HealthTrust Europe (HTE) Perm & International Perm Tender Overview

PQQ (SQ) – GENERAL

Critical Timescales

Deadline for receipt of clarification questions – 1pm, 11th December 2019
Deadline for HTE to provide responses to clarification questions – 16th December 2019
Deadline for submission of the PQQ (SQ) – 1pm, 23rd December 2019

Please note that HTE uses both PQQ and SQ in their terminology in this procurement. The PQQ (pre-qualification questionnaire) has now been replaced in procurement terminology with SQ (selection questionnaire). In this procurement, PQQ and SQ are interchangeable and both relate to the first stage of the process.

Registration & Accessing the Documents

To access the PQQ documents, you must first register on the following link: https://healthtrusteurope.bravosolution.co.uk/web/login.shtml

You can then follow the instructions in the documents and on the portal.

Clarification Questions

Questions, clarifications and queries must be asked using the facility on the Bravo Messaging Portal – you MUST NOT call HTE directly. Try to ensure the question is specific and clear, and don’t include your company’s identity in the question as the full question and corresponding answer will be published on the portal for all bidders to see.

HTE has requested that you take time to consolidate any clarification requests and put them across with the following details:

The Lot Number the query pertains to (In message title)
Which document the query pertains to e.g. Specification, Technical Envelope (In message title)
The question number, clause or paragraph the query pertains to (In message title)
Objective Question (removing any personal views – Body of Text)
A background on the intended outcome of the query for context (Body of Text)

HTE will then consolidate clarifications and provide the answers in the form of a “Clarification Log” with each clarification being allocated a number for ease of reference.

Once logged into the portal, you will be able to ask clarification questions but clicking on the “Messages” tab and then clicking below to “Create Message”.

The Framework & Lots

This will be a multi-supplier framework with 2 lots as follows:

Lot 1a – National Recruitment Solutions for UK Bank, Fixed-Term & Permanent Healthcare Workers with Recruitment Process Outsourcing

This Lot facilitates national permanent recruitment for doctors (including GPs), nurses, AHP, health science services, social workers, Healthcare Assistants/Care Support Workers/Domiciliary Care in addition to all other registered healthcare professional job roles required within the UK. This includes all specialisms, bands and grades of healthcare workers.

The scope of Lot 1a also includes an option for support with all or part of a Client’s permanent recruitment workforce project. This is referred to as a Recruitment Process Optimisation (RPO) option, with associated workforce consultancy services. The RPO with associated workforce consultancy services may be used to outsource a Client’s internal recruitment function to an approved external provider for bank, fixed-term and permanent recruitment, and can be utilised in conjunction with the delivery of a specific national recruitment project with a Supplier through this Framework.

RPO in the specification includes but is not limited to all aspects of HR and workforce policy and/or process re-design, change management, workforce planning, marketing, candidate attraction strategy, productivity and financial analysis. It includes transfer or all or part of the recruitment process to you as the supplier and may include:

Workforce process appraisal & analysis
Technology support and reporting
Workforce consultancy
Best practice advice
Candidate sourcing and attraction programmes
Psychometric and behavioural assessments through to pre-screening
Offer management with enhanced aftercare; and
Retention management support and advice.

Lot 1b – International Recruitment Solutions for Permanent Healthcare Workers

This Lot covers delivery of international projects to maximise workforce planning through uptake of permanent employment by Healthcare Workers. This can be achieved by utilising effective resourcing campaigns within the EU, EEA and outside of the EEA in alignment with the WHO guidelines.

This Lot facilitates international permanent recruitment for doctors (including GPs), nurses, AHP and Health Sciences Services job roles required by the Client. This includes all specialisms, bands and grades of Healthcare Workers.

Awarded suppliers must be able to support Clients with their requirements to permanently recruit Healthcare Workers internationally.

Self-Certification of Documentation

The good news is that at this stage of the process, in most cases, you are just required to “self-certify”. This means that you are not asked to upload documentary evidence (unless specifically asked to do so) during the PQQ (SQ) stage of the process.

If you are successful and move onto the Award Phase, you will be required to produce documentary evidence to support the information submitted in response to the PQQ (SQ).

