Section 6: Evaluation Criteria & Methodology
3. EVALUATION CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGY
CENTRAL DIGITAL PLATFORM
3.1. As a public body, the Council is required to use the Central Digital Platform (the national platform hosted and maintained by the Cabinet Office) for supplier exclusion and registration purposes.
3.2. The Central Digital Platform can be accessed here: Find a Tender
3.3. The Council cannot provide guidance nor technical support for the Central Digital Platform.
3.4. Bidders that wish to participate in this Procurement are responsible for ensuring that the Central Digital Platform contains complete, accurate and up-to-date information about their organisation and any Associated Bidders which are relevant for the purposes of this Procurement.
3.5. Bidders must notify the Council immediately if you are unable to register on the Central Digital Platform and/or provide accurate and up-to-date information via the Central Digital Platform. This includes:
· Basic Information: Name, address, Companies House number (or equivalent, e.g. Charity number), VAT Number (if applicable), relevant qualifications or trade assurances and whether the organisation is a SME, VCSE or public mutual.
· Financial information: Copies of your accounts from the most recent financial years.
· Connected Persons: Names, addresses and details on any connected persons to the business (e.g. persons with significant control). These are individuals or organisations who have influence or control over the supplier.
· Exclusions: Details of any discretionary or mandatory exclusions for the supplier or connected persons as set out in schedules 6 & 7 of the Procurement Act 2023.
3.6. Tenders will be evaluated by assessing the following:
CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION (PROCUREMENT SPECIFIC QUESTIONNIARE)
If you are not able to
evidence that you meet the conditions of participation when
requested your application will be rejected.
3.7. These requirements relate to the minimum levels of business standing or capability required by the Council. They are assessed on a pass/fail basis to determine whether a Bidder does or does not meet the minimum mandatory requirement. The Council’s minimum requirements or compliance are detailed further in the Procurement Specific Questionnaire.
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Procurement Specific Questionnaire |
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Preliminary questions |
For Information Only |
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Part 1 |
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Confirmation of Core Supplier Information (including Mandatory and Discretionary exclusion grounds) |
Pass / Fail |
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Part 2 – Additional Exclusions Information |
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Pass / Fail |
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2B) List of all intended sub-contractors (if applicable) |
Pass / Fail |
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Confirmation of Ground for Exclusions |
Pass / Fail |
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Part 3 – Questions relating to Conditions of Participation |
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Financial Capacity |
Pass / Fail |
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Insurance Cover |
Pass / Fail |
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Legal Capacity |
Pass / Fail |
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Technical Ability – Contract Examples and Relevant Experience (Case Studies)
Proven track record and extensive knowledge and experience of providing services relevant to the requirement. |
Pass / Fail |
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Supply Chain Payment |
Pass / Fail |
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Health and Safety |
Pass / Fail |
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Carbon Reduction |
Pass / Fail |
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Modern Slavery |
Pass / Fail |
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GDPR |
Pass / Fail |
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Conflict of Interest |
Pass / Fail |
3.8. If a Tender receives a fail or does not achieve the minimum score for any question, the Tender may be rejected, unless further assurance can be gained. The Council reserves the right to ask for additional information to moderate evaluations and to complete due diligence.
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Term |
Typical Characteristic |
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Fail |
Bidder’s submission is fundamentally absent or limited and is lacking in relation to a significant proportion of the requirement. The Bidder may not be of suitable standing to fulfil the contract or operate in compliance with legislative requirements. The information provided does not address or only partially meets the Council’s requirements / evaluation criteria as detailed above. |
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Pass |
Bidder’s submission demonstrates, complies with, and evidences the Council’s requirements / evaluation criteria / legislative compliance as detailed above at a reasonable to high standard. |
EVALUATION OF FINANCIAL STANDING
3.9. The Council has set a minimum requirement for bidders’ Economic & Financial Standing for this contract in order to ensure:
· Bidders have sufficient resources to support a contract for which they have applied and;
· Bidders are financially sound and potentially stable enough to remain in-business for the duration of the contract.
3.10. It should be noted that the Council reserves the right to re-evaluate any Bidder’s financial standing, at any time up to contract award, to confirm that it meets with our minimum requirement.
3.11. Further details on how bidders need to demonstrate that they meet the Council’s minimum requirement in relation to Financial Standing can be found in Section 7.
EVALUATION OF RELEVANT EXPERIENCE (Case Study and Reference)
3.12. The Council have requested bidders to provide 2 case studies as well as details of the relevant references for those case studies.
3.13. The case studies will be assessed against the scoring method below and each case study must achieve a score of 2 or higher on the scoring methodology to achieve a pass. This will involve looking at the following areas:
A. Scope, relevance and scale of contract delivered
B. Response from the case study / referee to the following:
· Ability to deliver in line with the specification.
