Preferred Provider Procurement Process

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SOVA works to support, challenge and inspire people to make changes to improve their lives. We aim to be at the heart of every community supporting people into training and jobs, away from offending and into volunteering.

We are a national charity operating across England and Wales with a track record of delivering services for hard to reach customers. With exciting future funding opportunities on the horizon, we want to further strengthen our provision by working with national and local partners who can compliment our service delivery and, provide high quality support for our customers.

If you are interested in developing innovative and open partnerships, and would like to work with us to help transform the lives of those most in need, we want to hear from you. SOVA�s Preferred Provider Process has been developed in partnership with Compact VOICE and is fully Compact compliant.

We have launched our Preferred Provider Procurement Process (PPPP) to ensure we have an experienced network of providers in place ready to respond to tendering opportunities.

SOVA feels it is important as a leading Voluntary and Community Sector organisation that we demonstrate that the sector not only wants a fair and transparent tendering and contracting process from government but that we are also serious in embedding this within our own supply chains.

The Compact is an agreement between government and civil society organisations (including charities, social enterprises, and voluntary and community groups), which establishes key principles both will commit to for mutual advantage.

Undertaking 3.11 of the national Compact commits 'all bodies distributing funds on the Government's behalf [to] adhere to the commitments in the Compact'. We have therefore worked closely with Compact Voice in developing both this procurement process and our subsequent contract management process to ensure we adhere to principles of the Compact, following commitment 3.5 in the Compact, which emphasises the importance of 'well managed and transparent application and tendering processes, which are proportionate to the desired objectives and outcomes of programmes.'

The Compact also specifies that its principles apply when distributing European funding.

Timescales

Timescales for our initial process are outlined below:

• 7 October 2011 - Preferred Provider Procurement Process launched
• 30 December 2011 - Deadline for applications
• January 2012 - Assessment of applications
• 31 January 2012 - All successful organisations will have been advised of their inclusion
• 30 January - 3 February 2012 - Feedback to unsuccessful applicants
• 1 April 2012 - PPPP used across all SOVA subcontractor opportunities
• Quarterly assessment deadlines to be confirmed
• Contract Specific Questionnaires to be circulated as opportunities arise

Further details of the process are outlined below:

Stage 1 - Preferred Provider Procurement Process (PPPP)

The attached questionnaire provides SOVA with the basic data required to assess whether your services are of interest to us and to help us understand the size and scope of your organisation (Compact 3.14). In addition it allows us to ensure your compliance with basic Pre-Qualification type aspects. Our initial call for providers allows three months for you to fill in the questionnaire prior to our first assessment deadline (Compact 3.2)

Following this, potential providers can submit applications at any time and SOVA will review these on a quarterly basis. Our assessment process will look at your financial stability, the services you deliver and whether this will compliment our operation (Compact 3.3).

All unsuccessful applicants will receive full feedback as to why they were unsuccessful. Reapplication is accepted as long as you have either incorporated our feedback within your application or your circumstances have changed.

Stage 2 - Contract Specific Questionnaires

Once a tendering opportunity has been identified SOVA will contact eligible organisations to request supplementary information relevant to the specific contract. The questionnaire will be commensurate with contract value and will only ask questions that are relevant to our assessment and that will help inform our delivery model / tender development (Compact 3.5).

Recognising the Compact has been implemented at both national and local levels, part of this questionnaire will allow organisations to register whether there are any elements of their local Compact that they need to highlight. It is expected that local Compacts will not significantly alter the main principles of the National Compact. The national Compact will be used if significant deviation is found which lessens the principles of good practice contained in the national Compact.

SOVA will endeavour to provide you with sufficient time to complete this and will, where feasible, adhere to best practice of 12 weeks. However we recognise that many tendering opportunities do not allow SOVA 12 weeks to submit applications, making it virtually impossible for us to provide this time period for our potential subcontractors. Where this is the case SOVA will advise potential subcontractors of this and will publish our full timescales for tender submission as part of this process. Where tendering opportunities are made available but clearly breach the principles of the Compact, we will make efforts to challenge and alter the process. Where this has been unsuccessful, we will inform potential subcontractors.

Assessment will then look at what you can deliver, how this will add value to our delivery and whether it is financially viable against contract size and scope. In some cases supplementary questions and discussions will be required with selected subcontractors.

Contract

Contracts will be drawn up specific to individual opportunities however SOVA will have to flow key contractual terms from the funding agency to its subcontractor network. SOVA will work with the funding agency to ensure these terms are reasonable and fair and Compact compliant (Compact 3.9, 3.10). Any discrepancies will be challenged and subcontractors kept informed as to reasons (Compact 3.3).

If you are interested in working with SOVA in the future please fill in the Expression of Interest form and return it to us on or before Friday 30 December.

The email address to submit your EOI return to is [email protected], early submissions appreciated. In the meantime if you have any queries in the meantime please contact the relevant Business Development and Partnership Manager: