Before you request a corporate communications proposal, fix the scope

Use this corporate communications selection checklist at the point where a plausible supplier needs to become an accountable purchasing decision. For an England-based brief, the finished record should say what the supplier will deliver, who accepts it and which unanswered question could stop the purchase. Tick a box only when its supporting evidence is available to the decision owner.

Before requesting a proposal

• Define the communication task and the audience it must reach, including staff without routine desk access where relevant.
• Identify who can authorise messages and who handles disputed wording or corrections.
• State whether you need advice, delivery capacity, software or implementation help, with separate deliverables for a combined offer.
• Write the required England coverage and any wider UK locations into the brief.
• Describe the existing approval process and systems the supplier must work with.

Keep a copy of the brief issued to each candidate. A clarification given to one bidder should be available to others when it changes the common requirements. Decide which conditions are essential before reading persuasive proposals; leave desirable extras in a separate part of the assessment.

Check the contracting and delivery identities

For an incorporated bidder, use the route described in GOV.UK's company information page to inspect registered information and available filings. Match the entity on the proposal to the entity intended for the contract. Those public records are identity evidence, not a recommendation of the bidder's work.

Ask who will perform the assignment and who can authorise a change in staffing. Where a subcontractor is involved, request the split of responsibilities. Keep proposed personnel distinct from people named in historic case studies. Obtain permission before circulating personal details beyond the evaluation group.

Require an inspectable offer

Check before approval	Evidence to keep
Deliverables and exclusions	Dated scope with revision limits and responsibilities
Commercial commitment	Quotation stating currency, charging basis and term
Support arrangements	Written hours, contact route and escalation responsibility
Evidence for claimed capability	Relevant document or authorised sample with its origin
Ending the arrangement	Handover obligations and an agreed acceptance process

Compare charges only after matching the scope. Put recurring fees, implementation work and optional additions in different rows. Ask for the VAT treatment and the price-validity date rather than assuming either. Where one quotation leaves out required work, request clarification instead of inventing the missing charge.

Test the work you will depend on

Agree a small, controlled acceptance task before committing to a wider programme. For an agency, specify the intended audience, source material and approval constraints for a sample assignment. For software, specify the publishing and access actions the evaluator must attempt in the proposed environment. These are suggested future checks; none has been performed for this page.

Retain what happened, including assistance from the seller and any task the evaluator could not complete. Do not treat a guided demonstration as evidence of independent use. Ask the relevant internal specialists to examine contractual, information-handling and accessibility requirements before sign-off.

Define what success would mean

The UK government's communications standard places evaluation within the campaign lifecycle. It applies to government departments and arm's length bodies; borrowing its planning discipline does not certify a private purchase.

Write an acceptance condition for the purchased deliverable, then a separate plan for investigating audience response. Name the person who will collect evidence and the date when the organisation will revisit the decision. Avoid promising a reputation improvement merely because the supplier delivered the agreed material.

Close the decision record

List unresolved essentials, the evidence needed to resolve them and who must approve any exception. Record commercial relationships that could affect the assessment, including referral payments and free access. An undisclosed gap should never disappear into a total score.

This is an AI-assisted checklist dated 6 September 2026, without a completed supplier trial or named reviewer approval. It makes no provider recommendation. Take the evidence file and outstanding questions to the authorised decision owner; keep the purchase conditional wherever an essential requirement remains unverified.