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We were really busy, so we skipped the tender and the formal cotract thing, but these guys are great. That’s ok when you’re busy, isn’t it?
bidders aware of this at the outset. Always inform all bidders about your decision because they have often invested a lot of time and effort into the tendering process. Tell the successful bidder why they were successful and then organise a meeting to discuss next steps – not forgetting the ten-day standstill period for OJEU compliant processes. Make sure too that unsuccessful
bidders know why they didn’t win. Provide details such as their score (versus the winning bidder), the shortcomings in their bid and recommendations for what could help their next tender.
Implement If you don’t set aside enough time to properly implement the new contract then the rest of the process is wasted because you’re unlikely to benefit from any cost savings or improvements in service. Take time to go through the winning tender submission and make a note of everything that has been promised, both financially and operationally.
use an existing OJEU compliant framework or run your own OJEU process. See:
gov.uk/guidance/ buying-procedures-and- procurement-law-for-schools for further guidance on this.
Ts & Cs Contracts are the foundation stone for any work you do with suppliers. Having your own contract that mirrors the tender requirements at the start means you’ll be familiar with every clause. It also avoids a situation where bidders bring their own contracts to the table. Remember that having your own contract is one of the requirements of the OJEU process, which is enforced in the UK via the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.
Invite Give suppliers the opportunity to gather as much information as possible by allowing them to visit your site before they submit a bid. This is essential for areas such as cleaning, catering, ICT-managed services and grounds maintenance. For one-stage RFQ and RFP processes, suppliers should visit
52 AUTUMN 2020 FundEd
before their submission to take notes about your current provision and requirements, and to ask questions. For a higher value procurement,
you should invite the suppliers you’ve shortlisted at the invitation to tender (ITT) stage to visit your site – suppliers may recommend a different product or service once they have seen the site.
Award For larger tenders, you should evaluate bids using weighting, scoring and award criteria, making
Monitor Keep a close eye on the supplier’s performance against the contract. Remember that a contract with well-defined and monitored key performance indicators, as well as regular meetings, will always perform better than one without.
n Lorraine Ashover is MD of school procurement consultancy Minerva, which has helped schools tender £65million of contracts and generated more than £2.5million of revenue, refunds and annual savings for schools over the past four years. For more information, see
‘What gets measured, gets managed’
Peter Drucker, the ‘father’ of management thinking
‘The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of
low price is forgotten’ Benjamin Franklin
Minerva’s free e-book, 84 Points for a Perfect Procurement Process at
minervapcs.com/84points
OJEU thresholds The current Official Journal of the
European Union (OJEU) thresholds for schools are: n Works contracts: £4,733,252 n Supply and service contracts (sub-central authorities): £189,330 n Light-touch regime for health/ social services (including school catering): £663,540
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