General
Critical Timescales
- Deadline for questions – 5pm, 9th May 2019.
- Deadline for CCS responses to clarifications – 5pm, 13th May 2019.
- Deadline for submission of the bid – 3pm, 23rd May 2019.
Clarification Questions
Questions, clarification and queries must be asked using the facility on the “eSourcing Suite” or portal. Try to ensure the question is specific and clear, and don’t include your company’s identity in the question as the question and corresponding answer will be published for all bidders to see.
Check regularly for messages in your message inbox to pick up the answers to all questions that have been asked.
Framework
This will be a multi-supplier framework for provision of non clinical temporary and fixed term roles across multiple public sector organisations (particularly the NHS) across the UK.
Please note that winning a place on the framework does not guarantee you any business – it is just a “right to supply”.
Key Subcontractors
These are any organisations that in part or in full are:
- relied on to deliver any of the deliverables.
- providing facilities/services required to deliver the service.
- responsible for management, direction or control of your provision.
Instructions
Do NOT provide any attachments that have not been requested or other materials such as weblinks or marketing material.
Follow all instructions closely as failure to do so may cause your bid to be non-compliant.
Documents to be Completed & Uploaded
In addition to answering the questions in the selection questionnaire (qualification envelope) and quality questionnaire (technical envelope) and pricing questionnaire (commercial envelope) you will also need to complete and upload the following to the relevant questions on the portal:
- Attachment 2b Evidence of Previous Supply for each Lot – complete in accordance with the instructions provided for each Lot within the workbook, and upload to the relevant part 11 technical and professional ability questions in the eSourcing suite (qualification envelope).
- Attachment 2c – Regions & Skills Matrix for each Lot – complete in accordance with the instructions provided for each Lot within the workbook, and upload to the relevant part 11 technical and professional ability questions in the eSourcing suite (qualification envelope).
- Attachment 3 Pricing Workbook (Lot 1 to Lot 6 tabs a – d) – complete in accordance with the instructions provided in this document and upload your completed pricing workbook which includes your bid for each Lot you wish to submit a bid for, to 3.1.2 in the eSourcing suite (commercial envelope).
- Attachment 4 Information and declaration workbook – if you are relying upon any other organisation, key subcontractor or consortium member to meet the selection criteria, they must complete this Attachment and you must upload it to the relevant selection question in the eSourcing Suite (qualification envelope).
- Attachment 6 Consortia details – if you are bidding as the lead member of a consortium, complete and upload this Attachment to the relevant selection question in the eSourcing Suite (qualification envelope).
- Attachment 7 Key Subcontractor details – if you intend to use key subcontractors in your bid, complete and upload this Attachment to the relevant selection question in the eSourcing Suite (qualification envelope).
- Attachment 9 Terms & Conditions Population Template – You must populate, sign and return this with your Bid and upload this Attachment to question 1.28.3 eSourcing suite, to enable us to populate your Framework contract if you are successful in this competition
- Attachment 11 Framework Award Form – refer to Read First Attachment 1 – About the Framework – Section 3. You must populate, sign and return the Framework Award Form with your Bid, attached to question 1.28.2.
Lots & Previous Supply Qualifying Criteria
The framework is broken into the following lots – you can bid for any or all lots and also specify the skills and locations you can supply.
- Lot 1 – Admin & Clerical – previous supply threshold 110,000 hours
- Lot 2 – Corporate Functions – previous supply threshold 65,000 hours
- Lot 3 – IT Professionals – previous supply threshold 80,000 hours
- Lot 4 – Legal Services – previous supply threshold 10,000 hours
- Lot 5 – Clinical Coding – previous supply threshold 5,000 hours
- Lot 6 – Ancillary Staff – previous supply threshold 75,000 hours
PLEASE NOTE – The threshold hours required for each of the lots must fall into a set period of 12 consecutive months within the last 3 years (since April 2016). If you cannot demonstrate that you meet this minimum threshold your bid will not be successful. You will be required to list your clients together with the number of hours billed to them within the set 12 month period as part of your bid as evidence.
Locations
You will be required to specify where you can supply by region. This section of the bid is not scored and will be used for information only.
Selection / Qualification Questionnaire
The first stage of the bid you must pass is the qualification questionnaire. Most of this is pass/fail. The rest of your bid won’t be read if you fail any of the elements in this section.
The selection stage will involve evaluation of your technical, professional and financial capabilities and involves completing the questionnaire online (qualification envelope).
Your bid MUST be compliant at this stage – non-compliant bids will be rejected.
