Invitation to Tenderfor 2013 face-to-face contracts

A presentation and talk given by Patrick Torsney to the Contracted Advice Agencies Network (CAAN) 3rd October 2012 Liverpool

Please note:

This presentation is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal or strategic advice on bidding. It is your responsibility to

ensure you submit your bid in accordance with the relevant rules

Please bear in mind that subsequent to this talk at CAAN, the LSC published the first version of its FAQ on the ITT on 5th October. A final

version is expected on the 12th October

Please read the FAQ2

Please note:

This presentation considers the Housing & Debt ITT only. However, the general principles may

also be applicable to the other face-to-face Tenders: Family, and Immigration & Asylum

All numbered paragraph references are to the Information for Applicants (IFA) Family, Housing & Debt unless

otherwise specified

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Background

LSC (now) knows it is bound by EU procurement law when

commissioning services

Public Contracts Regulations 2006 and EU Council Directive

2004/18/EC now dictate the process

A contracting authority shall treat [suppliers] equally and in a non-

discriminatory way; and act in a transparent way (see Reg 4(3))

Any technical specifications defined in terms of

performance/functional requirements must be precise enough to

allow a [supplier] to determine the subject of the contract (see Reg

9(7))

Simplified YES/NO answers wherever possible

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Tender essentials - look at Tender documents inc attachments

• Get them from the online Tender Portal: http://bit.ly/a7e3zT

Background docs from the LSC:• The relevant Procurement Plan(s) + Tender FAQ

documents: http://bit.ly/SWAEvU

• 2013 Standard Civil Contract http://bit.ly/SpOtTA

Tech help documents from the Tender Portal• Technical support and guidance (PDF): http://bit.ly/RsbCb1

• Bravo’s Supplier Help: online training, quick guides, FAQs:

http://bit.ly/R4kwtm

Impressions? Lessons learnt?

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Timescales and deadlines

1. 1st October: Second chance PQQ bods invited to ITT

2. 8th October: questions for ITT FAQ closes

3. 12th October: final ITT FAQ document published

4. 22nd October: ITT closes

5. January 2013: outcome of ITT announced

6. January 2013: verification begins

7. 1st April 2013: contract begins

Procurement Areas & what’s on offer

Category of Law

No. of PA’s Total volume of NMS advertised

Family 134 95,761

Housing & Debt 134

51,889 (Housing)

4 Debt NMS per Office (bid)

Immigration & Asylum

6 40,831

7Some Family and Imm/Asy PA’s split down into Access Points

Individual Bids (4.5) As Services will be delivered at individual Offices, an

Applicant Organisation must detail the Services that it is

tendering to deliver for each Office in its ITT response.

A tender to deliver Services in a specific Category of Law

from a particular Office is known as an “Individual Bid”.

Consequently, the ITT response of an Applicant Organisation

wishing to deliver Services from multiple Offices will contain

Individual Bids for each Office in the applicable Category of

Law.

NB: Must have an office in the PA/Access Point by

the Contract Start Date 8

Common Criteria (5.2)

By the Contract Start Date, an Applicant Organisation’s Office must be a Permanent Presence in the Procurement Area (or where relevant, Access Point), in which it is tendering to deliver Services;

See 2013 General Specification for definition of ‘Permanent Presence’ paras 2.33 – 2.34

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Common Criteria (5.2) cont…

By the Contract Start Date, an Applicant Organisation must employ at least one Full Time Equivalent (FTE) individual who meets the Supervisor Standard in the relevant Category of Law and will actively supervise the Services tendered for; and,

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Common Criteria (5.2) cont…

By the Contract Start Date, an Applicant Organisation must employ at least one Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Supervisor (who meets the Supervisor Standard in the relevant Category of Law and will actively supervise the Services) for every four FTE caseworkers at each Office from which it is tendering to deliver Services

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Clarifying notes

FTE = 35 hours (doesn’t matter if actually work more)

“Employ” defined as “holding a contract of employment with the Applicant Organisation or being a partner of the Applicant Organisation.”

External (or non-employed) supervision not permitted)

Must not have had confirmed Peer Review of 4 or 5 in category within which it is bidding since 14 Sept 2009

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Additional Criteria: Housing & Debt

By the Contract Start Date, an Applicant

Organisation must employ,

for at least 17.5 hours per week,

an Authorised Litigator

who will be available to each of its

Offices to deliver Licensed Work.

See 5.813

Authorised Litigator:

A solicitor or other authorised litigator as defined in Section 119 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990. An authorised litigator, as defined by the Act, is “any person (including a solicitor) who has a right to conduct litigation granted by an authorised body.”

