Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local subdivisions - Supplier Engagement Day

*Please note this is not a call for competition, this is a PIN notice for a BEIS requirement. *

Research summary

The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) wishes to commission an evaluation of the Phase 3 of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS).

Phase 3 PSDS succeeds both previous phases with the sole objective to reduce (non-traded) carbon emissions from public sector buildings. This phase will make £1.425 billion of funding available over the period 2022/23 to 2024/25, with the focus on the decarbonisation of heat to help the UK to meet its Carbon Budgets and Net Zero commitments through the implementation of decarbonisation measures in buildings across the public sector (although the scheme also funds energy efficiency measures alongside this). As with the previous phases, Salix will be the delivery partner of Phase 3 PSDS.

The scheme follows Phase 2 PSDS in focusing on a 'whole building' approach, combining heat decarbonisation with energy efficiency measures. However, there are some key differences to Phase 3, including the amount of funding available, the introduction of multi-year funding alongside the single year funding route, and that there is no funding cap on the value of funding awarded.

Alongside PSDS, there is the Public Sector Low Carbon Skills Fund (LCSF). The Phase 3 LCSF will continue to make grant funding available (2022/23 to 2024/25) for public sector organisations to access the necessary skills and expertise required to put in place a heat decarbonisation plan. While LCSF is a stand-alone scheme, it is in scope of this evaluation so that BEIS can assess the role that Phase 3 LCSF played in the delivery of Phase 3 PSDS.

BEIS expects the study to deliver process, impact and economic evaluations, beginning in July 2022 with Stage 1 (process evaluation, and impact and economic evaluation scoping). Stage 2 will run from April 2024 to March 2026 and will consist of the ongoing process evaluation and impact and economic evaluations. Reporting of process evaluation interim findings will be required in March 2023 and March 2024 to inform any changes to Phase 3 PSDS and future policy. BEIS expects all evidence to be synthesised with final reporting on the process, impact and economic evaluations in March 2026.

The process evaluation is expected to take place across both stages of the study and will focus on investigating how Phase 3 PSDS develops from the initial setup through to the final delivery of projects. It aims to understand what happens during scheme implementation, how the scheme design and administration have supported the delivery of the PSDS aims and what worked more (or less well and why). LCSF will also be explored as part of the process evaluation.

The process evaluation will need to include primary research and secondary analysis of scheme data.

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Additional information: The impact evaluation will be required to assess the extent to which the scheme's benefits have been achieved. It is expected that quasi-experimental analysis (QEA) of Phase 3 PSDS will be conducted, although Stage 1 of the project will require the appointed supplier to scope and confirm the appropriate impact evaluation approach. Stage 2 will then require the QEA to be conducted to empirically assess the additional impact from organisations implementing projects funded by Phase 3 PSDS.

The economic evaluation is expected to take the form of a cost-benefit analysis which will determine the value for money of the scheme. The analysis will aim to assess the cost-effectiveness and calculate a social net present value. LCSF should also be explored in this analysis. The exact scope of the approach will also need confirming via scoping work in Stage 1, which must be compliant with principles of the HMT Green Book.

Alongside this work, BEIS also requires some lighter-touch impact and cost-effectiveness analysis of Phase 2 PSDS. This work will also need scoping further by the appointed supplier, although it is expected to be smaller in scale and make use of matching and analysing secondary data sources.

At the supplier engagement event, we will outline the proposed evaluation approach and seek thoughts from attendees on the procurement process and invitation to tender requirements. There will also be an opportunity to answer any potential questions that suppliers may have.

There will be presentations from: • The Phase 3 PSDS evaluation project team who are responsible for commissioning and managing the evaluation • Representatives from the PSDS Capital & Delivery teams, as well as the LCSF team, who are responsible for designing and delivering the schemes • Representative from BEIS commercial on the procurement process

We would like to invite prospective bidders to attend a pre-market engagement session on Wednesday 11th May 2022 11:00 - 12:30 via MS Teams. This session will provide an opportunity for potential suppliers to find out more about the aims of the procurement and the process.

Suppliers wishing to attend need to RSVP by Wednesday , 4th May 2022 at 11:00 stating their name, company and email. This information should be sent to the following email address: [email protected] for the attention of Rezwan Uddin.

Please ensure that the subject of the email is as follows: Phase 3 Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme evaluation Market Engagement Event.

Note that the route to market will be via CCS Research & Insights DPS (RM6126) (www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/agreements/RM6126) and to bid for this work the lead contractor will have to be registered on the CCS Research & Insights DPS (RM6126) prior to the requirement being launched.