Government Commercial Function

The Government Commercial Function (GCF) is made up of commercial professionals and supported by colleagues from a variety of disciplines. They are connected through knowledge-sharing systems and common operating standards.

Most of the function (about three-quarters) sits in government departments and delivers the commercial strategy for their particular department. The rest sit in either the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), which buys common goods and services, or the Central Commercial Teams in Cabinet Office, who support commercial capability, market intelligence and strategic supplier relationship management, complex transactions and continuous improvement.

Commercial staff play a crucial role in delivering the priorities of the government. Across central government, around £50 billion is spent each year buying goods and services, with the demand for public services growing more complex in needs and scale year by year. New service models are driven by changes in technology, lessons learnt, and rising public expectations. These often require commercial input and collaboration between multiple public organisations.

When commercial staff with the right skills are involved at the right time in the right way, they can make a massive difference to the quality of the services and projects delivered by Government.

The GCF aims to improve the commercial capabilities of the Civil Service. This will make significant savings for the taxpayer and deliver improved public services.

For more information visit the gov.uk pages for the GCF and Contract Management.

The current Learning Frameworks contract is ending on 30 April 2026. This change will impact when you can book learning linked to our Professions pages. To support you with this transition, any courses impacted by the change will display a notice.

The final date for bookings is 30 April 2026, with learning required to start by 31 July 2026 and finish by 31 January 2027. After this deadline, new bookings will resume after the new contract starts.

These changes are happening across a series of waves and more information can be found here. The products in Wave 1 will not be available to book from 30 June 2025, and products in Wave 2 will not be available to book from 1 November 2025. The products in Wave 3 will need to start by 30 April 2026 and therefore we recommend bookings are made six weeks before this, by 19 March 2026.