RM1043.9-3-WP Service Manager

Tender description

Summary of the work: A Delivery Manager is required to work as part of our internal service team to plan, coordinate and manage the delivery of service improvements to an established operational technology service. The service is built and supported by a third-party developer and forms part of an ambitious three-year programme of system enhancements to improve operational delivery and pipeline management. Pricing model: Fixed price Confirm if you require a contracted out service or supply of resource: Contracted out service: the off-payroll rules do not apply Organisation the work is for: n/a Where you want the supplier to work: No specific location (for example they can work remotely) Latest start date: 2026-10-01 Expected contract length: 02-00-00 Expected contract structure: Initial term will be 6 months with an option to extend for a further 18 months. The extension will depend on the success of the initial term and business needs. Estimated contract value (excl VAT): 200000 Budget details: The full budget including VAT will be £240k. The initial 6 month term budget is appox £67,000 (£80K) Why the work is being done: To support Wilton Park's 2030 strategy we are investing in the improvement of our internal operational system to create greater efficiencies, reduce costs and improve the services we provide to the FCDO and wider UK Government. Our system is integral to the successful operation of our organisation and we believe there are significant opportunities to evolve our system to support wider strategic objectives. Problem to be solved: The outcome is that the organisation benefits from improvements quickly, within budget and in alignment with our strategic priorities. Our very small internal team does not have the management resource required to progress the volume of activity on our project. All parties, the internal team, the 3rd party developer and our internal stakeholders must work together at pace to support this outcome, however the workflow must be managed in such a way as to enable the organisation to operate normally and continue to deliver its services to Government. Constrained availability of organisational stakeholders and users will be an important challenge to manage well, for example to ensure services only go live when the wider organisation can support it. Or, for example to ensure users provide feedback on new services in a timely way to support delivery timelines. Who the users are and what they need to do: Wilton Park delivers discreet international policy dialogue events which mostly take place at our base in West Sussex. The system we develop supports the whole of this service, therefore our users cut across the whole of our organisation. Their tasks range from developing a pipeline of events, to logistical event management to developing a discussion agenda to deliver a specific policy outcome. Our user needs and requirements are largely managed by the Product Manager and Service Owner. The 3rd party developer works directly with users to scope out needs and prepares a proposal based on their needs. The Delivery Manager will be responsible for managing the project to ensure the delivery of improvements are delivered on time and that all parties are coordinated to support this. Preliminary market engagement: n/a Work done so far: As we are delivering improvements on a live service, we are already within a cycle of improvements which are in discovery, being built or being made ready to go live. Current phase: Not applicable Existing team: The 3rd party supplier is an agile developer who works directly with our users to build and deliver improvements to our service. We liaise with their developers and Product Owner to ensure improvements are built to our requirements. The project is supported by two internal team members who fulfil the equivalent Product Owner and Service Owner responsibilities internally, but have a wide range of responsibilities across our Technology Services Department and the wider organisation. The internal team members are responsible for reviewing and approving and prioritising user requests and ensuring that the service delivered aligns with strategic priorities and governance and compliance requirements. Incumbent supplier: No Working arrangements: The supplier staff will need to work collaboratively with our internal team to support an already established project. This includes attending and/or running project meetings with the team and external 3rd party calls. As resources have already been created to manage the project, the supplier staff will need to work with these, although may also choose to use other methods. Remote off site working it accepted although onsite working at our offices in West Sussex may be desirable on occasion for collaboration purposes. Expenses will be limited to travel and be equivalent to travelling from London or South East. The supplier staff will be issued with corporate devices to deliver their work and will not be permitted to access our environment from a non Wilton Park device. Security clearance: Security Check (SC) Additional information on security clearance: Additional FCDO SC Vetting sign off is required which the buyer will coordinate at the point of contract agreed. Special terms and conditions: An Non-Disclosure agreement may be required for the supplier staff. Questions and Clarifications 1. Contract duration, Ways of Working and IR 35 status Contract duration – the initial term is 6 months (1 Oct 2026 to 31 March 2027). A review on the success of this term will determine whether the follow on 18 month term will be taken up. Ways of working and IR35 status should be covered within the event details. See also other clarifications on working part time. Last Updated: 7 August 2026, 10:49 2. Would you like CVs submitted with the tender response, and will you allow someone to start whilst SC clearance is in process We have asked suppliers to to evidence that the Delivery Manager has the experience required to full fill our requirements. A CV or details of career history in a different format will be helpful evidence to support the tender. Evidence will need to be supplied at this stage. For SC clearance, due to the time it can take to obtain clearance and due to clearance not being guaranteed, it will not be possible for an individual to commence working with us if it is not already in place. Last Updated: 7 August 2026, 10:13 3. FTE - Following your response to a previous CQ referring to 3 days per week, Can you confirm whether this is a full time (1FTE) or Part time (0.6FTE) opportunity? The pricing we require will need to use a day rate and we expect to be invoiced based on number of days at the agreed day rate. The Delivery Manager could work the equivalent hours of 3 days a week provided