To confirm you only want two suppliers to deliver the entire scope in-house and there wont be an option for teams?
Consortia Bids are accepted, but suppliers must be able to cover the entire scope and the entire geography, either in-house of via a sub-contractor, we expect suppliers to work towards a target of 30% of the work awarded to sub-consultants and that all opportunities are advertised via our Supply Chain Portal to maximise opportunities for local and SME organisations.
Following on from the PIN notice published on Find a Tender on 9th January, can you please advise the next steps in relation to expressing our interest ahead of when the framework launches in March 2024?
It is expected that the Invitation to tender will be issued in March, returned in May (precise dates to be confirmed), and goes live in August to coincide with the end of the current SCF Consult framework. The Invitation to Tender process will be issued on the Hampshire In-Tend portal: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/hampshire/.
Could you clarify if you are looking for one supplier for each service/lot? Or two suppliers to cover both?
We are seeking two suppliers and wish to maximise options for clients by providing quick access direct award, or mini-competition, call-off options.
One supplier will be awarded the Project and Cost Management direct award route, and the other the Design Engineering and Surveying direct award route. Either supplier could be awarded to deliver any of the full scope of works via the mini-competition option. We feel that this offers maximum flexibility for clients.
In reference to the SCF Consult Framework, we would like to request the following information to help us understand the historic performance of SCF1:
- List of public sector bodies signed up to use the framework
- Details of public bodies who have appointed services through the framework.
- Value of work procured through the framework, broken down by client.
- List of projects raised through the framework – to enable us to better understand typical commissions.
See answer
We are unable to public any specific details of clients using the framework, more detail will be provided in the Invitation to Tender documentation.
Will we be expected to cover all aspects of the supplier services list? If so can this be done by way of sub-contractors?
Suppliers will be expected to deliver the entire scope of services across the entire geography, use of sub-contractors is encouraged, opportunities are required to be advertised via SCF’s supply chain portal.
Non civil engineering and surveying is quite a broad area, can you provide more information on the specific roles you are looking for?
The framework is intended to provide a full range of property and construction support; therefore it is not possible to define the full range of duties that may be required of any particular profession. Roles and responsibilities will be broadly defined in the tender but bidders should expect that full scopes will not be available until each individual call-off is defined.
Land surveyor – can you clarify this, is it someone who will survey the boundaries, provide details of the contours of the land or something else also?
The framework includes provision for land surveying (geomatics) and for commissioning other types of surveys of land for development (soil/ecological etc). These can be commissioned by open book procured sub-contract.
There is also a site investigations service listed which we would take to mean looking into ecology, contamination, flooding, geotechnical and ground investigations etc… Again can you confirm?
All types of land investigation should be included. These can be commissioned by open book procured sub-contract.
Technical and Data management – can you confirm what type of date we will be expected to handling and manage?
Technical and Data management requirements could be in conjunction with construction and projects or property maintenance, for example document control or updating of property records.
Engineering specialisms service is quite broad, are you referring to Civil, structural etc…?
Fullscope will be provided in the tender documents, but all types of engineering surveying could be required, depending on the needs of the framework users.
What do you see our role being throughout the 5 years?
We work with SCF suppliers as partners to support our clients in any way required. Our frameworks are not transactional but aimed at partnering with the public sector and with the framework management team to build pipeline and develop long term delivery arrangements.
Are there minimum years qualified requirements for the different levels of role type?
Specific requirements of any particular roles will be defined for each call-off.
“Should Cost” – will the threshold be disclosed?
The Should Cost threshold will be disclosed in the tender documents, as will the proportion of the overall bid attributed to each grade. Bidders will insert the overall total of the grade rates and each grade will complete automatically to set the hourly rate of each staff grade.
In the turnover expectations section - the framework appears to require suppliers to generate the business for the framework. It would be a great help if you could explain what ‘generating the business for the framework’ means.
As with the SCF Construct framework, framework users are not obliged in any way to use our arrangement over any other. The framework management team promote the framework to public clients and record the benefits of framework use to encourage further engagement. Suppliers will be expected to work alongside the team to secure turnover and promote use of the framework.
Please can you confirm if there will be two contracts issued i.e. one for Hampshire County Council and one for Devon County Council or if there is just one contractual buying authority and if so who this is?
The framework is a joint collaborative framework between Hampshire County Council and Devon County Council (as framework providers). Each underlying contract (call-off) will be unique to each individual commissioning authority (framework user).
Are you able to confirm how much is likely to be directly awarded to each supplier compared to mini-competition and will there be any criteria or methodology adopted e.g. best experience / taxi rank / alternative option?
We are unable to confirm the mix of direct award and mini competition as requirements vary from client to client.
Will there be any option to decline projects/opportunities under the framework?
Whist we would expect suppliers to service all likely client needs, it will be possible to decline opportunities at call-off.
Is it possible for you to confirm exact timescales of the opportunity?
The tender is due out in March 2024 to go live in August 2024, running until August 2028.
Where Hampshire County Council has an existing agreement in place via SCF Consult 1 until early 2027, will that incumbent be able to bid for SCF Consult 2? If so will there be an ethical wall agreement in place which prevents those currently working on SCF 1 being able to be part of the bid team, to enable a competitive procurement process?
The incumbent supplier will not be barred from bidding the next generation framework. All appropriate controls are in place during the tender period to ensure a fair and compliant process.
Could you please lay out the rationale for bringing this to market alongside the SCF consult 1 framework? Is it due to increased pipeline, issues with current capacity or for other reasons?
The SCF Consult 2 Framework launch coincides with the end of SCF Consult 1. Some call-off may run past the expiry of the first-generation framework, much as commissions made late in the Consult 2 framework may run past the end of this generation, and so on.
In the presentation it states “SCF are seeking two partners”. Could you please clarify if this is 2 partners for each of the South West and South East (up to 4 partners total) or if there will be 2 partners selected covering both geographies?
Two partners will both be expected to cover the entire geography.
Could you please elaborate on the statement “Suppliers should expect to jointly target between £5+m of fee income a year as part of a joint business development strategy.”? Do you mean a framework value of £5+m per year?
The framework maximum value will be set higher to cove all eventualities, however it is realistic to expect to target fee income of this value.
Based on the procurement timeline we assume that this will be a single-stage open procurement process. Is this correct?
This is correct.
You have set out that the quality evaluation will include 6 questions. Could you please provide more detail on the expectation of response size (either pages or word count)?
The final requirements will be issued in the tender but is likely to be around 1500 words per question.
How much as a % do you envisage will be procured through mini competition? Under what circumstances will a mini competition be used vs a direct award?
We are unable to confirm the mix of direct award and mini competition as requirements vary from client to client.
How do you envisage this framework feeding the SCF construction framework
Two-Stage Open Book is about early formation of fully integrated teams, best realised through SCF Consult and Construct frameworks working closely together. The frameworks are set up to compliment this, process, supporting clients through programmes of work to achieve long-term outcomes. Demonstrating the benefits of actively managed framework appointments from end-to-end will help retain repeat customers and build new relationships.
Could you please provide clarity over the Terms and Conditions you are looking to procure this under?
The invitation to tender will set out reasonable minimum standards, and clients will be able to further define their requirements when the extent of the scope of each call-off is known. The framework management team is on hand to assist in setting reasonable and achievable requirements throughout the life of the framework.
