Capital Works and Associated Services DPS

Our Capital Works DPS supports three delivery models, and the right choice depends on how much control you want over materials sourcing and how you want to allocate responsibility between your organisation and the contractor.

Labour only means the contractor provides the workforce and you supply the materials. This gives you maximum control over product specification and cost, and is useful if you have an existing materials supply arrangement (for example through Inprova’s Materials Supply framework) or if you want to standardise products across your programme. The contractor is responsible for installation quality but not for materials procurement.

Directed supply and fit means you specify the products (brand, model, specification) and the contractor sources and installs them. This gives you control over what is installed while transferring the materials procurement to the contractor. It is a common model for kitchen and bathroom programmes where you want consistency across properties.

Traditional supply and fit means the contractor takes full responsibility for both materials and installation. You specify the performance requirements and the contractor selects and supplies the products that meet them. This gives the contractor more flexibility and can be simpler to manage, but it requires a clear specification to ensure the products installed meet your standards.

You can use different models for different categories or different projects within your programme. Inprova’s team can advise on which approach best fits each requirement.

Inprova offers several solutions that cover elements of planned capital works. The Capital Works DPS is the broadest, covering 12 categories in a single procurement vehicle. It is designed for organisations that want a single route to market for the full range of property improvement works.

The Planned Works framework provides a fixed supply chain with pre-agreed pricing through direct award or mini-competition, which can be faster for straightforward requirements. The Asset Decarbonisation DPS covers retrofit-specific categories including insulation, heat pumps, and PAS 2035 services. The Roofing Dynamic Market provides a dedicated procurement route for roofing works with specialist contractors.

Where the categories overlap (insulation appears on both the Capital Works DPS and the Asset Decarbonisation DPS, roofing appears on both the Capital Works DPS and the Roofing Dynamic Market), the choice depends on context. If insulation is part of a broader property improvement programme alongside kitchens and bathrooms, the Capital Works DPS keeps everything under one vehicle. If insulation is part of a dedicated decarbonisation programme with PAS 2035 coordination, the Asset Decarbonisation DPS is the better fit.

Our team at Inprova can help you map your programme to the most appropriate procurement routes. Many organisations use multiple solutions simultaneously for different elements of their capital investment strategy. There is no restriction on using the Capital Works DPS alongside other Inprova frameworks and DPS solutions.

Yes. The disabled adaptations category covers internal and external works including level access showers, bathroom adaptations, kitchen adaptations, door openers, lifts, hoists, ramps, handrails, pathways, and extensions. While this category is most commonly associated with residential properties, the same types of adaptation are required in schools, civic buildings, healthcare facilities, and other public sector premises to meet the duty to make reasonable adjustments, whether that’s under the Equality Act 2010 in England, Scotland, and Wales, or the equivalent disability discrimination legislation in Northern Ireland.

For multi-academy trusts and other education providers managing accessibility improvements, the DPS provides a procurement route for the physical works associated with accessibility audits and improvement plans. For local authorities adapting civic buildings, the DPS covers the range of works from minor modifications (handrails, ramps, door openers) to major adaptations (lift installations, bathroom conversions, extensions).

Disabled adaptations are often procured on an individual basis in response to specific needs assessments, which means the procurement needs to be fast and flexible. The DPS supports this by allowing you to run a focused competition for each project, with specifications tailored to the specific adaptation required. For organisations delivering rolling adaptation programmes, the DPS can be used repeatedly throughout its lifetime with new competitions for each batch of works.

Local government reorganisation creates specific challenges for capital works procurement. Existing contracts may need to transfer between authorities, programme pipelines may need to be redesigned, and procurement teams are managing ongoing delivery alongside transition planning.

The Capital Works DPS provides continuity through reorganisation because it is available to any UK contracting authority. When a district council merges into a new unitary authority, the successor body can continue using the DPS without re-procurement. Contracts awarded before the transition remain in place, and new competitions can be run under the same compliant vehicle after the new authority goes live.

For councils currently planning their capital programmes through the reorganisation period, the DPS provides a procurement route that works across organisational boundaries. If multiple authorities within a reorganisation area are delivering similar capital programmes, the DPS can serve all of them through the transition, providing consistency in procurement approach and reducing the disruption that a change of procurement vehicle would cause. Inprova’s team can support councils in planning their capital works procurement to accommodate the reorganisation timeline, ensuring that programme delivery is not interrupted by structural change.

Yes. The cyclical painting and decorating category covers external and internal painting programmes, pre-paint repairs, and associated brickwork repairs. Defence sites have significant painting and maintenance requirements across accommodation blocks, administrative buildings, workshops, training centres, and operational facilities.

Cyclical painting is a recurring planned maintenance category that protects building fabric from weathering and deterioration. On the defence estate, where many buildings are decades old and exposed to the elements, maintaining the external fabric through regular painting programmes is more cost-effective than allowing deterioration to the point where structural repairs are needed.

The DPS allows you to run a competitive tender for each painting programme, with the specification tailored to the specific buildings, surface types, and access arrangements on each site. For defence sites where contractor access is controlled and security requirements apply, you can build site-specific requirements into the tender documentation. Inprova’s post-award due diligence and supplier management provides the governance assurance that defence estate managers need.

