Procurement Support Services

This is a Prior Information Notice where the tender documentation is not yet available. However, interest in this opportunity (Expressions of interest) can still be registered (see below on details of how to complete).

South Derbyshire District Council (SDDC) is a local authority with circa 380 employees and annual contractual spend of approx. £10 million. Responsibility for procurement and contract activity related to the provision of services for the authority is devolved out to individual directorates and departments. The departments and officers are supported by an external contractor who provide strategic and regulatory advice, a procurement portal, and day to operational support for contract and competition activities.

The current contract for procurement support services expires on 30th September 2024 and SDDC are intending to re-procure this contract for a period up to 5 years.

SDDC is also working closely with North West Leicestershire District Council, (NWLDC) to align procurement best practice, processes and procedures. NWLDC is our close neighbour with circa 530 employees and an annual contractual spend of £18 million.

Both SDDC and NWLDC are wanting to engage an external procurement service for the provision of operational and strategic procurement support, as well as engage permanent internal procurement resources to compliment the service provision.

It should be noted that SDDC will be looking for the service commencement at 1st October 2024 whilst NWLDC are yet to decide their preferred contract start date.

The services sought from the use of an external procurement service are:

Operational Support

• Support and guidance on all procurement activities from verbal advice to undertaking RFQ's, EOI's SQ’s ITT. This includes preparing documents, advertising, assisting in writing and sourcing draft specifications, evaluation, and award.
• Officer training on a variety of procurement areas:
o Introduction to public sector procurement
o The procurement Act 2023
o Procurement routes
o Contract management
Management of procurement under and over the tender threshold in line with each councils Contract Procedure Rules (CPR’s) up to contract award. Including but not limited to;
o Providing advice, options, and recommendations, for appropriate routes to the market, in line with public contract regulations and council CPR’s
o providing procurement template documents and assisting to ensure these are completed in a compliant manner,
o Soft market Testing exercises
o Publishing of relevant notices
o Providing support for commercial model development and assessment
o Review and risk assessment on specifications and member provided documents
o Support with evaluation model development
o Support with KPI’ Drafting
o Support with drafting contract management requirements
o Support with contract drafting for tender publication
o Co-ordinating evaluation stages,
o presiding over the award process
o Providing advice on all procurement regardless of value
o Support and co-ordination with Legal services for contract finalisation

Strategic Support

• Compilation and maintenance of Council Contracts Register
• Compilation and maintenance of Exemptions and Waivers register
• Contracts Compilation and Co-ordination of an annual procurement plan
• Alignment of strategy to procurement operations and other key council strategies
• Support to update contract procedure rules
• Support to embed The Procurement Act 2023

Reporting

• Monthly operational meetings
• Quarterly contract management meetings
• Monthly, quarterly, Annual reports setting out all procurement activity and savings generated

It is the current aim is to publish the tender via the ProContract portal in June 2024, with a view that the service will commence in September 2024.

To express an interest:
(a) Go to https://www.eastmidstenders.org/; (b) Register (if not already registered on ProContract); (c) Search for tender opportunity “Procurement Support Services” via "View Opportunities" from the 'EastMidsTenders' Portal); d) Express an interest.
If you would like further information, please contact Kathy Mardon, Procurement and Contracts Lead, SDDC, kathy.mardon@southderbyshire.gov.uk
Or Alex Branson, NWLDC, alex.branson@nwleicestershire.gov.uk