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Long LeverPartnershipsFictitious example

Fictitious example · schools and trusts

Long Lever Academy

From tender to contract · cleaning services

A complete cleaning tender worked through in front of you: the brief, the specification, the hours, the questions, the bids and the contract that follows. Ten steps, and every number on the page is yours to move.

1/10

Step

Guide: Ten steps, tender to contract
Service: Term-time cleaning and holiday deep cleans
Contract term: Two years, with an option to extend
Tools inside: Specification builder · Hours estimator · Price realism · Evaluation scoring

What this step does

Sets out the school, the contract that is ending and what the trust actually wants from the next one.

Normally a fortnight of meetings and a blank page, here about four minutes.

Step 01

The brief

An 11–18 academy with a sixth form, around 1,450 pupils and 14,000 m² of floor area across five blocks. The cleaning contract ends in July, the budget is under pressure, and the trust has asked for a specification that can be compared properly and defended if it is challenged. Nothing has been written yet: this step decides what the contract is for.

1,450

Pupils

Including sixth form (approx. 220)

14,000 m²

Floor area

Gross internal, all blocks

2 + 1

Contract term

Two years, option to extend one

July

Contract ends

Service starts in September

Where it starts

A contract that has drifted

The current contract is priced on a two-week rota nobody has revisited since 2019. Two blocks are cleaned properly, the science block less so, and the holiday deep clean has become whatever fits in the last week of August.

What the trust wants

A specification it can hold someone to

Written frequencies, hours that add up, and a way of measuring quality that does not rely on one person’s opinion. Procurement also wants a decision that survives a challenge.

Pick the trust’s priorities

Choose what this contract has to deliver. Later steps mark the places where each priority actually gets decided, so nothing is asked for that is never checked.

Where these priorities show up

4 of 6 chosen

Value for moneyStep 7 price realism · Step 8 evaluationValue is tested in hours and price on the same specification, never by picking the lowest number.
Consistency across blocksStep 3 specification · Step 4 hoursThe same standard in every block, written down zone by zone so it can be checked on a Tuesday.
Deep cleaning in the holidaysStep 5 holiday programmeA named week-by-week programme with hours and a sign-off, not “deep cleans as required”.
SafeguardingStep 6 questions · Step 9 mobilisationDBS checks, induction and safeguarding training evidenced before anyone walks the corridors.

The decision made in this step

The contract is for term-time cleaning of every space except the dining hall and kitchen, plus a defined holiday deep-clean programme. Catering cleans its own areas under a separate arrangement, and saying so in writing is half the reason this contract will be easier to run than the last one.

Long Lever Partnerships · worked example. Organisation names, figures and people are fictitious and used to illustrate real work; no client, supplier or individual is identified. Illustrations only, no photographs.

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Long LeverPartnershipsFictitious example

Fictitious example · schools and trusts

Long Lever Academy

From tender to contract · cleaning services

Guide: Ten steps, tender to contract
Service: Term-time cleaning and holiday deep cleans
Contract term: Two years, with an option to extend
Tools inside: Specification builder · Hours estimator · Price realism · Evaluation scoring

Step-by-step guide · 10 steps

Step 01

The brief

Sets out the school, the contract that is ending and what the trust actually wants from the next one. Normally a fortnight of meetings and a blank page, here about four minutes.

1,450

Pupils

Including sixth form (approx. 220)

14,000 m²

Floor area

Gross internal, all blocks

2 + 1

Contract term

Two years, option to extend one

July

Contract ends

Service starts in September

Where it starts

A contract that has drifted

What the trust wants

A specification it can hold someone to

Written frequencies, hours that add up, and a way of measuring quality that does not rely on one person’s opinion. Procurement also wants a decision that survives a challenge.

Pick the trust’s priorities

Choose what this contract has to deliver. Later steps mark the places where each priority actually gets decided, so nothing is asked for that is never checked.

