The opportunity to be one of Sport England’s Framework
Contractors was advertised in the OJEU early 2011. Potential
bidders were asked to express an interest and complete a PQQ which
followed OGC guidelines, provided a background to, and a summary
of, the requirements and sought information regarding the company's
financial standing and any relevant criminal prosecutions, previous
experience, approach to health and safety and environmental issues,
quality assurance, attitudes to partnering and collaborative
working, geographical areas of interest, equal opportunities and
supply chain management.
The submissions were assessed against a pre-determined and
published scoring criteria, by a professional team including sports
specialists, as appropriate, and key Sport England staff were
appraised of the process and the results.
The shortlisted firms were then invited to submit tenders which
were marked on a pre-determined quality:price ratio (ranging from
60:40 to 50:50). The quality mark was based upon some framework
management questions, details of CVs submitted and responses to 3
typical scenarios, including questions relating to health and
safety and quality control. There was also a presentation stage for
all tenderers, where Sport England and the procurement team
assessed the tenderer's understanding of the requirements and
knowledge of sports facilities' design and ability to work with one
off small Clients.
Because of the range of projects envisaged, commercial
information was sought on a schedule of prices basis. In some
cases, this included pricing for complete projects using stated
project criteria. In addition, costs were provided for the full
design and management support, including CDMC, such that any
Contracting Body need not provide any technical input or additional
expertise at all apart from basic Project Brief. Each Framework
Contractor offers the “soft side” of services, for example the hand
holding and advising Clients on the process of a project,
requirements on health and safety, Planning Permission, Building
Regulations compliance etc.
It is also envisaged that some projects may cut across the
subject matter of more than one framework, e.g. a new artificial
grass pitch project may include sports lighting, so provision has
been made within the Agreements for Framework Contractors in one
specialism to be sub-contracted to a Contractor in another.