Insurances
You must have or agree to get the following insurances:
- Employer’s Liability – £10 million
- Public Liability – £10 million
- Professional Indemnity – £5 million
Cyber Essentials
You must be able to answer “Yes” to one of these two statements (this is a pass/fail criterion):
- You have a current and valid Cyber Essentials certificate which has been awarded by one of the government approved Cyber Essentials accreditation bodies within the most recent 12 months and where your organisation proposes to use key subcontractors to carry out the services and these key subcontractors shall be involved in handling sensitive and personal information with regard to the services, such key subcontractors will have in place a valid Cyber Essentials certificate upon award of your first Call-Off Contract where your organisation proposes to use the key subcontractor, OR;
- You do not have a current and valid Cyber Essentials certificate which has been awarded by one of the government approved Cyber Essentials accreditation bodies, but you can demonstrate (or, will be able to demonstrate) upon award of your first Call-Off Contract that your organisation meets the technical requirements prescribed by the Cyber Essentials Scheme as detailed in the following link: https://www.cyberessentials.ncsc.gov.uk/requirements-for-it-infrastructure.
Other Relevant Requirements / Information
Other considerations for your bid:
- You must provide a dedicated Compliance Manager with responsibility for ensuring that all checks have been undertaken correctly for each worker.
- You must provide an electronic booking system which is available 24/7/365 from commencement of the contract. You must also provide a telephone booking service with a dedicated number which is fully available between 8.00am and 6.00pm and an out of hours service which is available between 6.00pm and 8.00am.
- You must conduct an identity check by checking photo ID with the worker/candidate in a face-to-face meeting prior to assignment/placement.
- You must obtain references covering at least the most recent 3 consecutive years’ employment for each worker/candidate.
- Verify professional and /or educational qualifications that are listed as essential to the role but checking the original certificate.
- Ensure workers/candidates have current right to work in the UK by checking original specified documentation in a face-to-face meeting.
- You must complete DBS (or PVG in Scotland) checks for all workers in patient facing roles and non-patient facing roles that require disclosure.
- You must provide a Certificate of Fitness for Placement provided by an SEQOHS accredited Occupational Health Service Provider for each worker going into a patient facing role as evidence that the worker has undergone health screening/assessment.
- Ensure the worker/candidate has sufficient competence in English language and undertaken set English language testing where appropriate.
- You must conduct an annual appraisal with all temporary workers and maintain a record of the outcome of the appraisal in writing.
- The CCS will charge all successful suppliers a management fee of 0.75% of all sales so this needs to be considered when calculating your pricing.
Award Quality Questionnaire
This stage consists of a quality evaluation and price evaluation. Weightings for this are as follows:
- Quality – 20 marks
- Price – 80 marks
Quality Questions
You must be able to answer “yes” to all of the questions for each lot that you are bidding for. This means that you will unreservedly deliver in full, all the mandatory requirements applicable to the lot. If you answer “yes” to all of the questions for each lot that you are bidding for, you will achieve a quality score of 20 marks.
For lots that you are not bidding for you need to answer N/A.
If you answer “no” to any question in this section your bid will fail.
These should be answered on the portal.
Regions & Skills Matrix
You must upload the completed Regions & Skills Matrix (Attachment 2c). This is a mandatory requirement, however, is not scored and will be used for information only.
Pricing Workbook
You must complete and upload the Pricing Workbook (Attachment 3) by providing a supplier fee (in the yellow cells) for each pay band and each of the three fee types within the lots you are tendering for.
The maximum score for each section of the pricing is as follows:
- Employment Business Supplier Fee – 60 marks
- Over 12 week discount – 5 marks
- Employment Agency Fee – 15 marks
Brunton Bid Writing Services
This is an unusual tender in that there are no qualitative answers required. The portal requires short text, numerical and yes/no answers and there are no method statements or detailed responses required. That said, there are 25 attachments on the portal comprising over 600 pages and various documents and templates that need to be uploaded and complex price evaluation criteria which make this tender feel daunting. We are offering the option two options:
1. To outsource the full bid where we complete all of the questions on your behalf and upload it to the portal ready for your review and submission (please note we do not provide advice on where to pitch your pricing as this is a commercial decision for your company).
The cost for this service is a fixed fee of £3,750 + vat
2. The consultancy and review service which includes:
- A full review of all the CCS documentation relating to the bid (so we know the documents inside out and will be well positioned to give advice).
- Ongoing review of the “clarifications” as they are published.
- Unlimited telephone and email support throughout the bid period (until the submission deadline).
- Advice and guidance on completing the documents and templates which need to be uploaded to the portal.
- A full review of the portal (once you have uploaded your bid) to ensure your submission is accurate and complete, and that all attachments have been filled in and uploaded correctly.
The cost for this service is a fixed fee of £2,500 + vat
For further information, please contact Fiona Brunton on 01688 400319 or email fiona.brunton@bruntonconsultancy.co.uk.
