Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2019-12-12
Buyer: London Borough of Ealing
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 03000000 | 09000000 | 14000000 | 15000000 | 16000000
Submission deadline: 2020-01-15
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: The London Borough of Ealing is conducting a joint procurement process, under Regulation 38 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. This is to appoint a suitably qualified and experienced organisation to work on behalf of the Council and other public sector bodies who wish to join under a new framework agreement for the provision of a neutral vendor service. This will be for an initial period of 4 years, plus the option to extend for two 2 years periods (a maximum of 8 years in total), subject to performance and meeting the Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) as set out in the tender documents.
There will be one supplier to provide a neutral vendor service covering a range of services, including, but not limited to, professional services, construction, ICT, social care and equipment etc. The spend that will go via this framework is unknown as this will depend on the number of public organisations that decide to join and how much each organisation call off the framework.
The London Borough of Ealing is conducting a joint procurement process, under Regulation 38 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. This is to appoint a suitably qualified and experienced organisation to work on behalf of the Council and other public sector bodies who wish to join under a new framework agreement for the provision of a neutral vendor service. This will be for an initial period of 4 years, plus the option to extend for two 2 year periods (a maximum of 8 years in total), subject to performance and meeting the key performance indicators (KPI's) as set out in the tender documents.
This Framework Agreement is available to all UK public bodies to access, i.e. local authorities, housing associations, educational institutions, registered providers, emergency services, NHS bodies, central government, their agencies and registered charities.
There will be one supplier to provide a neutral vendor service covering a range of services, including, but not limited to, professional services, construction, ICT, social care and equipment etc. The spend that will go via this framework is unknown as this will depend on the number of public organisations that decide to join and how much each organisation call off the framework.
— a quick, low cost route to market that shall provide easy access to goods and services from local suppliers, SME’s and the voluntary sector,
— a simplified route to market for the authorities to access lower value, lower risk goods, services and works,
— this will be a framework agreement with one neutral vendor service provider who will source suitable sub-contractors from the market through further competition,
— the neutral vendor service provider framework agreement will be non-exclusive and would not be used for all lower value procurements, rather those where it was deemed by the authority to be the best commercial and service outcome option.
It is estimated that Ealing council's spend via this framework will be up to 18 200 000 GBP but this level of spend is not guaranteed and is just for indication. Other public bodies who join the framework may have different levels of spend.
An extension is proposed as substantial investment is needed to provide the services i.e. start-up costs, capital investment and systems. The aim is for the framework to stimulate competition within a community of SMEs to provide low value services. To build this community will take time and the service may not be profitable for a few years, an extension will ensure commercial viability.
The justification for this contract being up to 8 years in total is due to the likely investment required by potential bidders. It is necessary to have a period longer than four years to ensure the opportunity is economically viable.