Sid4Gov

HTE uses the sid4gov supplier information database and you are requested to register (if you have not already done so) at https://sid4gov.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/organisation/register and submit your sid4gov company profile for publication on the database.

If your company is already registered on sid4gov, you must ensure that information is up to date.

Where access to sid4gov is unavailable, please contact the sid4gov helpdesk at sid4gov@gps.gsi.gov.uk.

Please note that, at present, sid4gov does not pre-populate any fields of the SQ on the Portal, and therefore Potential Providers must complete the Qualification and Selection Envelopes of the PAA (SQ) in Bravo in full.

Instructions for Accessing the Portal

The HealthTrust Europe portal is located at https://healthtrusteurope.bravosolution.co.uk (the “Portal”).

You will need to:

Register on the Portal (if not already registered)
Log in to the Portal with the username/password
Either search by “PQQ” or “Opportunity”
Click on the PQQ or Opportunity which has the title that corresponds to this tender (PQQ: pqq_30634 – National and International Permanent Recruitment Solutions with Recruitment Process Optimisation)
Click the Express Interest button at the top of the page (this will move the PQQ or Opportunity into your “My Main Dashboard”)
Access any attachments by clicking Buyer Attachments in the PQQ/Opportunity Details box
Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the PQQ
Submit the reply using the Submit Response button at the top of the page

To be successful, you must complete all sections of the PAA (SQ) in full in English, answering questions fully but as concisely as possible.

SQ – SELECTION QUESTIONNAIRE (STAGE 1 OF TENDER PROCESS)

The SQ (SQ is the new terminology for PQQ) is the first stage in the tender process and is designed to ensure that agencies qualify – or meet the minimum requirements of the tender. There are a few pass/fail criteria that have been specified during this stage of the process. There are a total of 98 questions in the Qualification Envelope and 16 in the Technical Envelope that need to be answered. A number of these are basic company information and Yes / No answers, however there are also case studies and documents that need to be uploaded to meet the tender compliance requirements.

For All Lots

Financial Criteria

To quality to bid for this business you must meet HTE’s financial criteria which are specified on pages 14-16 of the SQ Guidance Document (available for download from the portal once you have registered). This may mean that some micro-businesses are unable to bid as these are non-negotiable pass/fail criteria. Please read this section of the document carefully before making your bid/no bid decision.

The main pass/fail financial criterion at the PQQ/SQ is that your business must have a turnover of at least £500,000. If the annual turnover of your business is less than this, you will fail.

There are a number of other financial checks that HTE will undertake as part of their 9-step financial assessment and these can be found on pages 14-16 of the Selection Questionnaire (SQ) Guidance Document. You must meet all of these or be able to provide a parent company guarantee where the parent company meets all of these criteria, otherwise your bid will fail.

Quality Assurance Criteria

There are a number of questions that appear as Yes / No answers in the SQ that then appear in more detail in the ITT stage of the process. During the SQ you just need to answer Yes / No to these, however during the next stage of the process you will be required to provide evidence.

An example of this is in the SQ, they ask if you maintain membership of the REC or equivalent national industry body that represents good practice in perm recruitment to the health & social care sector for the duration of the contract. This is the Yes / No form of the question. When you get to the ITT stage you are asked to upload your current REC (or equivalent) certificate with at least 2 weeks remaining on the annual membership. This is worth 5 points.

Lot Specific Track Record & Previous Experience

Whilst it is unscored, you are asked to provide up to 3 contract examples of where you have delivered the service relevant to the lots you are bidding for (or provide a detailed explanation if you are unable to do so).

In addition to this, you are required to provide the following evidence of your experience in the lots you are bidding for:

Track Record – Lot 1a – UK National Permanent & Fixed Term Recruitment and RPO

You must be able to provide a case study (up to 4 pages of A4) that demonstrates that you delivered a national recruitment project within the last 12 months relevant to the scope of services within Lot 1a (including RPO). This will include providing a copy invoice to show that a doctor, nurse and/or AHP/HSS worker has been placed in a permanent role with a named client. You will also be required to provide the client name and contact details so that HTE can obtain a reference to back up your case study.

When being evaluated, your case study will be allocated up to 7 points, so it is important to write it using the parameters given in the HTE documentation and provide full detail.

