Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2020-10-09
Buyer: East Sussex County Council
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Restricted procedure
CPV classification: 72720000: Wide area network services
Estimated value: 400000000 GBP
Submission deadline: 2020-11-10
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: East Sussex County Council, on behalf of the current and future South East Grid (SEG) Consortium, invite experienced providers to participate in their tender for a new SEG Network Services framework contract. The Consortium’s key objectives for the project are:
— to build a consortium of public sector organisations that can scale across the South East of England to provide a joined up and single sourcing route for the wider public sector.
East Sussex County Council, on behalf of the current and future South East Grid (SEG) Consortium, invite experienced providers to participate in their tender for a new South East Grid Network Services framework contract. The Framework will also be open for access by other Public Sector Organisations. Brighton and Hove City Council, East Sussex Boroughs and Districts, East Sussex Schools and East Sussex Emergency Services have expressed a firm interest in accessing the framework and their site lists will be provided as part of the tender information. The framework will also be made available for use by other public sector bodies in the South East of England (NUTS UKJ). The types of public sector bodies allowed to access the framework include the following:
— Local Authorities (including groups of local authorities) a list of which is available at: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Dl1/Directories/Localcouncils/AToZOfLocalCouncils/index.htm delivering public services within the South East region;
— All health authorities, National Health Service Trusts and Primary Care Trusts, social care organisations and any other person (s) or body established or financed under the National Health Service Act 1977 as amended and future bodies (e.g. Foundation Trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups) associated with the delivery of healthcare within the South East region: http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/about/Pages/authoritiesandtrusts.aspx
— Schools, including academies and other bodies delivering school services with the South East region
— Higher and Further Education establishments with sites in the South East region, as described in http://www.hefce.ac.uk/unicoll/fe and http://www.hefce.ac.uk/unicoll/he
— Any organisation in the South East region, that complies with the JANET Connection Policy. The present connection policy is available at: http://www.ja.net/documents/publications/policy/connection-policy.pdf
— Voluntary and Community Organisations with a presence in South East region, available at: http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/AdvancedSearch.aspx
— Local offices of national UK public sector bodies located within the South East region, listed at: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Dl1/Directories/A-ZOfCentralGovernment/index.htm
— Private sector organisations where such services are required to enable the private sector organisation to provide services under contract to those public sector organisations listed above. This list is intended to list major organisations. This list is not exhaustive or definitive for the duration of the contract. Other, smaller, organisations may also use the services where such organisations use services for the delivery of public services in the South East region.
The framework contract term will exceed the normal 4 year limitation, which is justified due to the subject-matter of the framework services. This justification has been identified through a soft-market engagement process, which highlighted the length of time required for the framework contract would need to be longer for providers to invest in new fibre infrastructure. Without a longer term it is not plausible to commit this level of investment. There will also be a long implementation and migration and the longer framework length will enable the consortium members to receive greater value from their initial investments, with the increased likelihood of other partners being able to access the services based on their current varying contract lengths. This longer contract will also encourage and enable a longer-term partnership to develop between the provider and the South East Grid consortium. East Sussex County Council will be the contracting party for the purpose of the overarching agreement (Framework Authority), but the framework will also be open for access by other Public Sector Organisations. The anticipated value of the call off contract for the founding members of the South East Grid Consortium (as detailed in the site list information) is estimated at circa 40M GBP for the 15-year contract period based on the core WAN requirements, although this could rise if further associated services are provided through the Framework. The anticipated total potential value of the framework, where other public sector bodies access the framework, has been estimated to be GBP 400 million, however, no guarantee or commitment as to the initial and future value of any work arising from this Framework can be given.

Eligibility requirements: As described in the tender documents.

Award value: 400000000