Better Contracting: Smarter Commissioning. Early scoping of consultancy partner. Request For Information (RFI)

The Royal Borough of Kingston-Upon-Thames is dedicated to operating its services with continued excellence whilst at the same time providing value-for-money to the public purse. As part of our ambitious plans to change our culture and the way we work, we have identified the need for a Strategic Partner to facilitate the identification of savings and meet the needs of the Council through our 'Better Contracting' initiative, specifically;

Maximising value - through reviewing and supporting savings from our third party spend; Smarter Commissioning - through this process informing and supporting our internal work to improve efficiencies in our commissioning model What we want from a Strategic Partner: 1. Support to deliver proposals agreed in the budget challenge - Providing additional capacity to implement savings proposals that have been agreed as part of the budget setting process to at least the expected level and to identify further quick wins for 2019/2020 2. Support developing our longer term commissioning intentions and outcomes - Providing additional capability for strategic savings and market development developing robust proposals for 2020 and beyond. 3. Embedding social value - Help to ensure our commitment to social value is fully integrated into our commissioning and contract management approach and translates into tangible outcomes for residents and businesses. 4. Capability development - Developing through doing the knowledge, skills and capabilities we need in a Smarter Commissioning model to reduce our reliance on external support.

The purpose of providing this RFI is to give information about the requirement and ask that interested providers complete and submit the RFI paperwork which can be found in ProContract; https://procontract.due-north.com/Advert?advertId=0ac990d0-d8fe-e811-80f0-005056b64545&fromProjectDashboard=True

The deadline for receipt of your completed RFI is 12:00 midday on 31st December 2018.

The estimated value for the contract period is £300,000 (subject to recovery targets being met). This RFI process is designed to help the Commissioner form a view of the best way to commission the service and is not the beginning of a tender exercise. A further tender advertisement will be issued at the appropriate time as/if required.

N.B: This service will call-off from the Crown Commercial Service Management Consultancy Framework Two (MCF2). Contract ID: 6008. Only interested parties or suppliers already on the Management Consultancy Framework Two (MCF2) may respond to this RFI and any subsequent mini-competition the council may wish to hold.