Track Record – Lot 1b – International Permanent Recruitment

You must be able to provide evidence (in the form of an invoice) to demonstrate that you have placed the following numbers of staff within a single customer within the last 12 months to quality to bid for this tender:

DOCTORS – A minimum of 2 doctors, GPS or Consultants (excluding national candidates with an existing right to work in the UK and a professional registration within the UK or temp to perm placements).
NURSES – A minimum of 10 nurses (excluding national candidates with an existing right to work in the UK and a professional registration within the UK or temp to perm placements).
AHP / HSS – A minimum of 2 AHP/HSS (excluding national candidates with an existing right to work in the UK and a professional registration within the UK or temp to perm placements).

These are non-negotiable pass / fail questions, so if you are unable to meet the above criteria, you will not be invited to the next stage of the process.

ITT – INVITATION TO TENDER (STAGE 2 OF TENDER PROCESS)

This stage is not to be completed at the moment. You will only be asked to complete the ITT if you are successful during the SQ (or PQQ) stage of the process.

HTE has provided details of the questions that will be asked in the ITT as a download on the portal. Whilst this section is not to be filled in until they issue the ITT (currently 16th January 2020), it is helpful to see what you will be asked so that, if necessary, you can prepare.

Key areas include:

Corporate membership of the REC, APSCo or industry accredited equivalent (scoring 5 points in the ITT). You will be required to upload the certificate.
ISO 9001. Holding this accreditation and uploading your current certificate will give you a score of 5 points in the ITT.
Qualitative question explaining how your recruiters are trained and qualified (potential score of 5 points)
Qualitative question explaining how you ensure Healthcare Workers are not working in more than one role at any given time.
Qualitative question explaining your approach to building a national database of candidates.
Qualitative Question explaining how you will scope out a recruitment project with the client.
Provision of a project plan and case study for a national project for a mix of Healthcare Workers.
Qualitative question explaining your process for recording project outcomes, lessons learned and feedback to support continuous improvement.
Qualitative question detailing your pre-screening checks for Healthcare Workers.
Qualitative question detailing your process for registering and validating new candidates.
Qualitative question explaining the support provided to support candidate relocation.
Qualitative question detailing your complaints handling process (including uploading your complaints policy).
Multiple choice data protection questions.

BRUNTON BID WRITING SERVICES

We are offering 3 service options for this tender:

OPTION 1 – To outsource the full bid where we complete all of the questions on your behalf and upload all of the required documentation to the portal ready for your review and submission. Please note that we do not provide advice on where to pitch your pricing or offer legal advice. This service does not include provision of any documented policies or procedures which can be purchased separately on request at £95 + vat each.

FULL OUTSOURCE SERVICE FIXED FEES	FOR ONE LOT	FOR BOTH LOTS
SQ Stage	£1,500	£1,900
ITT Stage	£4,950	£5,700

All of the above pricing is subject to VAT at the prevailing rate.

OPTION 2 -The consultancy and review service which includes:

A full review of all of the documentation relating to the bid (so we know the documents inside out and will be well positioned to give advice).
Ongoing review of the “clarification” questions and answers as they are published.
Unlimited telephone and email support throughout the bid period (until the submission deadline).
Advice and guidance on answering the questions, and documents you need to upload to the portal as part of your bid (please note this does not include provision of any documented policies or procedures which can be provided at a cost of £95 + vat as rquired).
Review of the answers to the qualitative questions (this service includes a maximum of 2 reviews). You must provide the questions and answers to us in MS Word format and we will provide your reviews using track changes and the comments function. It is then your responsibility to follow our guidance and make the amendments to your answers. We are not responsible for rewriting your answers.
Assistance with understanding the pricing evaluation and how to complete the pricing schedule once published in the ITT (please note that we are unable to advise you on where to pitch your pricing – this is a commercial decision for your business).
A full review of the portal (once you have uploaded your bid) to ensure it is complete and compliant and that all attachments have been uploaded correctly.

CONSULTANCY & REVIEW SERVICE FIXED FEES	FOR ONE LOT	FOR BOTH LOTS
SQ Stage	£1,150	£1,500
ITT Stage	£3,750	£4,500