Fidelity Assurance

Connect to Work will be delivered using two of the most recognised quality standards for supported employment: IPS and SEQF. The Fidelity Assurance requirement supplements the delivery of Connect to Work by supporting delivery partners in following the requirements of the IPS and SEQF supported employment models. Both models have Fidelity Scales. The Fidelity Assurance Supplier will be required to deliver the Fidelity Assurance services across England and Wales. DWP will fund delivery of the Fidelity Assurance requirement for IPS and SEQF through one contract. The Authority has considered whether the Fidelity Assurance services could reasonably be supplied under more than one contract by dividing the procurement into lots based on geographical area. The Authority has concluded that splitting the procurement into lots could make the requirement disproportionately expensive to manage and increase the technical risk to deliver the requirement. The Authority currently anticipates awarding a contract for the Fidelity Assurance services for an initial period of 56 months with an option (subject to governance approval, available funding and satisfactory performance) for the Authority to extend the contract for a further period of up to 24 months by giving the Supplier written notice of no less than 3 Months before the initial term of the Contract expires, unless terminated earlier in accordance with the provisions of the Contract. As set out in the Tender Notice, the estimated total value of the contract (including the option to extend referred to above) is anticipated to be £11,750,000 exclusive of VAT. The indicative value of the initial contract term is £7,750,000 exclusive of VAT and any potential extensions. The Authority intends to award a public contract under section 19 of the Procurement Act 2023. The award of that public contract will be through an open procedure in accordance with section 20(1) and (2)(a) of the PA 2023, This procurement for the award of that public contract is being conducted in accordance with sections 20(1) and (2)(a) the Procurement Act 2023 as an open procedure for the award of a light touch contract. The award criteria will be based on the most advantageous tender (MAT) using a Price per Quality Point (PQP) model, which assesses the quantitative relationship between the potential Supplier's ("Supplier")'s quality score and price, all as described more fully in the Fidelity Assurance Instructions to Suppliers which is included in the associated tender documents. The Authority will produce a final ranking of the Tender Responses taking into account any adjustments made following any clarifications by the Authority. Each Supplier will be required, as part of its Tender to submit to the Authority, via the Portal, three (3) "envelopes" as follows: The Qualification Envelope contains the Procurement Specific Questionnaire which assesses the ability and suitability of Suppliers to deliver the Authority's requirements and also assesses the Suppliers' ability to meet specific eligibility questions and conditions of participation. The Qualification Envelope must be fully completed, and Suppliers must pass all applicable questions set out in the Procurement Specific Questionnaire (these will be assessed in accordance with the methodology set out in the Tender Notice and the associated tender documents). If further information is required by the Authority and the Supplier does not promptly provide information reasonably requested by the Authority, and/or after consideration of the information by the Authority, the Supplier fails to pass one or more of the questions set out in the Procurement Specific Questionnaire, the Authority will not proceed to assess the Technical and Commercial Envelopes for that Supplier. The Technical Envelope must be fully completed, and all questions responded to as directed. Suppliers' responses will be used for assessing an overall "Quality" score in relation to each Tender that has fully complied with the Qualification Envelope. Where questions are included but not scored as part of the Quality evaluation, this is clearly indicated within the Technical Envelope with a maximum score of zero. The Commercial Envelope must be fully completed, and all questions responded to as directed using the Contract Cost Register and the Financial Ratios Template on the Portal in accordance with the guidance therein. The Supplier's completed Contract Cost Register and Financial Ratios Template will be used by the Authority for assessing an overall Total Contract Price in relation to each Tender that has fully complied with the Qualification Envelope and the financial capacity of the Supplier. The Contract Cost Register and Financial Ratios Template will be assessed separately to the Technical Envelope. The Authority will score eligibility questions as described in Parts 1, 2 and 3 of the PSQ. To score a "pass", the Tender Response must adequately address all key points and include supporting evidence/information where requested. Any Supplier that answers "Yes" to any of the mandatory and/or discretionary exclusion grounds or by virtue of any associated persons or subcontractors must provide information to support an assessment of whether the circumstances giving rise to the exclusion ground are continuing or likely to occur again, which is known as "Self-Cleaning". The responses must give a reasonable degree of confidence to Authority that the circumstances giving rise to the exclusion ground are not continuing or likely to occur again. In the event that the evidence presented does not provide a reasonable degree of confidence to the Authority that the circumstances giving rise to the exclusion ground are not continuing or likely to occur again, the score for the relevant question(s) will be scored as a "fail", the Supplier becomes an 'excluded supplier' or an 'excludable supplier' depending on whether mandatory or discretionary exclusion grounds and the Authority will treat the Tender as non-compliant and reject it. The Tenders that pass all applicable questions as set out in the PSQ will proceed to have their Technical Envelope responses assessed in accordance with the Qualitative Scoring Methodology and their Commercial Envelope responses assessed in accordance with the Financial Evaluation Methodology. The Qualitative Scoring Methodology is included in the associated tender documents. Qualitative question 2.2.1 Implementation will be scored against a Pass/Fail basis, with a score of 3 (Satisfactory) or above being required to achieve a 'pass'. The score for this question will not be included in the final Technical Score used to calculate the PQP Score. The Authority will reject any Tender where a response is scored 0 (Poor) or 1 (Limited) in any of the qualitative questions within the technical envelope. The Financial Evaluation methodology will comprise of two key elements. The Authority will undertake the financial evaluation in two stages: Part 1 - Detailed review and clarification A detailed review of tenders to ensure the consistency of financial and non-financial information. This review will ensure that prices offered are sustainable and in line with more detailed cost assumptions. The detailed costs in the Contract Cost Register will be cross-referenced to the information provided within the quality elements of the proposal to ensure that the information correlates. If there are any discrepancies or ambiguities, these may be clarified with Suppliers. Part 2 - Fidelity Assurance financial offer, scoring and ranking Scoring will be undertaken on a Price per Quality Point model using Total Contract Price, as determined after any adjustments have been made following any clarifications and the application of the QF Score. The Authority will then produce a final ranking of the Fidelity Assurance Tenders by applying the methodology set out below. There are two stages to determine the final ranking of the Tender Responses. The first stage is to calculate an initial Price per Quality Point Score for each assessed Fidelity Assurance Tender using the following calculation: Initial PQP Score = Total Contract Price divided by the Total Quality Score The initial PQP Score will be rounded to 2 decimal places. The second stage is to apply a Quality Factor (QF) Score using the calculation below: Quality Factor (QF) Score = (1 - (Supplier Total Quality Score divided by the Maximum Total Quality Score)) + 1 The QF Score will be rounded to 3 decimal places. The purpose of the QF Score is to put additional weight on the Quality score. The closer the Supplier's Total Quality Score is to the Maximum Total Quality Score, the smaller the impact of the QF Score has on the final PQP Score. The further away the Supplier's Total Quality Score is from the Maximum Total Quality Score, the bigger the impact the QF Score will have on the Supplier's final PQP Score. The final PQP Score is determined using the following calculation: Final PQP Score = QF Score multiplied by the Initial PQP Score The final PQP Score will be rounded to 2 decimal places and the Supplier with the lowest final PQP Score after the application of the QF Score will be awarded the contract.