Participation
Conditions of participation
The conditions of participation that apply to this competitive tendering procedure are contained within the Procurement Specific Questionnaire (in Appendix I of the ITS). The conditions of participation relating to legal and financial capacity are listed below:
PSQ 13 – Are you intending to rely on another supplier to act as a guarantor?
If so, please provide their name and evidence of their economic and financial standing.
If you have answered ‘no’, please go to question PSQ 15.
PSQ 13(a) - If you are proposing to rely on another supplier to act as a guarantor please provide the following details:
- Full name of immediate parent company,
- Registered or head office address,
- Registration number (if applicable),
- VAT number (if applicable),
PSQ 14 – Please confirm whether you already have, or can commit to obtain, the levels of insurance cover indicated below that will be effective for the duration of the contract:
a. Employer’s (Compulsory) Liability Insurance* = £5,000,000
b. Public Liability Insurance = £1m
c. Professional Indemnity Insurance = £1m
PSQ 14(a) – Insert details of your insurances already in place or insurances which would be obtained for the duration of the contract (including information on how you will obtain this insurance - e.g. a quote)
PSQ 15 – Please confirm that you have in place, or that you will have in place by the award of the contract, the human and technical resources to perform the contract to ensure compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and to ensure the protection of the rights of data subjects.
PSQ 15(a) – Please provide details of the technical facilities and measures (including systems and processes) you have in place, or will have in place by contract award, to ensure compliance with UK data protection law and to ensure the protection of the rights of data subjects. Your response should include, but should not be limited to facilities and measures:
- to ensure ongoing confidentiality, integrity, availability and resilience of processing systems and services
- to comply with the rights of data subjects in respect of receiving privacy information, and access, rectification, deletion and portability of personal data
- to ensure that any consent based processing meets standards of active, informed consent, and that such consents are recorded and auditable
- to ensure legal safeguards are in place to legitimise transfers of personal data outside the UK (if such transfers will take place)
- to maintain records of personal data processing activities
- to regularly test, assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the above measures.
PSQ 17 – If you are a relevant commercial organisation subject to Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, and if your latest statement is available electronically, please provide:
- the web address,
- precise reference of the documents.
If it is not available electronically, please state this and go to question PSQ 17 (a)
PSQ 17(a) – If your latest statement is not available electronically, please provide a copy.
PSQ 17(b) – If you are not a relevant commercial organisation subject to Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (for example if your turnover is less than £36 million or you do not carry on your business, or part of your business, in the UK), please provide a link to an equivalent statement or document which demonstrates information to a to f above.
PSQ 17(c) – If all the information set out in a to f above is not included in your modern slavery statement or other statement or documents, please provide an explanation as to why not and/or assurances that it will be included before contract award.
Conditions of participation
PSQ 16 – Are you either:
a) a Supplier to any of the Functional Assessment Service (FAS) Contracts with the Authority (Procurement reference: tender_267317/1270543); or,
b) a sub-contractor to a Supplier detailed in (a) above that provides such Supplier with ‘Supplier Personnel’ to carry out the role of a HP and/or Clinical Author on behalf of such Supplier?
Award criteria
Type: quality
Name
Question 2.2.1: Example of a contract for similar services
Description
Please describe, using at least one example, where you have delivered similar clinical QA services for a major organisation (public or private sector) and how you will use the experience gained and lessons learned to deliver the Clinical QA Service detailed in the Specification.
As a minimum your response should:
1. Detail the scope of services you delivered to the organisation and how they have relevance to the Clinical QA Service.
2. Detail your performance levels in delivering the similar services and describe how you will use your experiences to ensure the Service Levels in the Contract will be achieved.
3. Detail examples of where your service delivery exceeded the requirements of the relevant service description / specification, where you added value and how this will positively impact delivery of the Services for this Contract.
4. Give an example to demonstrate how you dealt with blockers and issues including evidence of where things didn’t go well, what you did to improve the situation and the approach you will take to manage blockers/issues that may arise on this Contract.
Please complete your response using Arial font size 12 limited to three (3) A4 pages (including any diagrams, illustrations, graphics, etc.). Do not include any embedded documents.
Weighting: 22.5
Weighting type: percentageExact
Type: quality
Name
Question 2.2.2: Recruitment & Retention of Supplier QA Clinicians
Description
Please describe in detail how you will recruit and retain Supplier QA Clinicians (during the mobilisation period and throughout the life of the Contract) to deliver the Clinical QA Service.
Please include your rationale and evidence to support your approach.