Where these priorities show up

4 of 6 chosen

Value for moneyStep 7 price realism · Step 8 evaluationValue is tested in hours and price on the same specification, never by picking the lowest number.
Consistency across blocksStep 3 specification · Step 4 hoursThe same standard in every block, written down zone by zone so it can be checked on a Tuesday.
Deep cleaning in the holidaysStep 5 holiday programmeA named week-by-week programme with hours and a sign-off, not “deep cleans as required”.
SafeguardingStep 6 questions · Step 9 mobilisationDBS checks, induction and safeguarding training evidenced before anyone walks the corridors.

The decision made in this step

Step 02

Site profile

Records the building zone by zone: floor area, room types, footfall and what is in scope. Normally two days of walking round with a clipboard, here ten minutes.

Before a frequency is written, somebody has to know what the building is. This is the survey sheet: six blocks, the floor area each one carries, what happens in it and how much traffic it takes. Click any block on the plan.

Indicative floor plan

14,000 m² · six blocks

Main teaching block floor

Selected In contract Excluded Courtyard

Redrawn from a real secondary school and altered so it cannot be recognised. Areas are indicative.

Bring your own drawings

DWGDXFPDFJPG / PNG

CAD drawings (DWG and DXF), PDF floor plans and even scanned plans can be imported, measured and split into cleaning zones like this, then turned into zoned cleaning plans and job cards. We show your team how, so you can redo it whenever the building changes.

Main teaching block · Ground floor

3,500 m²of 7,000 m² over two floors

Rooms this floor: 24
Footfall: Very high
Suggested cleaning: Daily, term time · about 2½ hours

Carpeted classroomsHard-floor corridorsToiletsStairwellsOffices

Rooms: M1–M5, E1–E4, library, learning resource centre, reception, staff room, offices, toilets, two stairwells

A ring around two open courtyards. Rooms are usually cleared by 16:00, corridors are not.

13,700 m²

In scope

6 of 6 blocks the contractor is paid to clean

300 m²

Out of scope

Catering kitchen, serveries and stores: their own cleaning

14,000 m²

Whole building

Gross internal area, all blocks

Why the survey matters more than the plan

Frequencies are usually set from the timetable. Footfall and floor finish decide how long a zone actually takes. Two blocks of the same size can need different hours, and this sheet is where that shows up before the price does.

Step 03

Specification builder

Writes the specification itself: what is cleaned in each zone and how often. Normally a spreadsheet three people own and nobody updates, here a morning.

The specification is the contract. Each zone gets what is cleaned and how often, and the only thing worth arguing about later is whether those two things were written down. Change a frequency and the weekly task count recalculates underneath.

Schedule of areas and frequencies
Zone	What is cleaned	m²	Frequency	Visits / wk
ClassroomsFloors, desks wiped, bins, boards, touchpointsYour priority	Floors, desks wiped, bins, boards, touchpointsDesks to be clear by 16:00.	4,200	Daily	5
Corridors and stairsFloors, handrails, glass, notice boardsYour priority	Floors, handrails, glass, notice boardsPlus one weekly detail on handrails and screens.	1,600	Daily	5
Toilets and changingSanitary ware, floors, restocking, deep sanitiseYour priority	Sanitary ware, floors, restocking, deep sanitiseThree visits a day, including PE changing and showers.	900	3× weekly	3
Science and technologyBenches, floors, fume cupboards externally, prep roomsYour priority	Benches, floors, fume cupboards externally, prep roomsTechnician clears benches first.	1,900	Daily	5
Sports hallFloor machine clean, markings, equipment stores	Floor machine clean, markings, equipment storesEvening lettings three nights a week.	1,600	Daily	5
Offices, staff and reprographicsFloors, bins, desks, staff room, meeting rooms	Floors, bins, desks, staff room, meeting roomsIncludes main reception.	1,300	Daily	5
Sixth form centreFloors, kitchenette, study areas, toiletsYour priority	Floors, kitchenette, study areas, toiletsCleaned after supervised study ends at 18:00.	1,100	Daily	5
Dining hall and kitchenExcluded from this contract	Excluded from this contractCatering’s own cleaning, written down as an exclusion.	1,400	Not cleaned	—

Cleaning visits a week

The count the routine has to be built around

227 hours

Estimated weekly cleaning

At 270 m² per hour, before supervision or absence

12,600 m²

Area in scope

Zones set to anything other than “not cleaned”

Read the count, not the labels

That is 33 zone-visits every week, at roughly 227 cleaning hours before supervision. Step 4 turns this into a shift pattern and a check on whether it is realistic.

