Business and Management Consultancy Services Northern Ireland

Invest Northern Ireland
Bedford Street
For the attention of: Barry Savage
BT2 7ES Belfast
UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone: +44 2890816316
E-mail: barry.savage@dfpni.gov.uk

Internet address(es):

General address of the contracting authority: www.dfpni.gov.uk/cpd

Further information can be obtained from: The above mentioned contact point(s)

Specifications and additional documents (including documents for competitive dialogue and a dynamic purchasing system) can be obtained from: The above mentioned contact point(s)

Tenders or requests to participate must be sent to: The above mentioned contact point(s)

Body governed by public law

General public services

The contracting authority is purchasing on behalf of other contracting authorities: no

DETI – Invest NI – Delivering Social Change – Delivery and Operation of 9 Social Enterprise Hubs.

Services
Service category No 11: Management consulting services [6] and related services
Main site or location of works, place of delivery or of performance: Northern Ireland.
NUTS code UKN

The notice involves a public contract

Invest NI is now seeking to appoint a Contractor(s) to design, manage and deliver Social Enterprise Hub activity across 11 locations (within the 9 social investment zones). The aim of the SEIH Signature Project is to tackle vacancy and community eyesores and the lack of local employment by encouraging social enterprise business start up within local communities.
Objectives
The SEIH Pilot Project will be an ‘action and learning’ pilot project supported by DSD and DETI/Invest NI focused on:
– Improving the streetscape by reducing street-level vacancy,
– creating employment opportunities within the social economy sector; and
– promoting the social economy in disadvantaged areas.
The Pilot Project objectives are:
– The creation of 9 Social Enterprise Hubs across NI with one in each of the 9 designated Social Investment Zones by March 2014;
– The removal of community eyesores through targeting clusters of street level vacant or under-used units within eleven communities by November 2013;
– The encouragement of social enterprise business start-ups within local communities; and
– The provision of services for the purposes of facilitating social enterprise.

79410000, 79411000, 79400000

The contract is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA): yes

This contract is divided into lots: yes
Tenders may be submitted for one or more lots

Variants will be accepted: no

See section II.1.5
Estimated value excluding VAT:
Range: between 1 500 000 and 2 000 000 GBP

Options: yes
Description of these options: It is envisaged that the contract will be awarded in January 2014. Upon award of contract the contractor(s) will be required to submit an Operating Plan within 8 weeks. The commencement date, in respect of the contract period, will be the date when the Operating Plan is approved by Invest NI for that specific Social Investment Fund Zone. The contract will run for an initial period of 1 year with an option to extend the contract for a further 12 months, subject to review.

This project will be split into nine (9) separate Lots and each Lot will be evaluated on an independent basis. An exercise to identify suitable locations will be finalised in December 2013. Within each Hub, promoters should work on the basis that the hub will be capable of providing the necessary support services across Social Investment Fund Zone locations.
A separate contract will be awarded for each Lot with the result that there will be up to a maximum of nine (9) Contracts awarded. Each tender for individual Social Investment Fund Zones should reflect the needs of that particular zone and delivery thereto. A tenderer may tender for as many lots as they wish and a single tenderer may be awarded the Contracts for all Lots.

79410000

See Section II.1.5.
Estimated value excluding VAT: 1 666 000 GBP

Duration in months: 24 (from the award of the contract)

Suppliers Instructions How to Express Interest in this Tender~: 1. Register your company on the eSourcing portal (this is only required once): Suppliers Instructions How to Express Interest in this Tender~: 1. Register your company on the eSourcing portal (this is only required once): https://e-sourcingni.bravosolution.co.uk and click the link to register – Accept the terms and conditions and click ‘continue’ – Enter your correct business and user details – Note the username you chose and click ‘Save’ when complete – You will shortly receive an email with your unique password (please keep this secure) 2. Express an Interest in the tender – Login to the portal with the username/password – Click the ‘PQQs / ITTs Open To All Suppliers’ link. (These are Pre-Qualification Questionnaires or Invitations to Tender open to any registered supplier) – Click on the relevant PQQ/ ITT to access the content. – Click the ‘Express Interest’ button at the top of the page. – This will move the PQQ /ITT into your ‘My PQQs/ My ITTs’ page. (This is a secure area reserved for your projects only) -You can now access any attachments by clicking ‘Buyer Attachments’ in the ‘PQQ/ ITT Details’ box 3. Responding to the tender – Click ‘My Response’ under ‘PQQ/ ITT Details’, you can choose to ‘Create Response’ or to ‘Decline to Respond’ (please give a reason if declining) – You can now use the ‘Messages’ function to communicate with the buyer and seek any clarification – Note the deadline for completion, then follow the onscreen instructions to complete the PQQ/ ITT – There may be a mixture of online & offline actions for you to perform (there is detailed online help available) You must then submit your reply using the ‘Submit Response’ button at the top of the page. If you require any further assistance please consult the online help, or contact the eTendering help desk.

