Peterborough City Council Soft Market Test Exercise for Information, Advice, Guidance and Crisis Management

Peterborough City Council (the "Council") is seeking views from potential providers on how best to deliver Information, Advice, Guidance and Crisis Management services.

The aim of this Soft Market Testing Exercise (the "SMTE") is to;

1. Understand the optimum way of packaging services to encourage Providers, including charities, social enterprises and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's) and new entrants to the market, to bid; 2. For the Council to gain a better understanding of how the provider market operates in relation to generalist Information, Advice, Guidance and Crisis Management services; 3. Deliver Value for Money to the Council and reduce costs; 4. To assist the Council to develop appropriate procurement documentation; and 5. See whether the market has experience of being involved in and delivering similar projects. It is the intention of the SMTE and this questionnaire to gather a range of qualitative data and information. The information collected during the SMTE process will not be used for any other purpose.

Please read the document and if you feel that your organisation is able to contribute to this SMTE please complete the questionnaire and return, via the SourceDogg system by 12 noon 31.05.2017.

Please note that this is not a call for competition or neither is it a procurement exercise.

For the avoidance of doubt, this SMTE is for the purpose of conducting a soft market testing exercise, and will not formally begin the procurement or constitute any commitment by the Council to undertake any procurement exercise.

SMTE The SMTE in this case is where the Council, at an early stage in development of its proposals but prior to formulating any formal procurement opportunity, seeks input from the market as to what might be the most potentially attractive way of packaging and scoping a future procurement opportunity.

This exercise will also provide an opportunity for the Council to obtain insight into how potential providers might approach the delivery of the service in question. It also gives useful early insight into the likely level of interest in a proposed project from that market.

Potential bidders will not be prejudiced by any response or failure to respond to the soft market testing. Potential bidders must also note that a response to this SMTE does not guarantee an invitation to participate in this or any future procurement that the Council may conduct, nor that the Council will procure any such supply and services or accepts any proposals offered. Any procurement of the supply and services by Council will be carried out strictly in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

The Council has developed this questionnaire and they would like interested parties to complete any questions that apply.

As stated above the outcome of the SMTE will inform an options appraisal with recommendations.

If you wish to participate in the Soft Market Testing you should register your organisation on SourceDogg.

Additional information: To complete the registration, please follow the below 2 step process (if you have used SourceDogg before you already have an account with SourceDogg so please refer to Step 2).

Step 1 - Open an account with SourceDogg Visit the SourceDogg website to open an account. Go to your inbox for an account verification email from [email protected] (IMPORTANT: check your spam folder). Click on the link within that email to verify your email address.

Step 2 - Submit your response to the Soft Market Test. ​Make sure you are logged into your SourceDogg account using your email address and password. Follow the link provided, directing you to Soft Market Test. Click the 'Join the Request now' button. Answer all questions and then click the green 'submit' button on the right hand side of the page. Please note that there is a Live Chat functionality available and plenty of online support. SourceDogg Ref Nr. 8744