Social Enterprise Business Accelerator

Tender description

South Lanarkshire Council's Community and Enterprise Resources, Enterprise and Sustainable Development Services required to appoint a suitably qualified and experienced service provider to deliver a Social Enterprise Accelerator Programme. The programme required to be completed within financial year 2023/2024, with the potential to extend the programme should additional funding become available to the Council. The Social Enterprise Business Accelerator will deliver entrepreneurial training, upskilling and business support for leaders of Social Enterprises and Enterprising Third Sector Organisations based in South Lanarkshire. The programme will be delivered through a mix of online and in person sessions. Using the Council’s community benefit matrix, the Council calculated that the minimum total of community benefit points which must be delivered under this contract is a minimum of 40 Community Benefit points. An Open Tendering Procedure was published on PCS-T on 14th June 2023 with a closing date of 26th July 2023 at 12 noon. Tenders were invited on a Price / Quality basis. The mechanism for assessing tenders was comprehensively detailed within the ‘Evaluation of Tenders’ document contained within the tender process but can be summarised as follows: Stage 1 - Qualification Response Stage 2 - Technical Response Stage 3 - Commercial Response Stage 1 - Bidders were required to complete a Single Procurement Document (SPD) as part of the Qualification envelope self-declaring that they meet the criteria requirements. The SPD (Scotland) submitted by each bidder was accepted as preliminary evidence, in the form of a declaration, to confirm that: - none of the mandatory or discretionary exclusion grounds apply - if any of the mandatory or discretionary grounds apply the self-cleansing measures that have been taken; and - the bidder meets the relevant selection criteria All mandatory and discretionary exclusions grounds were assessed on a PASS/FAIL basis. SPD (Scotland) selection questions 4B.4, 4B.5 and 4C.1.2 were also assessed on a PASS/FAIL basis. The Council’s minimum requirements for each of these criteria were described within the Contract Notice. Stage 2 - Bidders were required to complete a Technical response on the following technical criteria: 2.1.2 Project Approach 2.1.3 Recruitment Process 2.1.4 Delivery / Key Milestones 2.2.2 Community Benefits 2.3.1 Fair Work First Stage 3 - Bidders were required to complete a Commercial response. The successful Bidder was the one which achieved the highest combined quality / price score provided that all of the selection criteria contained within the Qualification Envelope, as detailed within the Contract Notice, was provided, and verified by the Council as being compliant.