None Required.

Payments will be made in accordance with the terms and conditions to be set out in the contract documentation.

No special form is required but one member of a consortium may be required to accept prime contractor responsibility for the other member(s), and a consortium will be required to form a legal entity with appropriate parent company guarantees.

The performance of the contract is subject to particular conditions: yes
Description of particular conditions: The successful contractors’ performance on the contract will be regularly monitored. Contractors not delivering on contract requirements is a serious matter. It means the public purse is not getting what it is paying for. If a contractor fails to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance they will be given a specified time to improve. If, after the specified time, they still fail to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance, the matter will be escalated to senior management in Central Procurement Directorate for further action. If this occurs and their performance still does not improve to satisfactory levels within the specified period, it may be regarded as an act of grave professional misconduct and they may be issued with a Certificate of Unsatisfactory Performance and the contract may be terminated. The issue of a Certificate of Unsatisfactory Performance will result in the contractor being excluded from all procurement competitions being undertaken by Centres of Procurement Expertise on behalf of bodies covered by the Northern Ireland Procurement Policy for a period of twelve months from the date of issue of the certificate.

Information and formalities necessary for evaluating if the requirements are met: As stated in the competition documents.

Information and formalities necessary for evaluating if the requirements are met: As stated in the competition documents.
Minimum level(s) of standards possibly required: As stated in the competition documents.

Minimum level(s) of standards possibly required:
SC1 – Previous Company/ Consortium Experience
Tenderers MUST provide at least one example to demonstrate their experience in successfully designing, delivering and managing programmes for the Third Sector as outlined in the Specification of Requirements document. Tenderers may provide as many examples as they wish in order to demonstrate the experience required.
Examples MUST be within the last 3 years.
Tenderers MUST provide the following as a minimum for each example provided:
– Description / Title of the project / contract.
– A concise explanation of the project / contract including its objectives, timescales, dates, budget, tactics and deliverables.
– The project / contract value.
– Its duration (including dates).
– The client’s details.
The definition of the Third sector is set out below:
“A range of institutions which occupy the space between the state and the private sector. These include small community and voluntary groups, registered charities both large and small foundations, trusts, and the growing number of social enterprises and co-operatives.”
SC2 The SE Hub Team
Invest NI envisage that each Hub Team will consist of a Hub Manager and 2 key individuals.
The Tenderer must provide example(s) which demonstrate that the proposed individual Hub Team for an individual Social Investment Fund Zone has acquired the following experience within the last 3 years;
The Hub Manager
Tenderers must identify the proposed Hub Manager and demonstrate this individuals personal experience as detailed below.
Through the use of an example or examples, tenderers must demonstrate the following:
Within the last 3 years the Hub Manager must have managed and coordinated the delivery of support to a minimum of 5 social enterprises, either individually or through a business support programme.
The example or examples must demonstrate the following types of engagements:
– Provision of training and mentoring services
– Operation of a financial management system
– Managing customer care (including customer queries and complaints)
– Operation of a quality assurance system.
– Building active linkages with businesses, partners and stakeholders in the enterprise and Third Sectors.
Please note, all of the above types of engagement must be demonstrated through the example or examples within the tender response.
It may be that 1 example could include all the engagements specified above.
The Hub Project Team Members
Tenderers must clearly demonstrate that a minimum of 2 key individuals within the project team (excluding the SE Hub Manager) have experience within the last 3 years of delivering programmes for the Third Sector and networking with a range of organisations within the third sector. The Client requires a minimum of two team members (excluding the Hub Manager) delivering on each individual Hub contract.
The Delivery team experience must be provided for each Contract Area that the Tenderer bids for.
Tenderers should note that ‘within the last 3 years’ refers to within 3 years from the closing date of this Tender competition.

Execution of the service is reserved to a particular profession: no

Open

The most economically advantageous tender in terms of the criteria stated in the specifications, in the invitation to tender or to negotiate or in the descriptive document

An electronic auction will be used: no

Project No: 14122

no

Time limit for receipt of requests for documents or for accessing documents: 11.12.2013 – 15:00

11.12.2013 – 15:00

English.

in days: 90 (from the date stated for receipt of tender)

Date: 11.12.2013 – 15:01
Persons authorised to be present at the opening of tenders: no