Request for Proposals Faringdon Town Team Administration Services (12 Month Service Procurement

HR, IT and customer services
HEAD OF SERVICE: GEOFF BUSHELL /
Vale of White Horse District Council
Abbey House
Abbey Road
Abingdon
Ox14 3JE / Contact officer:

Tel (Vale): 01235 540 346
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Our reference:

13 December 2012

To whomever it may concern

Request For Proposals – Faringdon Town Team administration services (12 month service procurement contract)

Vale of White Horse District Council (the council) is inviting competitive proposals for the provision of 12 month contract to deliver projects on behalf of the Faringdon Joint Economic Forum.

If you are interested in providing a proposal please complete this submission in full and return it as explained below.

Instructions for completion

Please answer all of the questions as accurately and concisely as possible or mark those not applicable as ‘N/A’ and provide an explanation.

Response boxes will expand to accommodate your answers, but if necessary continue on a separate sheet where space/layout on this form is restrictive.

Returning your quotation

Please email to confirm that you have received the request for proposal and whether you intend to submit a quotation.

Any questions relating to this process should be received by 20th December to . The council will publish the questions and the council’s response (but not the source of the question) to all known participants.

The closing date for receipt of the completed Request for Proposal is 5pm on 8 January 2013.

Please ensure that all declarations (Appendix A – D) have been completed, signed and returned with your submission.

Please note that the council will not consider late returns. It is your responsibility to ensure that your submission is received in good time before the deadline.

The council encourages you to complete the submission electronically and return to the council by email to (Trudy Godfrey) at ( ) placing in the subject box (Faringdon Town Team admin contract).

If completing in hardcopy format, please answer the questions in the same order as this document, and reference each answer to the relevant question. Please send your completed response to

Trudy Godfrey

Faringdon Town Team admin contract

Vale of White Horse District Council

Abbey House

Abbey Close

Abingdon

OX14 3JE

Statement of requirement

Background / Context

The Vale of White Horse District Council has received funding from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to introduce initiatives that will improve high street vitality and the Council expects to receive additional funding from Portas to deliver projects that will revitalise the high street.

The Mary Portas review was published in December 2011. Her primary recommendation was to “Put in place a “Town Team”: a visionary, strategic and strong operational management team for high streets.”

In the spirit of the Portas recommendations, Faringdon Chamber of Commerce working in partnership with the Town and District Councils are looking to procure the services of a Town Team Administrator for Faringdon.

This person should have strong influencing, negotiation and partnership-working skills, and ideally should also have marketing know-how to set up and lead a Town Team in Faringdon and to deliver the following projects.

Outcomes / Projects:-

To establish a Town Team in Faringdon with regular meetings. This should be business-led and include a representative from the Town Council and the District Council.
To work with existing community groups to deliver the Old Theatre renovation to be used as community sports venue. (indicative budget £5,000).
To work with Faringdon Town Council to improve floral displays and hanging baskets in town centre and all roads leading into the Market Place inc. Marlborough Street (indicative budget £4,000).

4. To deliver at least one tourism initiative to promote the town and increase visitors (e.g. information boards, banners on A420 roundabout, audio tours, a visitor information ‘app’ or augmented reality tours) by March 2013. All necessary permissions must firstly be secured. (indicative budget £6,000)

5. To work with Chamber of Commerce and deliver ‘shop wrap’ project for Redlake Joinery building including artwork / mural (indicative budget £10,000 which includes £5,000 contribution from Tesco).

To provide administrative and marketing support for the Faringdon loyalty card scheme: liaising with businesses to improve their offers, communicate the offers via electronic newsletters, and promoting the scheme using the press and other methods. (indicative budget £2,000)
To work with the Chamber of Commerce to develop a landlords register (indicative budget £500).
To work with Town Council to set up a new market that will work alongside existing farmers’ market, probably on a Saturday. This should include both food and non-food stalls. Revenues from this project will help to sustain the role. (indicative budget £4,000)
To improve / renovate / renew the community notice boards in the town and encourage more active use by community groups to promote events by March 2013. (indicative budget £3,000)
Regular promotion and marketing of the town to attract shoppers / visitors from Faringdon and nearby villages / towns and support the vibrancy of the town. (indicative budget £3,000)
Investigate ways to sustain the role over 3 years.

Records of all projects and a monthly progress report should be maintained and submitted to the Vale of White Horse District Council on a monthly basis, with invoices.

Budget

£32,500 (plus £5,000 contribution from Tesco which is unsecured). Please note that this should include all costs associated with the delivery of the projects identified above and include all expenses.

This contract is expected to last 12 months from January 2013 to January 2013.

Monthly invoices should be submitted to the Vale of White Horse District Council. Payment will be made only where satisfactory progress has been made in delivering the projects.

What next?

Please email your expression of interest with relevant experience to by 5pm on 8th January 2013.

Please illustrate how you meet the essential skills:

· Understanding of partnership working

· Good negotiating and influencing skills

· Good organisational skills

· Experience with Microsoft Access, Word, Excel and Powerpoint, emails and the internet

· Project management skills

· Familiarity with web updating systems

Response to statement of requirement

Please provide the following:

1. A brief introduction of yourself and your experience. Please illustrate how you meet the essential skills: Understanding of partnership working; Good negotiating and influencing skills; Good organisational skills; Experience with Microsoft Access, Word, Excel and Powerpoint, emails and the internet; Project management skills; Familiarity with web updating systems

2. You should be registered as a business to undertake this contract. If you have accounts for the last three financial years, then please include details below.

Financial Year / Total Annual Turnover (£) / Profitability (as a % of turnover before tax)
Registered Address
Company Registration Number (if applicable)

The council may carry out a credit check on your organisation.

