Bid writing · Sector
Cleaning and facilities management tenders.
Soft FM for councils, NHS trusts, academy trusts and housing associations. High volume, heavy TUPE, and decided on whether an evaluator believes your mobilisation plan.
Why cleaning contracts reward a written bid.
Cleaning is one of the most frequently re-procured services in the public sector. Every council, NHS trust, academy trust, university and housing association buys it, most on three to five year cycles, and a large share goes through frameworks and dynamic purchasing systems that stay open to new entrants.
Price carries more weight here than in care, typically 50 to 70 per cent. That leads a lot of contractors to assume the quality submission is a formality and to write it themselves, at speed, between jobs. It is very common to see a technically capable contractor with the better price lose on a quality section that reads like it was assembled the night before.
The margin is thin enough that a lost contract hurts and an underpriced win hurts more. Both problems are solved at the same desk.
- Soft FMDaily cleaning for civic buildings, offices, depots and libraries
- SchoolsAcademy trust and local authority school cleaning lots
- NHSTrust cleaning against the National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness
- HousingCommunal area cleaning for housing associations and ALMOs
- SpecialistWindow cleaning, deep cleans, infection control and periodic works
- BundledWashroom, waste and total facilities management lots
The mistake that costs marks
The contract is won on mobilisation, not on cleaning.
Evaluators already assume you can clean. What they are testing is whether you can take over a workforce you did not recruit, on a date you do not control, without the service dipping in week one. Most submissions skip straight past this.
TUPE and the transfer
Employee liability information, the consultation timetable, day-one terms, accrued holiday and protected rates. Say what you have priced for, because the evaluator has seen the same list and knows what it costs.
Mobilisation timetable
A week-by-week plan to go-live: transfer meetings, right to work and DBS checks, equipment and consumables delivery, uniform issue, first supervisory audit. Dates and named roles, not phases.
Specification and frequencies
Output versus input specifications, and the arithmetic showing your priced hours actually deliver the stated frequencies across every room type in the schedule.
Standards and auditing
National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness star ratings, BICSc assessment, audit frequency, who holds the score and what happens to a failed area before the client notices.
A minimum wage labour model
Retention, Real Living Wage accreditation, absence cover and supervision ratios. Evaluators can do the arithmetic on your hourly rate and will spot a price that cannot fund the rota.
Social value and TOMs
Local recruitment, hours for people furthest from the labour market, carbon on chemicals and machinery. Measured commitments with a baseline, not a pledge to be a good neighbour.
Straight answer
When cleaning is the wrong bid.
If price carries 60 per cent and your cost base is structurally higher than the incumbent’s, no quality answer closes that gap. We would rather tell you at bid/no-bid than take a fee for writing a submission that finishes third.
The other common trap is winning at a price that only works if nobody is ever sick. We will say so before you sign the pricing schedule.
- Have you seen the TUPE list?Headcount, hourly rates, sickness record, accrued holiday and any protected terms.
- Can you fund mobilisation?Equipment, consumables, uniforms and a first payroll before the first invoice is paid.
- Does your price reconcile?Hours multiplied by rate multiplied by frequency has to match the specification exactly.
- Do you hold the accreditations?BICSc, CHAS or SafeContractor, ISO 9001 and 14001 where the buyer asks.
If any of these is a no, we will say so before you commit.
Who writes it
The team behind your cleaning bid.
- GraceHealthcare and facilities cleaning, mobilisation plans
- SharonCommercial, office and school cleaning: staffing cover and safeguarding
- HezekiahFacilities management cleaning, framework bids and quality answers
- KayodeReviews and edits of answers you have already written
- WilliamsCompliance review before anything is submitted
Got a cleaning tender with a deadline on it?
Send the closing date and the portal link. We'll tell you honestly whether it's worth your time, before you pay us anything.