Public procurement notice: Prior Information Notice Without Call For Competition
Published: 2019-03-25
Buyer: Defra
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
CPV classification: 72212460 | 79620000 | 85200000

Technical requirements: To appoint suppliers to the framework who can supply specialist temporary staff (veterinary personnel, technical personnel, scientific personnel) for business as usual purposes, as well as responding to animal disease outbreaks and incidents for different geographical regions across England, Wales and Scotland. Multiple suppliers may be appointed to each lot and geographical region.
Multiple suppliers may be appointed to each lot and geographical region with no restriction on the number appointed to.
1.1) The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) is an Executive Agency of Defra (“the Authority”) and delivers the animal health and welfare policies of the Authority, Scottish Government and Welsh Government across Great Britain (GB). One of its principal functions is the safeguarding of animal health and welfare and public health, which in turn supports economic growth and trade;
1.2) APHA has a critical role in the control and eradication of endemic and exotic notifiable and reportable diseases;
1.3) APHA previously used the VDP Framework to recruit specialist temporary staff such as veterinary and technical personnel. The VDP Framework expired at the end of September 2018. APHA require a method for recruiting specialist temporary staff that can’t be sourced from the crown commercial services’ public sector resourcing framework to carry out roles on a temporary basis or to assist in an outbreak situation. The APHA specialist resourcing framework aims to capture the range of services required to complement the work of the Government across the UK in these specialist fields.
1.4) APHA wishes to appoint suppliers to the Framework Agreement who can supply specialist temporary staff for business as usual purposes, as well as responding to animal disease outbreaks and incidents for different geographical regions across England, Wales and Scotland. Multiple suppliers may be appointed to each lot and geographical region. Suppliers will be ranked within each lot/geographical region.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) will be able to independently call-off from the framework (predominately Lot 1) for their own job roles.
1.7) There will be multiple job roles within each lot. Standard job roles descriptions will be provided. More job roles may be added during the life of the framework and different ones may be required in an outbreak.
2.1) In order to provide more information to potential bidders, the authority is holding 2 online supplier events on the following dates/times:
The authority will provide more details on the requirements for the framework and an opportunity for questions to be raised. A record of the information, questions and answers will be available as part of the tender documentation.
2.2) If you are interested in attending one of the supplier events, please register your interest by going to the authority’s Bravosolution eSourcing portal, going to current opportunities and selecting this requirement.