Scaffolding is included as a separate category within the DPS because it is a critical enabling service for most external capital works programmes. Rather than requiring the capital works contractor to include scaffolding within their price (which can reduce transparency and make cost comparison difficult), the DPS allows you to procure scaffolding as a standalone service.

This approach has several practical advantages. You can appoint a specialist scaffolding contractor who provides the access solution for multiple trades working on the same building, rather than each trade providing their own scaffolding arrangements. This can reduce overall cost, improve site safety, and simplify programme management. It also means you can maintain the scaffolding for longer periods to support phased works programmes without the cost being buried within individual trade contracts.

For large estate programmes where scaffolding is erected and maintained across multiple buildings over an extended period, procuring scaffolding separately gives you better visibility and control of a cost line that can be significant. The DPS covers survey and assessment, solution design, and the hire and erection of scaffolding systems, aluminium towers, and low-level platforms.

Yes. Kitchen and bathroom categories on the DPS cover the full strip-out and replacement of these areas, including all associated trades: plumbing, electrical, tiling, flooring, joinery, plastering, and decorating. For schools, colleges, and universities, these are recurring capital requirements driven by equipment age, hygiene standards, and the need to maintain functional, safe facilities for students and staff.

School kitchen refurbishment is a particular priority as free school meal provision expands and nutrition and catering standards continue to tighten across all nations. Many school kitchens were designed for smaller meal numbers and older catering equipment, and upgrading them to meet current demand often involves significant electrical, plumbing, and ventilation works alongside the visible kitchen fit-out.

For multi-academy trusts and other education providers managing capital improvements across multiple school sites, the DPS provides a single compliant procurement route that can be used repeatedly. Each school project is competitively tendered with a specification tailored to the specific building, and the open supply chain means local contractors with school experience can join the DPS and compete for work in their area. Inprova’s team can support education providers in planning the procurement sequencing for a rolling programme across the academic year, ensuring works are scheduled during holiday periods where possible.

Construction waste management is a legal and environmental obligation that applies to all capital works programmes, wherever in the UK they’re delivered. The duty of care under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 applies UK-wide, with the detailed regulations sitting separately in each nation: The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011, the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2011, and The Waste Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2011. Contractors and clients both have legal responsibilities to ensure waste is stored, transported, and disposed of lawfully.

The skips and waste collection category within the DPS covers strategic waste planning, waste reduction advice, auditing, and the provision, collection, and disposal of waste at registered transfer stations. Skip sizes from 2 to 40 cubic yards are available, with disposal certificates provided for every collection. This means you have a compliant procurement route for the waste management that sits alongside your capital works, with full documentation for audit purposes.

For organisations reporting on environmental performance, social value, or sustainability, having waste management procured through a compliant route with documented disposal records supports the evidence trail that regulators, funders, and boards expect. Inprova’s team can help you build waste management requirements into your capital works specifications, ensuring that contractors are evaluated on their waste handling approach as part of the overall tender.

Yes. The DPS covers the full range of building improvement works relevant to healthcare environments, including heating system upgrades, electrical rewires, bathroom and kitchen refurbishments, window replacements, painting and decorating, and disabled adaptations. Hospital wards, outpatient clinics, staff areas, and administrative buildings all require periodic refurbishment to maintain clinical standards, infection control compliance, and patient experience.

Healthcare refurbishment presents specific challenges that general building improvement does not. Clinical areas need to remain operational or be decanted in a planned sequence. Infection control protocols restrict construction activity near patient areas. Materials and finishes must meet specific healthcare standards for hygiene, durability, and cleanability. Noise and dust control requirements are more stringent than in non-clinical settings.

Because the DPS uses a competitive tender for each project, you can include healthcare-specific requirements in every specification: infection control protocols, phasing around clinical operations, out-of-hours working requirements, and specialist material specifications. Contractors bid against your actual requirements, ensuring the pricing and methodology reflect the complexity of working in a healthcare environment. Inprova’s post-award contract management supports delivery assurance through the works, which matters for trust boards and the relevant quality regulator, whether that’s the CQC in England, Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, or the RQIA in Northern Ireland.

Capital works programmes frequently involve projects that cross multiple categories. A whole-house improvement might include a kitchen, bathroom, heating, and electrical rewire in the same property. An office refurbishment might combine heating, electrical, painting, and window replacement.

The DPS handles this in two ways. First, the whole-house category allows you to procure a single contractor to deliver multiple work types across a property as a coordinated programme. This is the simplest approach for residential improvements where you want one contractor managing all the trades. Second, you can procure individual categories separately and coordinate the delivery through your own programme management. This gives you access to specialist contractors for each work type but requires stronger site coordination.

For organisations with programme management capability, the second approach often delivers better value because specialists tend to be more competitive in their core trade than generalists offering everything. For organisations that want simplicity and single-point accountability, the whole-house approach reduces management overhead. Inprova’s team can advise on the most appropriate approach based on the scale of your programme, the work types involved, and your internal capacity to manage multi-contractor delivery.