· Ability to deliver in line with the agreed outcomes.
· Overall performance against KPI or service levels.
· Accuracy of information and service provided.
· Communication with stakeholders.
· Added / Social value or innovation delivered.
· Ability to improve environmental impact of delivering services / goods / works.
3.14. No separate scoring / weighting or threshold is given for the references provided. References may be used to ensure the efficacy of the case studies submitted by referring to the original client in order to confirm the assessment made by the evaluation panel.
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS & STANDARDS
3.15. These requirements relate to the minimum levels of regulatory or standards compliance as set out in the Specification. Bidders are requested to review the Procurement Documents and any relevant appendices and confirm that they are able to meet or will be able to meet these minimum requirements and standards if their bid is accepted by the Council.
3.16. This is assessed on a pass/fail basis to determine whether a Bidder will or will not meet the minimum requirements.
3.17. If the tender receives a fail or does not achieve the minimum score for any question, the Tender may be rejected, unless further assurance can be gained. The Council reserves the right to ask for additional information to moderate evaluations and to complete due diligence.
EVALUATION OF QUALITY QUESTIONNAIRE
3.18. Bidders who successfully gain a pass in all pass/fail elements will then have their submission assessed for quality and cost against the award criteria.
3.19. The award criteria (and any sub-criteria) are weighted as follows:
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Criteria (Quality Response) |
Question # |
Weighting Available |
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METHODOLOGY: SERVICE REQUIREMENTS |
1 |
6% |
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2 |
6% |
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3 |
3% |
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4 |
3% |
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MOBILISATION |
5 |
3% |
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STAFFING AND RECRUITMENT |
6 |
5% |
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7 |
6% |
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MANAGEMENT AND PERFORMANCE |
8 |
3% |
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9 |
3% |
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CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT & ADDED VALUE
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10 |
6% |
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11 |
6% |
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12 |
2.5% |
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13 |
2.5% |
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SOCIAL VALUE |
14 |
5% |
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Quality Weighting Total |
60% |
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Price / Cost Weighting Total |
40% |
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Total Weighting |
100% |
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Price Evaluation |
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The Price element of the Award Criteria for this procurement carries 40% of the overall weighting, this is separated into the following sub criteria:
i. Primary School Meal Price 20% ii. Secondary School Meal Price 5% iii. Core Tariff List 15%
Total costs submitted for each sub criteria above will be weighted with the lowest cost bid receiving the full weighting for each sub-criteria and all other Service Providers price for this sub criteria receiving a pro-rata weighting when compared to the lowest cost bid.
CORE TARIFF LIST: This schedule requires bidders to give pricing for each item in the tariff list, all items must be priced and where reference is made to a specific brand or product an alternative equivalent may be offered but must be priced. The evaluation of this list will be based on the total cost of all items being used for the purposes of identifying total price for this sub-criteria.
CAPTIAL INVESTMENT: We require all bidders to confirm that they will deliver £150,000.00 per annum of Capital Investment during the term of the contract. This is a Pass/Fail element and can be found on Worksheet 3 of the Price Schedule.
The following is a working example (please note figures shown are indicative and do not represent the expected value or price for each sub criteria).
A working model illustrating the above is provided below;
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SCORING METHODOLOGY
3.20. Individual questions not assessed on a pass/fail basis will be scored on the basis of the scoring method in the table below, with the total score aggregated in relation to its criteria weighting.
3.21. The Council reserves the right to reject any Bidder who scores 0 for any question.
3.22. All weighting for quality and price will be calculated to a maximum of two decimal points.
3.23. The evaluation of bidder’s quality response will be undertaken by a panel of officers within the Council, with each panel member scoring responses individually. The Council may involve other external stakeholders in this process.
3.24. The evaluation panel will not give any allowances in the evaluation in relation to previous or current knowledge of bidders. Therefore, please ensure that you complete all questions fully as previous knowledge or experience will not be taken into account when evaluating bids and assumptions will not be made by officers or the evaluation panel when assessing your bids suitability.
3.25. Answers will be assessed against the requirements detailed in the specification, this ITT and terms and conditions. Bidders will also be assessed within these criteria as to how well they have understood the needs, objectives and priorities of the Council.
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Score |
Classification |
Definition |
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0 |
No response |
No response at all or insufficient information provided in the response such that the response is totally un-assessable and/or incomprehensible. The response is considered non-compliant with the requirements or minimum standards. |
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1 |
Unsatisfactory response |
Substantially unacceptable response which fails in several significant areas to meet the Council’s requirements. Little or no detail may (and, where evidence is required or necessary, no evidence) have been provided to support and demonstrate the Bidder’s ability (methods, expertise, skills and/or resources) to provide the services and/or considerable reservations as to the Bidder’s ability (methods, expertise, skills and/or resources) to deliver the requirements. |
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2 |
Partially acceptable response |
Weak response which does not fully meet the Council’s requirements. Response may be basic/ minimal with little or no detail (and, where evidence is required or necessary, with insufficient evidence) provided to support and demonstrate the Bidder’s ability (methods, expertise, skills and/or resources) to provide the services. Some major reservations or weaknesses which gives a lack of assurance that requirements will be met. |
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3 |
Satisfactory and acceptable response |
Response largely addresses and meets the requirements, with some detail (or, where evidence is required or necessary, some relevant evidence) provided to support and demonstrate the Bidder’s ability (methods, expertise, skills and/or resources) to provide the services. Some minor reservations or minor weaknesses which although offers assurance the requirements will be met with only minor reservations. |
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4 |
Fully satisfactory /very good response |
Response fully addresses and meets the requirements, with full details (and, where evidence is required or necessary, full and relevant evidence) provided. Provides full confidence in the Bidder’s ability (experience, expertise, skills and/or resources) to provide the services. |
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5 |
Outstanding response |
Response fully addresses and meets the Council’s requirements, with full details (and, where evidence is required or necessary, full and relevant evidence) provided to support the solution; and, in addition, demonstrates methods, expertise, skills or resources that provided added value above the stated requirements, and which are relevant to the Council’s requirements. Gives excellent assurance to the Council that requirements will be met in full. |
SOCIAL VALUE EVALUATION
3.27. Proposals received in response to this Procurement will be evaluated on the basis of the Bidder’s commitment to delivering Social Value in the local area calculated by reference to the aggregate financial value of the measures selected.
3.28. The Bidder offering the highest Social Value will achieve the maximum percentage (%) for the social value element. Tender Submissions offering less Social Value will receive a proportional score based on the amount lower they are than the Tender Submission scoring highest for Social Value.
3.29. Further guidance is available in the Social Value Measurement Charter.
MODERATION
3.30. Bidders’ quality responses will be evaluated by a panel of officers individually.
3.31. The panel will then meet to moderate scores and agree on a consensus score for each criteria / question.
3.32. The moderation will be overseen by the procurement lead.
COMMERCIAL EVALUATION
3.33. The price element of the commercial response has a weighted overall score of 40%.
3.34. Each individual item shall have a rate entered against it. All rates shall be expressed to two decimal places and quoted in GBP.
3.35. The prices and rates inserted in the Pricing Schedule are to be inclusive of all costs and expenses required for the provision of Service specified. A price or rate must be entered against every item in the Pricing Schedule or the word 'Nil' or 'included' written where not priced.
3.36. The Pricing Schedule will be scored based on the Bidder that submits the lowest overall price as illustrated in the Main Summary with the lowest overall price achieving the maximum available score (expressed as a percentage). Higher priced Tenders will receive a proportional score based on the amount higher they are than the lowest priced Tender, calculated as follows:
Bidder A’s score (Lowest Price) = Maximum available % (the Baseline)
Bidder B’s score (Higher Price) = Lowest Price (A) ÷ Higher Price (B) x Baseline (%)
CLARIFICATIONS
3.37. During bid analysis, the Council shall be allowed to request from Bidders any clarification(s) and/or information(s) needed to evaluate the bids, including but not limited to business standing, technical and commercial responses but shall not be permitted to request or permit any Bidder to supplement or change the substance or price of their bid.
3.38. Failure to respond within the stated time to any clarification may result in your submission being rejected.
3.39. In addition, as part of the evaluation process the council reserves the right to invite bidders to attend a clarification meeting, if required.
3.40. We will invite the highest scoring bidders to attend a clarification meeting (the ultimate number will depend on the closeness of initial evaluation scores).
3.41. You are responsible for all your expenses when attending such meetings (whether virtual or in person).
3.42. The meeting will be held to gain clarification on areas of the bid submitted. The content of the meeting will not carry its own weighting, but the information given will provide the Council with the clarity to moderate the scores given by the evaluation panel in respect of the written Tender.
3.43. The meeting, if required, will last approx. 1 - 1½ hours in total, depending on amount of clarification and questions needed.
3.44. Bidders must ensure they are able to attend as an alternative may not be offered. Bidders should include members of the team who will be responsible for the delivery of the contract and service.
3.45. The date and time of the meeting will be sent to shortlisted bidders as soon as possible after initial evaluation of bids along with any additional instructions. The meeting will be held virtually via Microsoft Teams or at the Councils main headquarters.