Soft Market Testing - Adult Social Care & Children's Services Case Management System

Soft Market Testing - Adult Social Care & Children’s Service Case Management System

Swindon Borough Council is at an early stage of 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 any future procurement opportunity. This market assessment is not part of any procurement process. It is purely investigatory in nature, although it may be used to assist the Council in defining a specification and contract for the products and services required to deliver an Adult Social Care Case Management System in 2016. The Council are also considering options around a Children’s Service Case Management system incorporating Children’s Social Care Education Services and Early Help related services.
In preparation for this, it is our intention to hold some ‘Soft Market Testing’ (Preliminary market consultations) Workshops to review the current supply market.
The same information will be gathered from all providers, who wish to participate in the Soft Market testing to assist the Council with the specification/tender preparations.

This notice relates to a proposed ‘soft market testing’ exercise only and is not a call for competition.
Any contracts for services or supplies relating to this exercise will be subject to separate procurement process(es) in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended) as may be required.
All participants in this ‘soft market testing’ exercise shall be responsible for their own costs (including third party costs) and the Contracting Authority shall have no liability to any participant.
Project Description

Swindon Borough Council currently uses Northgate SWIFT for our Adult Social Care functions, whose contract is due to end in March 2017. The council also uses Capita ONE for it’s Children’s Social Care, Education and Early Help Services.
There are continued pressures on Council budgets over the coming 5 years and the intention of this exercise is to review the current market offerings to support the practitioners with increasing demand for adult social care whilst understanding potential cost models. A formal tender process is then intended to be initiated in 2016.
The purpose of this Soft Market Test is to gain intelligence on the supply market for Swindon Borough Council’s system needs, including information that will help define the most appropriate structure, plan and budget for the tender.
Full details relating to the Soft Market Testing are provided in the project webpages as attachments.

Contract Period – To be defined after the Soft Market Testing exercise
Process and Workshop details

Participants are invited to respond to the attached Key Questions in writing covering the potential system to be procured, along with providing details of their organisation. Please confirm your organisation is interested in attending a Swindon Borough Council Soft Market Testing Workshop, where you will have the opportunity to demonstrate your Software.
Swindon Borough Council reserves the right to hold up to 10 Soft Market Testing Workshops.
Organisations who provide a response to the Soft Market Testing Questions will be reviewed and a number will be selected to attend a Workshop, based on their level of compliance shown to Swindon Borough Councils Outline Requirements within Section 2 of the Soft Market Testing document. These workshops will be held during February and March 2016 at Swindon Borough Councils Offices in Swindon. An Agenda for the Workshop will be sent through separately.
Please send your completed responses in word-format (format unchanged) by email to rgould2@swindon.gov.uk by 4.30pm Friday 11th February 2016.
For questions regarding this process, please contact rgould2@swindon.gov.uk

For the avoidance of doubt, no information provided in response to this questionnaire will be used by the Council in assessing providers during the proposed procurement process, scheduled to commence in 2016.

If you require any clarifications on the Soft Market Testing documents please submit these in writing via e-mail, including the project name clearly marked in the e-mail title, to rgould2@swindon.gov.uk by the 9th February 2016

The Council’s responses to these clarification questions will be uploaded as attachments on the project webpage attachments section. Therefore it is the Contractor’s responsibility to check the site regularly for updates to clarifications, as you will not be advised when updates have been made.

In the event of difficulties downloading the Soft Market Testing documents or for questions regarding this process, please refer to the named contacts rgould2@swindon.gov.uk

Please note that this project has been advertised on Contracts Finder/ other web portals, however, Supplying the South West Portal is the only portal that includes all the relevant documents required to respond to the Soft Market Testing.

We would encourage you to click on the ‘Register interest’ button to help the Council monitor the level of interest in this opportunity.

No Soft Market Testing submissions will be considered without completing the documents in full and returning them in alignment with the instructions within the Soft Market Testing documents.


Interested parties will not be prejudiced by any response or failure to respond to the soft market testing exercise and a response to this Soft Market Testing Advert and does not guarantee any invitation to participate in this soft market testing exercise or any future public procurement process that Swindon Borough Council may conduct.
The council reserves the right to terminate the soft market testing process at any stage.