these are during normal working hours, and that working times are fixed and agreed at the outset. The Delivery Manager will need to be available for project meetings. Last Updated: 7 August 2026, 09:30 4. Tech Stack / Environment - Are you able to provide any further details on the tech stack that would be relevant to the Delivery Manager please? We are a Microsoft environment. In terms of the tech stack that delivers the system we are developing, this will have limited relevance to the Delivery Manager as this is wholly managed by a third party supplier. For this project the Delivery Manager will be ensuring services are delivered by working with the supplier and other stakeholders, rather than interacting with the technology. Last Updated: 6 August 2026, 09:13 5. Please can you confirm whether pricing is required at this stage of the competition? If so please can a template be provided to do so. Yes, pricing is required. We are in touch with GCA regarding the upload of a pricing template. In the meantime, here is the detail of what we require: 1. A fixed daily rate for the Delivery Manager that will be supplied. 2. A fixed total cost for the initial term of 6 months (1 Oct 2026 to 31 March 2027) based on 3 days a week throughout. Last Updated: 5 August 2026, 15:00 6. How are you defining a small organisation and will an example of a small project within a large department be suitable as long as it meets the rest of the criteria? Our organisation is around 100 staff and only two staff members are working on our project (among many other responsibilities). A small project within a large department could be suitable if the staff member context is broadly similar. Last Updated: 5 August 2026, 14:30 7. Please clarify the following point for itt_97504 (Project ID 78257). Conditions of participation Attachment 3 includes a "Conditions of participation" section containing one question, in which the question text, response type, response format, document required and document description are all recorded as "Not Specified". Please confirm whether there are any conditions of participation for this procurement and, if so, what response is required. If there are none, please confirm that no response is required in that section for a tender to be compliant. A response in advance of the closing date would be appreciated. ‘Conditions of participation’ is an optional field which we chose not to complete. We don’t have any conditions to add that are not already stated elsewhere. Last Updated: 5 August 2026, 09:59 8. Please clarify the following points for itt_97504 (Project ID 78257). 1. Security clearance timing SC clearance is required, with additional FCDO SC vetting sign-off coordinated by the Buyer "at the point of contract agreed", against a latest start date of 1 October 2026. Please confirm: (a) whether the proposed Delivery Manager must already hold valid SC clearance at tender submission or at contract award; (b) the expected duration of the FCDO vetting sign-off; (c) whether the 1 October 2026 start date is contingent on completion of that process, or whether a later start would be accepted where vetting is outstanding. 2. Device provisioning Supplier staff will be issued with corporate devices and may not access the Buyer's environment from any other device. Please confirm the expected lead time for device provisioning and system access from contract award, and whether that onboarding period falls within the contracted term. A response in advance of the closing date would be appreciated. Security Clearance: The individual to be supplied by the supplier must be SC level security cleared at the point the award is made. This is due to the timing of when we wish work to commence (1 October 2026). As vetting at SC can take several weeks or months, it is not practical in the time frame for an individual to complete SC level vetting. As it is not possible to control when and if SC level vetting will be granted to an individual, it will not be possible to award a contract ahead of SC vetting being in place. SC level clearance that is not provided by the FCDO requires additional sign off, however work can commence with us while awaiting this sign off. The expectation is that at the point of award, we will progress FCDO sign off on the understanding that this process will not be fully completed until one or two months into the initial term. Device Provisioning and system access – this will take place on 1st October. The individual will be required to attend our offices to collect their device. It will not be possible to provide this ahead of the start date of the contract. Last Updated: 5 August 2026, 09:55 9. Hi can you please confirmed whether there is an incumbent or whether someone has been identified for this requirement already? Thank you There is no incumbent supplier providing this delivery manager service, however there are internal team members covering this until a delivery manager starts – there will be a handover / onboarding to support the transition. Last Updated: 5 August 2026, 09:47 10. Security Clearance additional detail Only UKSV clearance will be acceptable. Security Clearance from non-UK Governments will not be accepted. SC level clearance from UKSV can be sponsored by various UK Government bodies - these are satisfactory and are subject to additional FCDO sign-off. Work on the contract can commence while awaiting FCDO sign-off. Last Updated: 14 August 2026, 08:23 11. Can you confirm whether there is any scoring criteria for the quality questions? A scoring document will be uploaded by the GCA this week which details the quality scoring methodology. Last Updated: 13 August 2026, 08:34 12. Pricing Template We require pricing at this stage and we have asked GCA to upload a pricing template (which should appear this week) which asks for a daily rate and a total fixed cost based on working 3 days a week from 1 Oct to 31 March 2027. There will be an additional table to list additional costs. Last Updated: 13 August 2026, 08:16 13. Can we attach a CV in addition to the Question responses? Yes - we are happy to have CVs in addition to the question response - we will not include CVs within the 500 word limit. Last Updated: 13 August 2026, 08:12 14. Use of supporting graphics in the quality question response We are happy to accept supporting diagrams in addition to the written submission. Last Updated: 11 August 2026, 16:32 15. Financial Management Skills Financial Management skills is not mentioned in the assessment methodology - this is because this is a support role - a member of the internal team manages the budget, but will need information from the Delivery Manager on what has been committed and what has been spent - we do not expect financial management to be a substantive part of the role. Last Updated: 11 August 2026, 16:19