Challenge

Academy Transformation Trust (ATT) consists of 22 primary, secondary and special needs schools across the Midlands, South and East England. The school buildings portfolio ranges from 1920’s school buildings right through to new build facilities.

When first approached with the request to tender the provision of cleaning services Procure4 conducted a full review of the initial status across the portfolio. The review discovered: the cleaning was mainly delivered in-house (14 schools) and; the service provided was inconsistent, with some schools under-resourced and others over. The main concern of the Trust was the inconsistency of the service and the time/support services resource required to manage the cleaning in-house without the guaranteeing of a better performing service.

Approach

From the review, Procure4 determined that a flexible approach, adapting how the service is delivered i.e. allowing the Trust to move away from a fixed number of hours, would enable a more efficient service, while protecting employees.  TUPE had to be considered from the start of the process with the Trust employing c.120 cleaning staff.

Having considered multiple options for the public procurement process, Procure4 recommended a restricted OJEU procedure which enables the Trust to:

• Drive competition from the market place while remaining in control of the pre-qualification criteria
• Provide flexibility in terms of evaluating the current service set up and an improved alternative option

Procure4 managed the end to end process (restricted OJEU procurement procedure) including the creation and publication of the OJEU notice and management the entire process and associated documentation. 35 suppliers were registered and evaluated ahead of the Invitation to Tender (ITT).

Procure4 prepared the ITT documentation pack including detailed output specifications; data relating to all staff (directly and third party employed) subject to Transfers of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) and evaluation mechanisms. All while complying fully with transparency and equal treatment requirements. Procure4 also managed all the supplier queries whilst the ITT was live.

The next stage involved a full evaluation of the responses received including pricing clarifications prior to shortlisting. Support from Procure4 was also provided in relation to supplier comms and tools for evaluation.  In the final stages of the process, Procure4 provided vital guidance to stakeholders on preparing and conducting supplier’s due diligence meetings and evaluating and adjusting quality scores in transparent.

The Results

Procure4 prepared a full tender report supporting the presentation of the solution to the Board of Trustees. This provided further reassurance with regards to the successful bidder and solution to be deployed.

The tender resulted in a single service provider across all schools tendered thus underpinning the need for consistency of service delivery and ease of supplier management. SLI and KPI’s were put in place alongside agreed account management and regular service reviews.