Contract notice
Section I: Contracting
authority
I.1) Name and addresses
Scottish Police Authority
1 Pacific Quay, 2nd Floor
Glasgow
G51 1DZ
UK
Telephone: +44 1786895668
E-mail: hannah.dobby2@scotland.police.uk
NUTS: UKM82
Internet address(es)
Main address: http://www.spa.police.uk
Address of the buyer profile: https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/Search_AuthProfile.aspx?ID=AA19762
I.3) Communication
The procurement documents are available for unrestricted and full direct access, free of charge at:
www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk
Additional information can be obtained from the abovementioned address
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
Public order and safety
Section II: Object
II.1) Scope of the procurement
II.1.1) Title
Employee Assistance Programme
Reference number: PROC-23-2155
II.1.2) Main CPV code
85147000
II.1.3) Type of contract
Services
II.1.4) Short description
The Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland - hereinafter referred to as 'The Authority' are looking to procure an Employee Assistance Programme.
II.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots:
No
II.2) Description
II.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)
85312320
79625000
II.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS code:
UKM
II.2.4) Description of the procurement
The re-tendered service must be an effective and modern EAP Service to Police Scotland and its Eligible Users (includes Scottish Mountain Rescue Teams). The current usage of the Service is approximately 10% per annum of the total eligible employees. However, use of this service is not mandatory and Police Scotland does not guarantee volumes. The EAP Service must:
- Adopt a person centred approach with high standards of customer service.
- Adopt a preventative approach, proactively engaging with our people.
- Provide worksite focused programmes to assist in the identification and resolution of employee concerns which affect, or may affect, performance. Such employee concerns typically include, but are not limited to:
- Personal matters - health, relationships, family, financial, emotional, legal, anxiety/depression, alcohol, drugs and other related issues.
- Work matters - work demands, working relationships, personal and interpersonal skills, work/life balance, stress and other related issues. Probationary / Retirement / Grievance / Disciplinary / Return from maternity / Keeping in touch days / Long term absence / Illness Promotion / Line management or supervisory duties / Injury on Duty / Ill health retiral / Assault or abusive behaviour / Bereavement / Traumatic Exposure / Suicide Prevention.
- Promote health and wellbeing services via self-service access on the Force intranet is vital to this and the Contractor will be expected both to directly contribute and to signpost individuals to relevant information.
- Provide Police Scotland and the SPA with a consistent and high level of service while ensuring continuity of care provision via cross referral and awareness of respective service provisions.
- Provides a programme of support, advice, information and counselling assessing the individual’s needs and providing the most appropriate therapeutic interventions to ensure that Police Scotland and SPA’s requirements are met. The type and duration of support driven by need.
- Make available a website, which will be developed and maintained by the Contractor, containing information for users on the EAP services available and how to access them.
- Have full accessibility for all, including alternative delivery formats, i.e. larger text, email contact and text phone.
- Ensure counsellors, clinicians and staff providing professional advice/and or support to Police Scotland’s employees, including those not directly employed by the Contractor, must meet the minimum level of relevant qualifications and experience required for membership of their appropriate professional body.
- Have quality management systems that will enable them to provide effective clinical, professional and administrative services in keeping with the key performance indicators.
- Adhere to the Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA) standards of practice and professional guidelines.
- Deliver 24/7 EAP services EAP which include:
- Telephone Counselling Service
- Information Service
- Face-to-face Counselling Sessions
- Referral Procedures
- Onward Referral Procedures
- E-Counselling
II.2.5) Award criteria
Criteria below:
Quality criterion: Technical Questions
/ Weighting: 60
Price
/ Weighting:
40
II.2.7) Duration of the contract, framework agreement or dynamic purchasing system
Duration in months: 84
This contract is subject to renewal: Yes
Description of renewals:
Initial contract period will be for four (4) years. With an initial extension period of up to two (2) additional years, with a further optional period of up to 12 months. Extensions will be taken at the sole discretion of the Authority. (4+2+1).
II.2.9) Information about the limits on the number of candidates to be invited
II.2.10) Information about variants
Variants will be accepted:
No
II.2.11) Information about options
Options:
No
II.2.13) Information about European Union funds
The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds:
No
Section III: Legal, economic, financial and technical information
III.1) Conditions for participation
III.1.1) Suitability to pursue the professional activity, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers
List and brief description of conditions:
Suppliers must be able to meet the following minimum Standard of Professional Ability:
The personnel, and if applicable any sub-contractors, engaged by the Contractor to provide counselling must have appropriate qualifications determined by relevant professional bodies and industry standards, so as to provide the specified service to the Authority to a suitable and effective standard.
Personnel, and if applicable, any sub-contractors, must be members of one of the following or equivalent professional bodies:
- British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)
- Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA)
- British Psychological Society (BPS)
- UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP)
- Counselling and Psychotherapy in Scotland (COSCA)
The service must comply with the BACP Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling, or equivalent.
A practising counsellor must:
- hold a Diploma in Counselling or equivalent level as a minimum qualification.
- have experience of delivering short term counselling
- have 450 hours of counselling experience post qualification
- undertake regular supervision by a qualified counselling supervisor in line with BACP guideline
- hold membership or accreditation with one or more of the registered bodies listed above and Ensure therapists delivering therapeutic Services meet the minimum level of relevant qualifications and experience required for membership of their appropriate professional bodies (The British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies, EMDR UK & Ireland Association and the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy).
Psychologists should belong to a recognised UK Professional body in addition to be entered in the Allied Professionals Register.
The Contractor must ensure that additional qualifications are held in order to deliver specific items of service delivery, e.g. Trauma Counselling etc.