The excluded zone is worth as much as the included ones. A dining hall left out in writing stops a dispute starting in October, when someone notices it is not being mopped.

Step 04

Hours estimator

Turns the specification into weekly hours and tests whether the number is realistic. Normally a long spreadsheet exercise, here one minute of sliding.

Hours are what a price is wrapped around, and most tender disputes end up here. Move the sliders and watch the weekly total move with them. The marker on the gauge is the figure this contract actually ran at: 238 hours a week.

Floor area in scope14,000 m²

Area decides the hours more than anything else on this page.

Productivity270 m² / hour

A whole-building average, not a classroom figure. Most modern schools run between 240 and 300.

Full cleaning passes a week4 a week

Mon–Fri after school is four passes in practice, because Friday evening and Monday morning merge.

Weekly hours

237

52 hours for one full clean · 237.4 hours before rounding

150 hrsMarker: 238 hrs320 hrs

Core cleaning: 207.4 hrs
Daytime presence: 0 hrs
Supervision: 30 hrs

Realistic for this specification

This sits in the range that actually ran: a non-working supervisor, four passes a week and enough hours for absence cover without thinning the routine.

30 hrs

Supervision

About one hour in eight, on site every day

10–15%

Absence cover to budget

Holiday, sickness and safeguarding exclusions

238 hrs

What the real contract ran at

Seven zones, term time, 14,000 m²

Step 05

Periodic and holiday programme

Builds the deep-clean programme for each holiday window, with areas, hours and sequence. Normally a paragraph saying “deep cleans as required”, here a programme someone can be held to.

Term-time cleaning keeps the building usable. Holiday work is what stops it degrading. This is the year strip: grey weeks are term time, amber weeks are deep-clean windows. Click a holiday to open its programme.

The academy year · 45 weeks

890 deep-clean hours

Term time Deep-clean windowNumbers show hours in each window

Autumn half term · one week

72 hours in total

One week, one team, five days of sequenced work. Areas go back into use the following morning, so each day is planned around what the school needs on Monday.

When	Area	Hours	Focus
Monday	Science and technology	16	Bench edges, fume cupboard surrounds, prep room floors
Tuesday	Classrooms	16	High-level dusting, chairs, skirting, blinds
Wednesday	Toilets and changing	14	Descale, machine scrub, deep sanitise, shower heads
Thursday	Sports hall and corridors	14	Machine scrub, markings, wall wash to dado
Friday	Sixth form and offices	12	Kitchenette deep clean, upholstery, internal glass

890 hrs

Deep-clean hours a year

Across five holiday windows

This window

Autumn half term

Each week closes

With a walk-round

Outstanding items go onto the next job card

Why “deep cleans as required” costs money

A holiday programme with areas, hours and a sign-off is checkable in September. A promise of “deep cleans as required” is checkable only by argument, and usually in the second year when the building already looks tired.

Step 06

Tender questions and weighting

Writes the quality questions, sets their weightings and publishes the scoring guide. Normally inherited from the last tender, here twenty minutes.

Quality is worth 50% of this tender, split across seven questions. The weightings are published with the documents, so bidders know what is worth writing well. Move a slider and the marks attached to each question move with it: one per cent of weighting is half a mark.

