Social and other specific services – public contracts
Contract notice
Section I: Contracting
authority
I.1) Name and addresses
The Skills Development Scotland Co. Ltd
Monteith House, First Floor, 11 George Square
Glasgow
G2 1DY
UK
Telephone: +44 1412256710
E-mail: procurement@sds.co.uk
NUTS: UK
Internet address(es)
Main address: www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk
Address of the buyer profile: https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/Search_AuthProfile.aspx?ID=AA12862
I.3) Communication
Access to the procurement documents is restricted. Further information can be obtained at:
www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk
Additional information can be obtained from another address:
Skills Development Scotland via Public Contracts Scotland
www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk
Glasgow
G2 1DY
UK
Telephone: +44 08002229003
E-mail: support@publiccontractsscotland.go.uk
NUTS: UK
Internet address(es)
Main address: www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.,uk
Tenders or requests to participate must be sent electronically to:
www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk
I.4) Type of the contracting authority
Body governed by public law
I.5) Main activity
Education
Section II: Object
II.1) Scope of the procurement
II.1.1) Title
Employability Fund 2020-21
Reference number: P19-088
II.1.2) Main CPV code
80000000
II.1.3) Type of contract
Services
II.1.4) Short description
Skills Development Scotland (SDS) will contract on behalf of the Scottish Government for the Employability Fund (EF) Programme for 2020/21 with 2 further optional 1 year extension periods for 2021/22 and 2022/23, and includes funding for those participants who started prior to 1.4.2020. The interventions offered through EF continue to map to stages 2 to 4 of the strategic skills pipeline (SSP), and aim to assist unemployed individuals to progress towards and into employment.
Please note the value of 52 500 000 GBP is an indicative value based on annual value of 17 500 000 GBP. The 52 500 000 GBP is only if the optional 2 plus 1 year extensions is requested at SDS discretion.
II.1.5) Estimated total value
Value excluding VAT:
52 500 000.00
GBP
II.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots:
No
II.2) Description
II.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)
80000000
80400000
80500000
II.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS code:
UKM
II.2.4) Description of the procurement
The scope of the tendered EF services covers provision of the progression of participants along the strategic skills pipeline (SSP) (Stage 2-4) into sustainable employment. EF Services should be differentiated to meet the needs of individual participants and the job opportunities available and should complement other publicly funded provision available within the local employability partnership (LEP). It should reflect the stage of the SSP that an individual is referred to.
Please refer to EF activity rules for further information on the scope of services.
The estimated value is for the value including optional extension periods.
II.2.6) Estimated value
Value excluding VAT:
52 500 000.00
GBP
II.2.13) Information about European Union funds
The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds:
No
II.2.14) Additional information
Economic operators may be excluded from the competition if they are in any of the situations referred to in Regulation 58 of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.
Section III: Legal, economic, financial and technical information
III.1) Conditions for participation
III.1.4) Objective rules and criteria for participation
Bidders shall be required to pass the following pass/fail questions contained within the ITT Response Doc Part 1. All bids who pass Part 1 will be taken forward to Part 2 and their submission evaluated.
Section 5: Exclusion grounds;
Section 6: Policies — insurance;
Section 7: Equal opportunities;
Section 8: Health and safety;
Section 9: Conflict of interest;
Section 10: Not used;
Section 11: Contract examples.
III.2) Conditions related to the contract
III.2.3) Information about staff responsible for the performance of the contract
Obligation to indicate the names and professional qualifications of the staff assigned to performing the contract
Section IV: Procedure
IV.1) Description
IV.1.1) Type of procedure
Open procedure
IV.1.11) Main features of the award procedure:
The scope of services to be provided under this contract falls within the definition of social and other specific services in Schedule 3 to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (‘the Regulations’) and therefore the procurement process shall be in accordance with Regulation 74 and subject to the requirement of section 7 of the Regulations. By virtue of Regulation 76(3) of the Regulations, bidders in any of the situations listed in Regulation 58 of the Regulations may be excluded.
IV.2) Administrative information
IV.2.1) Previous publication concerning this procedure
Notice number in the OJ S:
2017/S 245-512983
IV.2.2) Time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate
Date:
02/12/2019
Local time: 12:00
IV.2.4) Languages in which tenders or requests to participate may be submitted
EN
Section VI: Complementary information
VI.2) Information about electronic workflows
Electronic payment will be used
VI.3) Additional information
Part 2 award criteria: delivery 70 %, fair work practices 15 % and equality and diversity 15 %
Award criteria scoring methodology will be scored on 0-4 as provided in the ITT document.
SDS in allocating volumes will take into account the bids received and the priorities for the programme and may allocate to the estimated value specified, or less, if appropriate for year 1 and optional extension periods.
SDS reserves the right throughout the year to re-allocate/re-distribute delivery places as required to meet our requirements.
Fair work practices
SDS is committed to the delivery of high quality public services, and recognises that this is critically dependent on a workforce that is
Well-motivated, well led, has appropriate opportunities for training and skills development and is engaged in decision making. These
Factors are also important for workforce recruitment and retention, and thus continuity of service. Public Bodies in Scotland (SDS) have adopted fair work practices, which include:
— a pay policy that includes a commitment to supporting the living wage,
— being a living wage accredited employer,
— developing a workforce which reflects the diversity of population of Scotland in terms of age, gender, gender identity, change ethnicity, sexual orientation and disability,
— a strong commitment to modern apprenticeships,
— support for learning and development,
— no usage of zero hours contracts, unless there is a legitimate business requirement, must be proportionate and reasonable to the services being procured,
— flexible working (including for example practices such as flexi-time and career breaks) and support for family friendly working and wider work life balance,
— effective voice: trade union recognition and representation where possible; otherwise alternative arrangements to give staff an effective voice,
— gender balance and wider representative workforce,
— promoting workplace innovation,
— respect: treat each employee with respect and value diversity within the workforce.
It is expected that in order to ensure the highest standards of service quality in this contract contractors should take a similarly positive approach to fair work practices as part of a fair and equitable employment and reward package.
Note: to register your interest in this notice and obtain any additional information please visit the Public Contracts Scotland Web Site at https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/Search/Search_Switch.aspx?ID=601877
The buyer has indicated that it will accept electronic responses to this notice via the postbox facility. A user guide is available at https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/sitehelp/help_guides.aspx
Suppliers are advised to allow adequate time for uploading documents and to dispatch the electronic response well in advance of the closing time to avoid any last minute problems.
The contracting authority does not intend to include a sub-contract clause as part of community benefits (as per Section 25 of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014) in this contract for the following reason:
Sub-contracting is not specified but will occur as indicated as being required to deliver the training services by the bidders.
The contracting authority does not intend to include any community benefit requirements in this contract for the following reason:
community benefits was considered, however, even though aggregated value is over 4 000 000 GBP, each individual contract will be lower than 4 000 000 GBP.
(SC Ref:601877)
VI.4) Procedures for review
VI.4.1) Review body
The Skills Development Scotland Co. Ltd
Monteith House, First Floor, 11 George Square
Glasgow
G2 1DY
UK
Telephone: +44 1412256710
Internet address(es)
URL: www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk
VI.5) Date of dispatch of this notice
28/10/2019