ST HELENS COUNCIL EMPLOYMENT SUPPORT PROGRAMME (PART OF ESF WAYS TO WORK PROGRAMME)

St Helens Council is seeking a supplier to provide a comprehensive employment support and skills development programme for Adults and Young People who reside in St Helens (the “Programme”), which includes delivery of Phase 2(b) of the Youth Employment Gateway (YEG) Programme in St Helens.
The Programme forms part of the wider ‘St Helens Ways to Work Programme’, which is funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) and Youth Employment Initiative (YEI).
The Programme intends to work with Adults (ESF Strand 1.1), Young People (ESF Strand 1.3) and those eligible for support through the YEG Delivery (Phase 2(b) YEG Programme) to improve personal resilience, assist participants into employment and sustain this employment.
The Programme will involve working with three distinct cohorts of eligible participants, these being ‘ESF Participants’, ‘YEG Participants’ and ‘YEI Participants’, who will each have their own eligibility criteria for support.
The opportunity has been advertised as a combined service in order to avoid potential conflicts of interest which would be detrimental to the performance of the contract.
The contract is for a maximum period of 29 months commencing August 2016 to December 2018
St Helens is located in North West England between the major conurbations of Liverpool (19 km to the west) and Manchester (36 km to the east). It has a population of over 176,000 people (ONS Mid-year Population Estimates, 2012) and covers a total of 135 km², of which approximately half is urban and half is rural. Further information about St Helens is available on our website (www.sthelens.gov.uk).
The Council is seeking to procure a supplier in accordance with the open procedure as set out in The Public Contracts Regulations 2015, Part 2, Section 3, Regulation 27 (the “Regulations”). All interested suppliers can submit a tender response and all bidders who meet the selection criteria set out in the Qualification Questionnaire will then proceed to the evaluation stage of the process.
Bidders will be required to complete the Qualification Questionnaire, the Questionnaire sets out the information which is required by the Authority in order to assess the suitability of potential Suppliers to provide the Required Services in terms of their technical knowledge and experience, capability/capacity, organisational and financial standing within the parameters laid out in the Regulations.

In assessing the Responses, the Authority will be seeking evidence of Suppliers’ suitability to perform the Required Services in terms of economic and financial standing and technical and professional ability. Qualification criteria will be a combination of both financial and non-financial factors and will be in accordance with the Regulations and as set out in the CCS Guidelines. Section 6.4 and 6.5 (Relevant experience and contract examples) is scored. To pass and continue to tender evaluation stage, candidates must score a minimum score of 3 for each question. Full marking scheme and guidance notes are contained within the Qualification Questionnaire and Invitation to Tender documents.

No tender documents will be sent to you – you need to navigate to the “my opportunities” section and download the documents from the Chest website.
If you have any questions regarding this opportunity – please post them on the “discussions” facility on the Chest. Messages sent outside of the Chest will not be responded to.
ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST BE SENT THROUGH THE CHEST. Submissions sent via any other method will not be accepted.
Please ensure that you leave enough time to upload your documents before the closing date/time, as late submissions may not be accepted.