Soft Market Testing - Adult Social Care & Children’s Services Software Solutions

Salford City Council is at an early stage of investigating ICT solutions that support Adult Social Care & Children’s Services options. This 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:
• Adult’s and Children’s Social Care
• Early Help
• Education
To support the investigation for this, it is our intention to hold some Soft Market Testing (preliminary market consultation) 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 reviewing its options on systems that support the above. This advert 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 a separate procurement process in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 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 Council shall have no liability to any participant.
Salford City Council currently uses Carefirst for its Adult Social Care and Children’s Social Care functions. The council also uses Capita ONE for its Children’s Education, Early Years and Early Help Services. There are continued pressures on Council budgets over the coming years and the purpose of this Soft Market Test is to gain intelligence on the supply Market for Salford City Council’s system needs.
Participants are invited to respond to the attached Outline Requirements in writing along with providing details of their solution and organisation. Please confirm your organisation is interested in attending a Salford City Council Soft Market Testing Workshop, where you will have the opportunity to demonstrate your Software. Salford City Council reserves the right to cancel the invite to a Soft Market Testing.
Organisations that provide a response to the Soft Market Testing outline requirements will be invited to attend a workshop. These workshops will be held during May 2017 at the Councils offices in Salford. An agenda for the workshop will be sent through separately.
Please send your completed responses in Word-format (format unchanged) via the Chest by the closing date of 5pm on Friday 28th April 2017.
Any enquiries or clarification requests must be submitted in writing via The Chest portal. No questions, enquiries or requests for clarification may be submitted outside The Chest portal. All questions or requests for clarification must be received no later than 25th April 2017. The Council will endeavour to answer all questions or requests for clarification as quickly as possible, but offers no guarantee that any questions or clarification requests received less than three (3) working days prior to the closing date.
The Council reserves the right to publish any question or request for clarification from a Provider, together with the Council’s response, on The Chest portal where it will be available for all to view.
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 document. 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 does not guarantee any invitation to participate in this Soft Market Testing exercise. The council reserves the right to terminate the Soft Market Testing process at any stage.