3. Does your organisation hold a recognised quality management certification (e.g. BS/EN/ISO 9001 or equivalent) and/or is a member of a relevant trade/professional body?

YES/NO

If yes, please detail those certificates held and/or trade/professional membership details.

If not, does your organisation have a quality management arrangement in place (including processes/procedures that are compliant with legal requirements?

YES/NO

Please Detail

4. Please detail any relevant experience you have had in the last five years of carrying out similar services. (maximum 500 words / 2 A4 Sheets etc)

5. Please provide details of at least one reference from existing clients in the last three years that are relevant to the council’s requirement.

Reference 1 / Reference 2
Company Name and address
Contact Name
Phone Number
Email address
Company website address
Date contract awarded
Date contract completed
Value of contract (£)
Brief description of contract
If you cannot supply at least one reference, please briefly explain why

Financial proposal

Please note that this is a fixed price contract. £32,500 (plus unsecured £5,000 contribution from TESCO) + VAT should cover all costs associated with delivering the projects, all expenses and labour costs. If you can, provide a breakdown of these costs by project.

Item

Description

No. of days to deliver

Your time / Labour cost £

Other costs inc. 3rd party and expenses £

Total cost £

1

/ / / / /

Sub Total

/ /

VAT

/ /

Total

/ /

(Or you may want to insert your own table/pricing structure requirement – delete the box above if this is the case and insert your own model).

Please detail any particular conditions or circumstances that could affect the price quoted. Please also detail the period of time that the price will be held for.

Acceptance and evaluation

Quotations not meeting the minimum requirements will not be accepted.

The council reserves the right not to accept the lowest or any proposal and to annul the Request for Proposal process and reject all quotations at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to the applicants.

The evaluation of acceptable proposals will be based upon price alone with the contract being awarded to the lowest priced, fully compliant quotation.

The council will award the contract on the basis of the most economically advantageous proposal. Evaluation of quotations will be based upon the following criteria and weightings.

Discretionary pass/fail criteria
Question / Criteria
Declarations / All declarations signed (Appendix A – D)
2 / Within budget
Weighted selection criteria (out of a possible 100%)
Question / Criteria / Weighting
1 / Understanding of partnership working / 10%
3 / Good negotiating and influencing skills / 10%
4 / Good organisational skills / 10%
5 / Experience with Microsoft Access, Word, Excel and Powerpoint, emails and the internet / 10%
6 / Project management skills / 50%
7 / Familiarity with web updating systems / 10%
Total / 100%

Please provide your contact details in the event of queries arising in relation to this pricing document.

Company Name
Company Address
Contact Name
Telephone Number
Email Address

Any orders placed as a result of this request for proposal will be on the council’s general Terms and Conditions of Purchase (Appendix E). In addition to the general terms and conditions the council will provide bespoke terms and conditions for particular circumstances.

Yours sincerely

Trudy Godfrey

Economic Development Team Leader

Appendix A

Declaration

For the provision of Faringdon Town Team Administration Contract.

I certify that the information supplied is accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.

I understand that Vale of White Horse District Council may contact anyone to verify this information, and that false or misleading information could result in my/our exclusion from the select tender list.

I also understand that it is a criminal offence, punishable by imprisonment to give or offer to give any gift or consideration whatsoever as an inducement or reward to any servant or member of a public body. In addition your specific attention will be drawn to the clause in the proposed contract empowering the Authority’s to cancel the contract and to recover any loss from the contractor if the contractor has offered any gift or inducement of any kind in relation to obtaining the contract.

Signed ______

Position held ______

For and on behalf of ______

Date ______

Before returning this application form, please ensure that you have: -

· Answered all questions.

· Enclosed all relevant documents.

· Completed the above declaration.

N.B. APPLICATIONS MAY NOT BE CONSIDERED UNLESS ALL THE ABOVE HAS BEEN PROVIDED

Appendix B

Statement relating to good standing – Grounds for obligatory exclusion (in eligibility) and criteria for rejection of candidates in accordance with Regulation 23 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 (as amended)

Vale of White Horse District Council

Provision of [Faringdon Town Team Administrator]

We confirm that, to the best of our knowledge the Applicant is not in breach of the provisions of Regulation 23 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 (as amended) and in particular that:

Grounds for mandatory rejection (ineligibility)

The Applicant (or its directors or any other person who has powers of representation, decision or control of the named organisation) has not been convicted of any of the following offences:

(a) Conspiracy within the meaning of section 1 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 where that conspiracy relates to participation in a criminal organisation as defined in Article 2(1) of Council Joint Action 98/733/JHA (as amended);

(b) Corruption within the meaning of section 1 of the Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act 1889 or section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906 (as amended);

(d) Fraud, where the offence relates to fraud affecting the financial interests of the European Communities as defined by Article 1 of the Convention relating to the protection of the financial interests of the European Union, within the meaning of:

(i) The offence of cheating the Revenue;

(ii) The offence of conspiracy to defraud

(iii) Fraud or theft within the meaning of the Theft Act 1968 and the Theft Act 1978;

(iv) Fraudulent trading within the meaning of section 458 of the Companies Act 1985;

(v) Defrauding the Customs within the meaning of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 and the Value Added Tax Act 1994;

(vi) An offence in connection with taxation in the European Community within the meaning of section 71 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993; or

(vii) Destroying, defacing or concealing of documents or procuring the extension of a valuable security within the meaning of section 20 of the Theft Act 1968;

(e) Money laundering within the meaning of the Money Laundering Regulations 2003; or

(f) Any other offence within the meaning of Article 45(1) of the Public Sector Directive.;