III.1.2) Economic and financial standing
List and brief description of selection criteria:
SPD Question 4B6 - Financial Standing:
Credit Safe:
The Authority will access a Credit safe report for a Tenderers organisation and use the information contained within to assist with the assessment of the Tenderer’s economic and financial standing. Tenders are asked to provide their company number within the SPD to allow the Authority to access a Credit Safe Report.
Insurance:
Tenderers are required to hold, or commit to obtaining prior to the commencement of any subsequently awarded contract, the types and levels of insurance indicated below. Where a Tenderer does not hold or commit to obtaining the types and levels of insurance indicated, the SPA will exclude the Tenderer from the competition.
Minimum level(s) of standards required:
Credit Safe Check:
Within such reports, the risk of business failure is expressed as a score of below 30 (high risk of business failure). In the event that a company is determined to have a risk failure rating of below 3 i.e. that the company is considered to have a high risk of business failure, the submission will not be considered further.
If you are successful in the award of this contract and your risk failure rating falls below 30 then the SPA reserve the right to remove you from this contract. It is the Contractor’s responsibility to ensure that the information held by Credit Safe is accurate and up to date.
For the avoidance of doubt, the SPA will request a report from Credit Safe following the closing date for the receipt of the Tenders to ensure that the most up to date information is used. Where you are not registered on credit safe e.g. charitable organisations or new start companies/ Sole Traders with less than 3 years trading history, discretionary powers are available to the Director of Finance to consider abbreviated accounts along with bankers references etc.
Tenderers should be aware that any outstanding County Court Judgements will have a detrimental effect on the rating held by Credit Safe and it is your responsibility to ensure that the information held by Credit Safe is accurate and up to date - failure to do so will result in rejection of your submission.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This requirement is not applicable to Sole Traders/ Charities. Sole Traders/ Charities may be required to provide a bankers reference if successful.
Insurance Requirements:
-a. Public Liability Insurance - 5,000,000 GBP in respect of each claim without limit to the number of claims. Tenderers may be required to provide a copy of their current Public Liability Insurance certificate.
-b. Professional Indemnity Insurance - 5,000,000 GBP in respect of each claim without limit to the number of claims. Tenderers may be required to provide a copy of their current Professional Indemnity Insurance certificate.
-c. Employers (Compulsory) Liability Insurance - 10,000,000 GBP in respect of each claim without limit to the number of claims. Tenderers may be required to provide their current Employers Liability Insurance certificate which should include name of the insurers, policy numbers, expiry date and limits for any one incident and annual aggregate caps and the excesses under the policies.
III.1.3) Technical and professional ability
List and brief description of selection criteria:
SPD Question 4C 1.2 - Tenderers will be required to provide 2 examples to demonstrate that they have the relevant experience to deliver the services described within the specification.
Minimum level(s) of standards required:
Examples provided must be relating to comparable tenders in value and type previously undertaken within the last 3 years. One of the examples must be deadline with Police or Blue Light Services.
III.2) Conditions related to the contract
III.2.2) Contract performance conditions
Service Levels for the delivery of an Employee Assistance Programme are listed within the ITT document.
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.1.8) Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement:
No
IV.2) Administrative information
IV.2.2) Time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate
Date:
10/10/2023
Local time: 12:00
IV.2.4) Languages in which tenders or requests to participate may be submitted
EN
IV.2.6) Minimum time frame during which the tenderer must maintain the tender
Duration in months: 6 (from the date stated for receipt of tender)
IV.2.7) Conditions for opening of tenders
Date:
10/10/2023
Local time: 12:00
Section VI: Complementary information
VI.1) Information about recurrence
This is a recurrent procurement:
No
VI.2) Information about electronic workflows
Electronic ordering will be used
Electronic invoicing will be accepted
Electronic payment will be used
VI.3) Additional information
Economic operators may be excluded from this competition if they are in any of the situations referred to in regulation 58 of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.
Data Protection
Tenderers must be aware of their obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the GDPR as set out in the Contract.
Info Security Requirement
It is a mandatory requirement of the contract that the contractor and/or subcontractors are certified to ISO/IEC 27001 (or equivalent) or have equivalent arrangements in place against the 14 control areas listed below:
1) Information Security Policies 2) Organization of Information Security 3) Human Resource Security 4) Asset Management 5) Access Control 6) Cryptography 7) Physical and environmental security. 8) Operation Security- 9) Communication security - Network security management and Information transfer. 10) System acquisition, development and maintenance 11) Supplier relationships 12) Info security incident management 13) Info security aspects of business continuity management 14) Compliance
Cyber Security Requirement
It is a mandatory requirement of the contract that the contractor and/or subcontractors are certified to Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials plus or have equivalent arrangements in place; evidence of a robust cyber security strategy
If the contractor and/or subcontractors ARE certified to ISO/IEC 27001 (or equivalent) and Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials plus please select Yes against question 4D.1 below and upload a copy of the certificate(s).
If the contractor and/or subcontractors are NOT certified to ISO/IEC 27001 (or equivalent) and Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials plus but have equivalent arrangements in place please select Yes against question 4D.1, complete the attachment entitled '4D.1 Security Requirements Response Template' for each entity you rely upon to meet the requirements and upload the response(s)
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=742742.
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.
A sub-contract clause has been included in this contract. For more information see: http://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/info/InfoCentre.aspx?ID=2363
Community benefits are included in this requirement. For more information see: https://www.gov.scot/policies/public-sector-procurement/community-benefits-in-procurement/
A summary of the expected community benefits has been provided as follows:
Please see ITT Document for information on Community Benefits
(SC Ref:742742)
Download the ESPD document here: https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/ESPD/ESPD_Download.aspx?id=742742
VI.4) Procedures for review
VI.4.1) Review body
Glasgow Sheriff Court
Glasgow
UK
VI.5) Date of dispatch of this notice
31/08/2023