What professional services are
Professional services are a type of external labour that provide specialist advice and assistance. Government agencies engage professional services providers, including consultants, to:
- provide strategic direction
- independently review a proposed course of action
- provide recommendations for organisational change
- strengthen a team
- implement a new system or process.
Consultant or contractor?
Consultants are a subset of professional services. Consultant spend must be disclosed in annual reports.
Contractors are employed by a contingent labour supplier. Agencies typically engage them via the Contingent Workforce Scheme.
Read more on the definition of a consultant.
Contractor Central and managed service providers (MSPs)
Contractor Central is a framework used across NSW government that helps agencies engage and manage their extended external workforce (including contingent workers and professional services contractors/consultants).
Under Contractor Central, MSPs will administer the transactional flow for professional services engagements within the VMS on behalf of the agency.
Find out who your dedicated Contractor Central contact is for your government cluster.
How to buy professional services
NSW Government has procurement arrangements covering different categories of professional services, including:
View a list of all schemes available to NSW Government agencies.
NSW Government agencies often have their own requirements for engaging consultants other than those listed on this site.
Always engage your agency's procurement team before contacting suppliers.
NSW Government has standard commercial conditions for certain professional services. Read more in the Commercial Frameworks for professional services section below.
How to supply professional services
NSW Government agencies use lists of pre-approved suppliers to buy most professional services. These are known as prequalification schemes.
Schemes cover one or more types of professional services. Most schemes are open all year round. This means you can apply to join one or more schemes that match your service offering at any time.
For more information on supplying, please view:
(*) The legal services panels are different from a prequalification scheme. They were established via an open tender and new suppliers cannot apply to join while the panels are active.
You can also see a list of all schemes available to NSW Government agencies.
When you join a scheme, you agree to use the scheme's terms and conditions for any future engagements.
Some schemes also have a commercial framework. It sets out capped rates, discount structures and others.
You'll be able to view this information at the time of application.
Commercial frameworks for professional services
NSW Government has standard commercial frameworks for certain professional services. These frameworks set common conditions for all engagements they apply to, including:
- capped rates
- discount structure
- resource mix targets
- capped expenses.
How to access the commercial frameworks
The commercial frameworks are commercial-in-confidence and not available publicly.
To download the commercial frameworks, log in with your registered buyer or supplier account and:
- if you're a buyer, go to your buyer dashboard
- if you're a supplier, modify your scheme application to download the framework.
If you don’t have a registered account, it's quick to sign up. You just need to enter your email address and create a password.
How to use the commercial frameworks
Buyers must check if a commercial framework applies to their procurement. This will depend on the type of services being procured.
Not all suppliers have agreed to the framework applicable to their services. In most cases, there are extra restrictions and requirements to engage suppliers that haven't agreed.
Suppliers that have agreed to a framework must ensure proposals comply with it. For example, the quoted rates must be at or below the capped rates.
View guidance on:
