Worthing Borough Council was the purchasing authority for this tender, and was looking to appoint a supplier to assist the achievement of long-term carbon reduction goals set out by the local government. Due to the extent and complexity of the project, which is estimated to reduce carbon emissions from public buildings by 3,000 tonnes a year, the tender was structured as an evergreen contract, with an estimated 40 years for the completion of objectives.
Main challenges
Challenges in supporting the client with the bid included:
- A 100% focus on comprehensive social value responses, divided into six separate topics
- Less than two weeks to submission to produce detailed, high-quality responses on specific questions within the social value section of the tender
- Assisting a client whose previous contractual agreements did not include managing, monitoring and reviewing social value offerings as a core requirement
- Detailing social value proposals tailored to the local area over a long-term contract, while ensuring offerings were proportionate to the contract value.
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Geographical region:
West Sussex
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Output:
30 pages of social value responses split across six questions
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Weighting:
65% quality / 25% price / 10% social value
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Submission:
Electronic and portal-based
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Outcome:
Successful
Overview
As the opportunity was structured through a competitive dialogue procedure, our client had a strong working knowledge of the buyer and their tendering preferences. However, they lacked previous experience in bidding for tenders with a social value element, and requested our help in producing high-quality narrative responses which covered all six of the required subject areas.
Having already completed the other quality sections of the tender submission, our client required 30 pages of narrative across six social value questions. Our bid writers Jack Bowman and Alley Ball were assigned to draft responses, and a client interview was scheduled as soon as possible to gather the information required for designing strong, informed responses.
Based on an answer plan designed by Jack, the interview totalled three hours to gather all relevant information and determine how it would align with the buyer’s specification and social value requirements. For example, the client was encouraged to elaborate on how they would liaise with advocacy groups to target key groups to enhance local employment, such as SSAFA for ex-service personnel looking to enter the workforce.
Following this, our writers Jack and Alley began producing the required responses, updating our client on project progress throughout the initial drafting stage. To earn maximum points from evaluators on behalf of our clients, Jack and Alley ensured responses were aligned with Worthing Borough Council’s long-term strategic aims by researching additional reports released by the council, such as their five-year economic strategy and health and wellbeing strategy. Responses outlined a 15-year plan for the implementation of social value commitments, complete with concrete and quantitative figures and detailed systems for measuring, reviewing and altering commitments based on the evolving needs of the council and local population.
Subsequently, responses went through our quality assurance process, reviewed by Quality Manager John Winder and Technical Director Matthew Walker. Jack and Alley further benefitted from subject-specific input from Director of Social Value Stephen Kennett for all responses.
Final versions were sent to the client for any revisions several days in advance of the deadline, enabling a close review of all responses. Given the extensive interview and research process performed by our writing team and support from our quality assurance process and the Social Value division, final amendments were minimal.
Outcome
In February 2022, we received notification from the client of a successful result, with several of the questions receiving full marks from evaluators. Since then, the client has expressed their satisfaction with the service and indicated they will refer to our services for any future tendering opportunities.