An authorised litigator‟s role is primarily to issue proceedings and apply for a funding certificate for Legal Representation, and then to conduct the litigation.

Without an authorised litigator, an Applicant will not be able to provide the full range of services up to full Legal Representation for their clients

Annex E: Glossary of Defined Terms 14

Lots – general points LSC says take into account the reduced scope of legal

aid work available to ensure bidding for realistic volumes

stipulate the number of Matter Starts required for each Individual Bid. Individual Bids will then classified into a corresponding “Lot” size

if you wish to bid from multiple Offices within a single ITT (and therefore submitting multiple Individual Bids) you can submit Individual Bids with different Matter Starts which may then be classified into different Lots

Make sure to use the ‘Postcode Tool’ to check which PA any particular Office you intend to bid from should belong to

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Lots: Housing

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Key Points: Lot 1: 40 or less

You don’t have to ask for 40 exactly You could ask for 0 (Licensed Work

only) Providing you pass the ITT, you will get

exactly what you asked for You will be able to self-grant up to an

additional 50% of NMS in the first year Therefore, maximum could be 60 NMS

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Key Points: Lot 2: 61 – 100 NMS Providing you pass the ITT, you will get

what you ask for if your bid is between 61 and 100 inclusive

You cannot self-grant additional NMS Maximum number of assured NMS is

100 No restriction on you submitting

individual (assured) bids from multiple offices that are cumulatively more than what LSC says is available in the PA

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Let’s look at Shropshire… Procurement Plan says 100 NMS available in

total in the PA

And currently 4 Provider Offices

ShropsAdvice Inc. has two offices in the PA

(both Permanent Presence)

It decides to put in two individual (Lot 2) bids,

one from each Office, of 100 NMS each

It would be assured this amount

So, the organisation would get 200 total19

…further points If the other 2 Offices/Organisations both bid for

100 NMS too, that would mean the Shropshire PA should receive 400 NMS in total via ‘assured’ bids

NB: “Indicative Matter Starts Advertised” Shropshire is but one of 12 PA’s within the

Birmingham Region Bear in mind each Office would need to be a

Permanent Presence and, a Supervisor would have to be working from that Office (though not necessarily full-time in that particular Office)

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Key Points: Lot 2: over100 NMS You can bid for more than the upper

limit in Lot 2 (more than 100 NMS) No upper limit on what you can bid for

(subject to Bravo)? However, even if no-one else bid, why

would the LSC give you more than what it has said is the maximum NMS available in the PA?

Answer: it wouldn’t

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LSC approach to allocation: Step 1

Lot 1: get what you ask for (40 max) +

4 Debt

Lot 2: gets what it ask for if your bid =

100 or less

Lot 2: if you bid for more than 100 you

will initially be allocated 100 + 4 Debt

NMS … continued on next slide

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Step 2:

If any Matter Starts remain after Step

1, Individual Bids in Lot 2 for over

100 Matter Starts are allocated an

equal share of the remaining Matter

Starts available in the Procurement

Area (up to the Applicant

Organisation’s requested amount)NB: “equal share” does not mean pro-rata

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Step 3:

If any Matter Starts remain after Step

2 in the wider Region, Individual

Bids in Lot 2 for over 100 Matter

Starts are allocated an equal share

of the remaining Matter Starts

available (up to the Applicant

Organisation’s requested amount)24

Verification

Verification requests go out with the

offer of a Contract, January 2013

Offer conditional on satisfactory

verification

“Verification requests will be tailored

according to the information outstanding

from an Applicant Organisation”

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LSC reserves the right to carry out further due diligence checks in respect of PQQ and/or ITT prior to awarding a Contract (10.41)

Other points Now on Version 2 of the face-to-face IFA Capacity test in IMM/ASY (10.19) If spare NMS after verification (someone’s bid fails verification)

they won’t be allocated until after Contract Start Date (9.22) New Offices need to complete an AC1 form as part of verification

to get an Account Number Contract documentation will be made available online to

successful bidders. You download, sign and submit (9.24) You can amend and re-submit ITT response at any time up to

deadline – the latest one will be the one assessed (10.10) If > one bid per Office, LSC will use the lower NMS one (10.12) If your Office bid is in the wrong PA it will fail (10.15) Must provide all levels of service from each Office you bid from

(10.16) If conflict between documentation, LSC will accept least

favourable to you, without contacting you (10.30) There is no right of appeal (10.32) 28