Contract details

Kent County Council

Kent County Council

SS14001 FTC Back Office & EduKent Project - Lot 3 Customer services

Kent County Council is inviting expressions of interest from organisations interested in helping the Council, whether that would be a single bidder or consortium(s), to deliver, redesign, transform, develop, invest in and potentially commercially trade a range of services. Bidders will be invited to propose the vehicle they consider to be most appropriate. The Council does not have a preferred vehicle. The purpose of the procurement is to enable the council to meet its objectives of service transformation and innovation to match customer need while also ensuring business as usual activities are not compromised. It is anticipated that the contract will allow the Council to provide the services at significantly lower costs and with greater revenue. The grouping of Kent County Council’s support and customer services functions provides the Council with the opportunity to create a truly citizen-centric council. It provides interested organisations with the opportunity to work innovatively with a forward thinking public sector body. Remodelling and reducing the cost of support services delivery will provide improved service to internal and external customers. It will ensure the sustainability of the services in the light of reduced funding. The Council is enthusiastic to bring best practice innovation and experience, irrespective of its source, market or geography to deliver excellence and financial efficiencies for Kent. Kent wishes to be at the forefront of personalising services and the delivery of customer services is key to providing customers and residents with a positive experience of dealing with the Council thus delivering a citizen-centric council and developing a deep insight as the basis for future commissioning decisions. The aim of the Council is to establish an arrangement that will; deliver best in class, high performing and efficient services to residents and customers; transform services to put customers first and residents at the centre of everything we do; allow employees to work flexibly and to get the right information to the right people at the right time; potentially develop a growing sustainable business by investing in, marketing and commercially trading services; improve outcomes and opportunities for local people and businesses; support and contribute to the Council's wider transformation and efficiency programme; flexibly respond to the Council's changing funding position. The contract will include the requirement for continuous improvement in both performance and efficiency for the contract duration as well as the requirement to be flexible in response to changes to the Council's funding position and future Local Government Finance. The Council recognises that there are strategic and policy functions which will always remain in-house. Transactional and similar services will be in-scope of this contract. Some services will remain in-house pro-tempore but may be considered for future inclusion within the scope of this procurement. The confirmed list of the services in-scope immediately and those that may be considered as a possible further expansion will be discussed during competitive dialogue. However, the anticipated services in scope are: End-to-end Customer Services These services include the provision of direct contact and fulfilment with the Council. This lot is deliberately broad in scope to allow possible future partners/providers to use innovation to transform the entire customer experience Finance Finance services includes all of the transactional finance functions such as the payment of invoices, all aspects of income and debt, and the administration of the pension and insurance funds. There is the possibility of a further tranche of services as an expansion to this contract, such as the support to budget managers. It does not include the Council’s financial strategy work, nor its treasury management and investment activities. Human Resources Human Resources includes the standard range of HR transactional services including staff and pensioners payrolls, recruitment, learning and development and personnel administration. A further tranche of functions including HR advisory services and staff care services may be in scope as an expansion to this contract whereas strategy and policy functions will remain in-house. Information and Communication Technology ICT includes the provision of ICT technical and professional support to the County Council as well as provision of voice and data services. ICT manages and supports the development of ICT services and applications across the Council. Out of scope will be strategic and policy functions. Services for schools Services for Schools includes a range of discretionary services that schools can purchase from the local authority which support schools in their daily operations but do not include core curriculum content, policy or education strategy. This includes but is not limited to HR advice and support, Finance advice and support, ICT technical and professional and support, teacher and Governor development, extra-curricular and enrichment services, additional student support, school improvement services. Term This contractual arrangement is intended to run up to ten years based on the performance of the contract achieving acceptable behaviours and outcomes and will be procured through the use of competitive dialogue process. It is envisaged that the term will be a committed period with extensions considering the above. The exact nature of the term of the contract and its expected outcomes will be agreed during the competitive dialogue phase, how this is structured during dialogue will be set out in the tender documentation. Registering interest and undertaking PQQ Potential providers are requested to register via the Kent portal www.kentbusinessportal.org.uk. Registering interest via the portal will also give access to the PQQ. Registered parties will be invited to attend a Suppliers Day on 30th June 2014. Full details of this event will be published via the portal. Number of lots : 4 Lot 1: HR, Finance, ICT Lot 2: Services for Schools Lot 3: Customer Services Lot 4: Combination of all of Lots 1, 2, 3 and 4. The Authority will either award Lot 1, Lot 2 and Lot 3, or in the event that Lot 4 is awarded, then the Authority will not award on the first three lots. Suppliers will be requested to indicate which lots they wish to bid against Variants: Yes – subject to minimum requirements Total scope excluding VAT – The total contract value is potentially up to £810m (depending on growth potential) if the contract runs for a full ten year term. High Level Award Criteria: The award criteria will be set out in the Tender documentation which will be issued to those parties invited to competitive dialogue. PQQ Shortlisting: The PQQ will be used to select a shortlist of organisations who will be invited to participate in a competitive dialogue procedure. Responses to the PQQ questions will be evaluated in accordance with the Evaluation Guidance for each question. A minimum of 3 and a maximum of 4 top scoring organisations will be invited to participate. Outline Timetable Please note – this timetable is provisional and is subject to revision and amendment throughout the process to ensure the Council is fully able to make an informed and educated decision. Proposed Stages/Date(s) (Subject to revision) Issue of OJEU: 6 June 2014 PQQ Available from KCC Portal : 6 June 2014 PQQ Suppliers Day : 30 June 2014 Deadline for expressions of interest : 28 July 2014 PQQ Return Deadline : 11 August 2014 PQQ Evaluation Complete : 25 August 2014 Invitation to participate in Competitive Dialogue Process : 25 August 2014 Down selected Suppliers Information Day : August/September 2014 Competitive Dialogue Process : Sept – Dec 2014 Final Bids : Jan 2015 Contract Award : Feb/March 2015 Mobilisation Commencement : March 2015 Contract Start Date : April/May 2015

DN268084 (CONTRACT-9KSK-N20UTV)

£34,100,000.00

£0.00

£0.00

N/A

Business, Finance, HR, ICT, Schools, Customer

04/05/2015

02/05/2021

01/04/2015

Not set

Not provided

05/08/2016

72 months

48 months

120 months

48 with 0 taken

Kent County Council

N/A

Yes

RFQ