Also detail the processes your organisation will put in place to ensure no excluded person is employed or contracted by the Supplier for the role of Supplier QA Clinician (i.e. as detailed is Section 4.2.3 of the Specification which states if such person is currently employed or contracted by a FAS Provider (either directly or indirectly) to carry out the role of a Clinical Author on behalf of such FAS Provider, they cannot deliver services under this Contract).
Your response should reflect any variance in approach for the following categories of Supplier QA Clinicians:
• Supplier QA Clinicians directly employed by you, the Supplier organisation.
• Supplier QA Clinicians employed by Sub-contractors;
• Self-employed Supplier QA Clinicians with whom you propose to contract directly.
As a minimum your response should:
1. Outline how you will ensure suitably qualified (i.e. meeting the credentials detailed in the Specification) and motivated Supplier QA Clinicians will be recruited: (i) initially to support a successful service commencement; and, (ii) throughout the life of the contract.
2. Outline how you will ensure no excluded person is employed or contracted by the Supplier for the role of Supplier QA Clinician.
3. Detail your proposed process for Supplier QA Clinician retention to support consistent delivery of the Clinical QA Service.
4. Detail how you will monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of your proposed recruitment and retention approach.
5. Describe the key recruitment and retention challenges you envisage in relation to delivery of the Services and how you plan to overcome them (e.g. recruiting in a highly competitive market, ensuring the job description and expectations of the role are clear).
6. Describe how your Supplier QA Clinician resource planning assumptions allow for flexibility to respond to any factors including Supplier QA Clinician absence (e.g., Maternity/Paternity, long/short term sickness absence, annual leave), attrition (including during recruitment, on-boarding and initial training periods).
Please complete your response using Arial font size 12 limited to three (3) A4 pages (including any diagrams, illustrations, graphics, etc.). Do not include any embedded documents.
Weighting: 7.5
Weighting type: percentageExact
Type: quality
Name
Question 2.2.3: Skills and development of Supplier QA Clinicians
Description
Please describe in detail how you will ensure that Supplier QA Clinicians delivering the Clinical QA Service possess and retain the necessary skills, experience, and competencies to deliver as set out in the Specification throughout the life of the Contract.
Please include your rationale and evidence to support your approach.
Your response should reflect any variance in approach for the following categories of Supplier QA Clinicians:
• Supplier QA Clinicians directly employed by you, the Supplier organisation;
• Supplier QA Clinicians employed by Sub-contractors;
• Self-employed Supplier QA Clinicians with whom you propose to contract directly.
As a minimum, your response should:
1. Outline how you will approach and deliver specific training/upskilling for the Clinical QA Service: (i) initially to support a successful service commencement; and, (ii) throughout the life of the contract.
2. Detail the skills and experience of Supplier QA Clinicians in respect of functional impacts of disease and disability on a person's daily living activities and how such skills/experience will be maintained and kept up to date throughout the life of the contract.
3. Explain how you will assess and monitor competence of Supplier QA Clinicians to carry out the Clinical QA Service initially and throughout the life of the contract.
Please complete your response using Arial font size 12 limited to two(2) A4 pages (including any diagrams, illustrations, graphics, etc.). Do not include any embedded documents.
Weighting: 5.0
Weighting type: percentageExact
Type: quality
Name
Question 2.2.4: Quality of the Clinical QA Service
Description
Please describe in detail the processes you will put in place to manage, monitor, and report on the quality and consistency of CTGM document reviews under the Clinical QA Service to be carried out by Supplier QA Clinicians.
Please include your rationale and evidence to support your approach.
As a minimum, your response should;
1. Detail your processes for ensuring consistency of delivering the Clinical QA Service and avoidance of conflicting comments when reviewing similar CTGM documents (e.g. two separate CTGM documents which may cover asthma and ensuring both documents cross-reference to the same sources of clinical guidance).
2. Detail your processes for monitoring and analysing trends, managing, and improving all aspects of quality across your delivery to ensure what is detailed in the Specification are met, including performance against KPIs, management information, and any other reporting requirements.
3. Explain how improvement actions in relation to Clinical QA Service quality will be identified and undertaken to positively support the Supplier QA Clinicians in their performance and development.
Please complete your response using Arial font size 12 limited to two (2) A4 pages (including any diagrams, illustrations, graphics, etc.). Do not include any embedded documents.
Weighting: 10.0
Weighting type: percentageExact
Type: quality
Name
Question 2.2.5: Development and delivery of the Annual Clinical Training Course Service
Description
Please describe, using examples from previous experience, your approach to the development of training materials required under the Annual Clinical Training Course Service and how you will use the experience gained and lessons learned to deliver an excellent educational experience to all Authority Clinicians who participate at the face-to-face annual clinical training course.
