Provision of Funeral Care Services for Anatomical Science Laboratory

The Centre for Learning Anatomical Sciences (CLAS) is a department within the Faculty of Medicine in The University of Southampton. The unit is responsible for providing professionally prepared cadaveric educational resources to undergraduate medical students and postgraduate Healthcare professionals. We have a whole body donation program to support anatomy teaching so that the students are able to benefit from an enriched educational environment that not all medical schools can provide.

We are licenced and regulated by the Human Tissue Authority (HTA), Human Tissue Act 2004 (HTA 2004). More information on HTA the regulations for anatomical education can be found here: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/30/section/1

Our donors are integral to the high standard of medical education provided by The University of Southampton and the wider medical community.

CLAS has a whole donor (bequeathal) program. Our website has information about our activities (www.southampton.ac.uk/clas/). The tenderer is welcome to view the section on "Bequeathals" and download our information pack for a better understanding of our activities and programme. The operation of our donor program is central to this tender. CLAS is licensed for this activity by the Human Tissue Authority (HTA).

The requirements are for the supplier to liaise with CLAS at the point of acceptance and to arrange to meet the next-of-kin/executer in order to accurately process the correct paperwork (details in section 4) and collect the donor from their place of rest (e.g. hospital mortuary, funeral directors, private address) and convey the donor to UHS mortuary. Here they will liaise with the Anatomical Sciences Laboratory (ASL) Management to check the donor and paperwork. If the collection is to take place out of business hours, overnight cold storage by the tenderer will be required. Therefore, the supplier would need refrigeration facilities and adequate storage.

In addition, after 3 years, the donor will be collected from UHS mortuary, with the necessary paperwork, by the supplier for cremation. The supplier will need to supply the coffin on collection from UHS mortuary. ASL Management will be present to meet the supplier and check out the donor. The supplier will then arrange the cremation and inform the next-of-kin/executor as required.

Please see full requirements within the Appendix 1 Specification contained in File 2 of our tender documentation.

Additional information: The University is utilising an electronic tendering tool (In-Tend: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/universityofsouthampton) to manage this procurement and to communicate with bidders. All documentation in relation to this tender can be downloaded from the In-Tend portal.

Bidders are advised that there will be no hard copy documents issued to organisations and all communications with the University including the submission of PQQ and/or Invitation to Tender Responses will be conducted via the In-Tend portal. Regular monitoring of the portal is the responsibility of the bidder.

If you are not already registered as a supplier with the University of Southampton, you will need to register in In-Tend in order to access the tender documentation.

Once you have logged in as a supplier: click on 'Tenders'; locate the relevant project; and click 'View Details'. Once you are in the project screen, you will be able to register your company against the project and access all documentation by clicking 'Express Interest'.

Bidders are advised that formal expressions of interest in the project must be by way of completion and return of the relevant Pre-Qualification (if applicable) or Invitation to Tender documents via the In-Tend portal.

Further instructions for the submission of Invitation to Tender responses are below. To submit your return, please follow the instructions below: 1. Log In 2. Click 'Tenders' 3. Locate the relevant project 4. View Details 5. Click on the tab relating to the relevant project stage (e.g. 'Invitation to Tender') 6. Click on the 'Attach Documents' button and upload your return. 7. Check ALL your response documents are uploaded and displayed in the "My Tender Return" panel. The system will only permit your organisation to make one return. 8. Click the red "Submit Return" button. Please note that, to preserve the integrity of the tendering procedure, all queries must made be via the correspondence function within the In-Tend portal.

In accordance with Regulation 50, paragraph (2) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and subject to Article 5 and Annex 5, Part D (13) of Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (if applicable), the University intends to publish the value of any resulting contract at the award stage, and reserves the right to do so. By submitting a tender response, bidders are consenting to publication of this information unless otherwise agreed in advance with the University.

Due to the nature of this project, it has been deemed unsuitable for division into lots. The risk of dividing the requirement would render the execution of the contract excessively technically difficult, not cost effective and would undermine the proper execution of the con