Contract for the provision of Fidelity Assurance

Description

These services relate to “light touch services” as set out in Schedule 1 to the Procurement Regulations 2024, using common procurement vocabulary (CPV) codes and will be procured using the Open Procedure, as a light touch contract. This Procurement will be conducted in accordance with the Procurement Act 2023. Connect to Work will be delivered using two of the most recognised quality standards for supported employment: IPS and SEQF. Both models have fidelity scales. The fidelity scales will comprise of scored assessments of the two models according to IPS and SEQF fidelity scales, a full report, the facilitation of local and national communities of practice to share best practice, and additional support to assist the refinement of the action plan. Assessments are to be conducted in person per delivery area across England and Wales through the collection of documentation, observations and discussions. A Market Engagement Session 2 is due to take place on 12/02/2025. It is estimated that the Tender Notice will be published, and all Tender Document be made available on 07/03/2025 and a Tender launch event is due to take place on 10/03/2025 It is anticipated that the Tender Notice for this requirement will be published after the Procurement Act 2023 effective date of 24 February 2025. Lot 1: Engaging with the market allows the Authority to gather valuable insights into the health of the market, facilitates market input to shape and test the design of Fidelity Assurance requirement to ensure deliverability and increase understanding of the policy intent to deliver value for money. The Authority was due to hold a pre-market engagement event on 06/06/2024. All commercial activity was paused because of the UK General Election on 04/07/2024, and the engagement event was cancelled. An Early Market Engagement Notice was published on 15/11/2024 to seek expressions of interest for the Preliminary Market Engagement Session 1 which was held on 09/12/2024. Documentation relating to the market engagement session and future market engagement sessions are stored, and accessible free of charge via a Virtual Data Room. Market Engagement Session 2 is due to take place on 12/02/2025.It is estimated that the Tender Notice will be published, and all Tender Document be made available on 07/03/2025 and a Tender launch event is due to take place on 10/03/2025 which will be an opportunity to raise any questions early in the Competitive Tendering Procedure. It is anticipated that Suppliers will have 25 days to prepare and submit Tenders. Suppliers will be required to register their organisation on a Central Digital Platform, which is an enhancement to the existing Find A Tender service prior to responding to the Invitation To Tender. This will require the Supplier to provide core supplier information. This includes: basic information, economic and financial standing, connected person information and exclusion information. There will be eligibility questions and conditions of participation (where applicable) in the Qualification Envelope and as specified in the Procurement Specific Questionnaire (PSQ) All tenders which meet the conditions of participation as set out in the PSQ will be evaluated in accordance with the criteria specified in the Technical Envelope and Commercial Envelope. The award criteria will be based on the most advantageous tender (MAT) using a Price per Quality Point (PQP) model, which assesses the quantitative relationship between the Supplier’s quality score and price. The Authority will produce a final ranking of the Tender Responses considering any adjustments made following any clarifications by the Authority. Completion of a Contract Cost Register (CCR) documentation and supporting assumptions must be completed using the electronic spreadsheet which will be provided as part of the Tender documentation. A Financial Viability Risk Assessment (FVRA) template will also need to be completed, to assess the financial capacity of a Supplier and highlight any potential financial risks to the Authority in contracting with that Supplier. The name and weighting of the quality criteria may be subject to change. The weighting associated with each quality criterion may be subject to change in value and/or order of precedence. In accordance with section 43 of the Procurement Act 2023, the Authority reserves the right to switch from a competitive tendering procedure to the direct award of the Fidelity Assurance contract where no or no suitable tenders have been received in that competitive tendering procedure and the Authority considers that the award of a contract using the competitive tendering procedure under section 19 is not possible. The Authority confirms that, prior to the issue of the Prior Information Notice in this procurement, a conflict assessment has been prepared in accordance with the Procurement Act 2023. The Authority has considered whether the Services could reasonably be supplied under more than one contract by dividing the procurement into lots based on geographical area. The Authority has concluded that splitting the procurement into lots could make the requirement disproportionately expensive to manage and increase the technical risk to deliver the requirement. The Services will be under one contract Additional information: This procurement will be conducted as a light touch contract using the Open Procedure in accordance with the Procurement Act 2023.