Please include your delivery methods and strategies to maintain engagement.
As a minimum, your response should:
1. Detail how the Annual Clinical Training Course you develop will meet the requirements set out in Section 5.2 of the Specification.
2. Outline how you will approach and develop training, especially for content related to functional impacts of disease and disability on a person's daily living activities.
3. Detail the skills and experience within your organisation of training presenters / facilitators who can deliver engaging face-to-face CPD training courses.
4. Detail your approach to collaborating with DWP to co-create the learning objectives for the training course to ensure it meets the training needs of Authority Clinicians in maintaining up-to-date relevant clinical knowledge.
5. Describe, using examples from previous experience, how you will gather and review feedback and how this will be used to improve on the following years Annual Clinical Training Course Service.
Please complete your response using Arial font size 12 limited to three (3) A4 pages (including any diagrams, illustrations, graphics, etc.). Do not include any embedded documents.
Weighting: 12.5
Weighting type: percentageExact
Type: quality
Name
Question 2.2.6: Development and delivery of the Educational CPD Materials Service
Description
Please describe, using examples from previous experience, your approach to the development of educational CPD materials required under the Educational CPD Materials Service and how you will use the experience gained and lessons learned to ensure such materials are relevant, based upon functional impacts of disease, up-to-date, and engaging for a wide range of Authority Clinicians.
Please include your delivery methods and strategies to maintain engagement.
As a minimum, your response should:
1. Detail how the educational CPD materials you develop will meet the requirements set out in Section 6.2 of the Specification.
2. Outline how you will approach and develop educational CPD materials, especially for content related to functional impacts of disease and disability on a person's daily living activities.
3. Detail your approach to collaborating with DWP to co-create the learning objectives for the educational CPD materials to ensure they meet the CPD needs of Authority Clinicians in maintaining up-to-date relevant clinical knowledge.
4. Detail the skills and experience within your organisation to develop, publish and host CPD content that can be accessed by Authority Clinicians.
5. Describe, using examples from previous experience, how you will gather feedback and how this will be used to improve on the following years Educational CPD Materials Service.
Please complete your response using Arial font size 12 limited to three (3) A4 pages (including any diagrams, illustrations, graphics, etc.). Do not include any embedded documents.
Weighting: 12.5
Weighting type: percentageExact
Type: price
Name
Commercial Envelope
Description
Price Methodology
Any Tender which exceeds the Authority’s available budget for the first year of the Contract shall be treated as non-compliant and rejected. The Authority’s available budget for the first year of the Contract is £406,667 excluding VAT (i.e. £488,000 including VAT).
If it appears to the Authority that any Tender may be abnormally low then the Authority may ask the Supplier to explain its price or costs. If following the Supplier's explanation, the Authority is not satisfied with the Supplier's account for the low level of price or cost in the Tender, the Authority may treat the Tender as non-compliant and reject it.
Financial information should be submitted by Suppliers using the Pricing Quotation Template on the Portal. Further details on how to complete this Commercial Envelope can be found in the Pricing Quotation Template on the Portal.
Financial Evaluation Methodology
The weighting for pricing in the Commercial Envelope is 30% of the total available for the Tender.
The price per Billable Page quoted by the Supplier for the Clinical QA Service will be multiplied by the total number of Billable Pages estimated per year, as detailed in the 'CTGM volumetrics' tab, i.e. 29,222 Billable Pages. The resulting value will be the Suppliers total Charges for the Clinical QA Service.
The Suppliers total anticipated Charges for the Clinical QA Service will be added to the Suppliers quoted annual fixed prices for the Annual Clinical Training Course Service and the Educational CPD Materials Service. The resulting value will be the Suppliers total annual Charges for all Services.
Each Supplier will be given a score under this Commercial Envelope using the calculation below:
Calculation: ( A / B ) x 30%
Where:
A = the lowest total annual Charges for all Services from the Supplier who submitted the lowest total annual Charges;
B = the total annual Charges for all Services for the Supplier being evaluated.
Completing the Pricing Quotation Template
You must complete the Pricing Quotation Template electronically using the spreadsheet provided.
To open, click on the attachment, which should automatically open up the file. The attachment was produced in Microsoft Excel 365. Please ensure your Pricing Quotation Template response is completed in Microsoft Excel 2010 or later versions.
All prices quoted in the Pricing Quotation Template must:
a) be exclusive of VAT.
b) not include indexation, as prices will be adjusted for indexation in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Contract.
Weighting: 30.0
Weighting type: percentageExact