Quality weightings · must total 100%

100%

Term-time approach18% · 9.0 marks

Deep cleaning programme14% · 7.0 marks

Staff cover and absence14% · 7.0 marks

Mobilisation12% · 6.0 marks

Staff relations and wellbeing18% · 9.0 marks

Three main challenges14% · 7.0 marks

Added value10% · 5.0 marks

Balanced at 100%

Seven questions, 50 marks, published before anything is written. Nothing is reweighted after the bids arrive, and no question is added because one bidder answered something interesting that nobody asked about.

What a good answer contains · Term-time approach

Your priority

How the daily routine flexes around the school day and the exam season.

Scores 4 or 5

Times per block, who does what before and after the day, how exam season changes the plan, and what supervision you will see on site.

Scores 1 or 2

“Our operatives will clean all areas to a high standard in line with the specification.”

The published scoring guide

Score	What it means
0	No response, or the response fails to meet the minimum requirement.
1	Poor. Assertions only, nothing that could be checked.
2	Below expectations. Generic; could have been written for any school.
3	Acceptable. Meets the requirement and is specific to a school.
4	Good. Specific to this academy, with evidence and clear method.
5	Excellent. Specific, measurable and committed to in the contract, with timescales.

Every evaluator scores against these descriptions, in writing, before they meet. The guide is part of the tender pack, not an internal note.

Step 07

Price realism check

Tests whether a bid price can actually pay for the hours it promises. Normally discovered in year two when the service fails, here instantly.

A cleaning price is an hours figure with a wage rate wrapped around it. Divide the price by the hours offered and you can see at a glance whether a bid has room to deliver. Set the numbers below to check a bid of your own.

Annual bid price£148,000

Hours offered a week238 hrs

Across 44 service weeks a year, holidays included in the annual price.

Wage benchmark

Wage rate the check is measured against£15.45 per hour

Starts at the London Living Wage. Move it up or down to test the bid against any rate.

The real Living Wage and London Living Wage are voluntary rates set by the Living Wage Foundation; employers accredited with them have until 1 May 2027 to apply the 2026–27 rates. The National Living Wage is the legal minimum. Rates checked November 2026.

The implied hourly rate

£14.13

£148,000 ÷ 10,472 annual hours

Wage

£1.32 short

Employer costs sit above the wage: paid holiday, employer pension, National Insurance and absence cover. No cost build-up is published here; the point is only whether the gap is plausible.

£-1.32

Gap above the wage rate

-9% of the wage rate

10,472

Annual hours bought

238 hours × 44 weeks

Below the wage rate · impossible

The price does not cover the £15.45 an hour the check is measured against, let alone holiday, pension and supervision. Either the hours are not real, the price is not, or the bidder is not paying the rate you set.

The same bid, against all four rates

£14.13 an hour implied by this bid, checked against each published rate at once.

London Living Wage · £15.45Real Living Wage, London · 2026–27£1.32 short
Real Living Wage · £14.10Rest of the UK · 2026–27Clears by £0.03
National Living Wage · £13.21From April 2027 · 21 and overClears by £0.92
National Living Wage · £12.71April 2026 · 21 and overClears by £1.42

Full-time difference, London against the legal minimum

£5,343 a year

One full-time post, 37.5 hours a week for 52 weeks: the London Living Wage of £15.45 against the National Living Wage of £12.71. That is £2.74 an hour.

Red flags, whatever the price

An hourly price only a little above the current wage rate
Hours that shrink between the tender and the mobilisation plan
No supervision hours, or a “working supervisor” with no time given
No allowance for holiday or sickness cover
Deep cleans priced separately at a rate nobody could deliver
A specification answered with frequencies but no hours, so the work cannot be checked

Ask for

Hours, by zone, per week

Hours given per zone are far harder to fudge than a total, and they can be checked against the specification line by line.

Ask for

The supervision commitment

Named role, hours per week, and what they are not doing while they supervise.

Ask for

The deep clean in hours

A holiday programme with areas, hours and a sign-off — not “deep cleans as required”.

