer asking for a different scheme has to accept yours, often for a small admin fee. Common Assessment Standard (CHAS Elite or Worksafe Pro) is only formally required on public-sector projects above £5 million.
- BSI withdrew PAS 91 in April 2023. The Standard Selection Questionnaire under PPN 03/23 is the main replacement for most public-sector cleaning and FM tenders. For high-value construction-adjacent work over £5 million, PPN 03/24 introduced the Common Assessment Standard from 27 June 2024. Some councils still attach old PAS 91 forms to packs because their templates haven't been refreshed. Read the cover letter and answer the version they actually ask for.
- Six weeks at the fast end of an Open procedure, six months at the slow end of a Competitive Flexible procedure with a pre-qualification stage and negotiation. Add another 4 to 8 weeks for mobilisation before the first invoice. Build that 8 to 12-month cash gap into your bid pricing or you'll win contracts you can't afford to start.