Step 08

Evaluation

Scores three bids against the published guide, with price held back until quality is signed off. Normally a day of moderation with a calculator, here one screen.

Three compliant bids, scored against the published guide. Quality is marked out of 50 using the weightings from step 6, and price is scored against the lowest compliant price. Click any score to see the evaluator’s written comment and change it.

Question	Marks	Bidder A	Bidder B	Bidder C
Term-time approachpriority	9.0
Deep cleaning programmepriority	7.0
Staff cover and absencepriority	7.0
Mobilisation	6.0
Staff relations and wellbeing	9.0
Three main challengespriority	7.0
Added valuepriority	5.0
Quality /50	50	41.4	46.8	37.6
Price /50		45.6	44.1	50.0
Total		87.0%	90.9%Recommended	87.6%

Bidder B · Term-time approach

Bid price £149,650

“Routine built around lesson changeovers, with times per block and supervision visible in every block.”

Score

Lowest compliant price

£132,000

Scored 50. Every other bid is scored in proportion: lowest ÷ bid × 50.

Price gap for the winner

£17,650

About 13.4% above the cheapest bid, and worth it on quality.

Spread of the field

3.9 marks

When the field is this tight, the written reason behind each mark is the whole defence.

How the marks were arrived at

Each evaluator scores alone against the published guide. Differences of more than one mark are discussed and minuted. Price is held back until quality scoring is signed off, which is the simplest protection against a low price quietly lifting a weak answer.

Step 09

Mobilisation

Plans the six weeks before day one, so the team is on site, inducted and safe. Normally a scramble in August, here a checklist you can tick.

A cleaning contract is won on the tender and lost in the first month. Mobilisation is six weeks of unglamorous work that decides whether the team is on site, inducted and safe on day one. Tick each milestone to track it.

Mobilisation progress

29%2 of 7 milestones

Next: Uniforms, ID and equipment ordered (Week −4)

Also confirmed before day one

Right to work and DBS checks complete for every person on site
Safeguarding induction recorded, with a named contact
COSHH folder and cleaning schedule in the store cupboard
Key and alarm holders named in writing
Absence cover pool identified, with contact numbers
Escalation route agreed with the business manager

The two things that actually go wrong

Uniforms arriving late, and induction happening after people have started. Both are avoidable with dates in the mobilisation plan, and both are invisible in a bid that only promises a “proven methodology”.

Step 10

The finished pack

Collects everything produced into one branded document you can print and issue. Normally a week of assembling documents, here one button.

Everything you have just built, in one pack. This is what a trust would take to procurement, and what a bidder would price from. The PDF button prints every step as a single clean document, in this house style, with your own name and crest swapped in.

10 steps

One continuous document

Brief to award, nothing missing

238 hrs

Weekly hours supported

Modelled, not asserted

90.9%

Winning score

Quality 46.8 · price 44.1

The finished pack

Long Lever Academy · cleaning tender pack

Every step, printed as one branded A4 document. Choose “Save as PDF” in the print dialogue.

What the pack contains
Section	What it establishes
Brief	Priorities agreed with the trust, and one decision written down: catering cleans its own areas
Site profile	Six blocks surveyed, 13,700 m² in scope, footfall noted block by block
Specification	Seven zones with tasks and published frequencies, plus one stated exclusion
Hours	237 hours a week modelled, against the 238 the contract actually ran at
Holiday programme	Five windows, 890 deep-clean hours, sequenced week by week
Questions and weightings	Seven quality questions at 50%, balanced to 100%, with a scoring guide
Price realism	Implied hourly rate against the London Living Wage, real Living Wage and National Living Wage, with red flags and questions to ask
Evaluation	Three bids scored independently, moderated, price held back, 90.9% winner
Mobilisation	Six weeks of milestones, TUPE, induction, handover and a 30-day review

Your turn

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Long Lever Partnerships · example document. Organisation names in this document are fictitious and used to illustrate real work; no client, supplier or individual is identified. Everything shown can carry your own name, logo and colours.