INVITATION TO TENDER FOR BID WRITING SERVICES FOR THE WISE
GROUP APPLICATION TO BIG/ESF BUILDING BETTER OPPORTUNITIES TYNE
AND WEAR TRANCHE 1 STAGE 2 BID (REFERENCE NE/1/3)
1.
SUMMARY
Value: £9,000 including expenses and including VAT
Deadline for Submission: Wednesday 20 January 2016 at 1700hrs
Contract Start Date: Monday 25 January 2016
Contract End Date: Sunday 15 May 2016
2.
INTRODUCTION
The Wise Group has been invited to submit a Stage 2 bid for Tyne and Wear (NE/1/3)
to the Big Lottery Fund Building Better Opportunities (BBO) programme, a
programme funded by Big Lottery Fund and the European Social Fund, which is part
of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) Growth Programme 2014 to
2020.
The Wise Group will be submitting the BBO Stage 2 bid in mid May 2016 but it will
need to be finished by the end of April. As part of the preparation to submit this bid
the Wise Group wishes to commission consultancy services to support the writing of
the bid. We are also commissioning research and mapping services to inform the
design of the final delivery solution of the bid and provide content within the bid. This
is commissioned separately, within the same timeframe.
The BBO specification to which the Wise Group are responding is BBO NE/1/3 and is
found here:
https://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk//media/Files/Programme%20Documents/Building%20Better%20Opportunities/Projec
t%20outlines%20oct15/BBO%20NELEP%20Project%203%20of%204%20Tyne%20a
nd%20Wear%20Multiple%20FINAL.pdf
There is more information about BBO here:
https://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/esf
The Wise Group is the lead organisation for this BBO Stage 2 bid, but would deliver
the BBO programme in Tyne and Wear in close collaboration with partners who
applied to the Wise Group through an EOI stage and who were named in the Wise
Group Stage 1 application.
The Wise Group Stage 1 bid will be made available on the award of this consultancy
contract but cannot be made available at this stage as there is still a competitive
process in place.
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The funding for this consultancy contract is paid for through a Big Lottery Fund BBO
Stage 2 Development Grant. The contract for services and invoicing will be between
the Wise Group and the consultancy services provider and will be in the form of a
contract.
3.
SPECIFICATION – BID WRITING
The Wise Group wishes to contract external consultants as a bid writer to support the
drafting and finalising of the BBO Stage 2 bid.
The external bid writer will work closely with the internal team including Cherri
Blissett (Director) who will provide overall management of the bid, John Halliday
(Policy and Development Manager) who will provide day to day management, help
develop the delivery solution and support bid writing, and a new internal bid writer
(to be appointed in January) who will support bid writing.
We estimate that the external consultant bid writer will represent around half the bid
writing time.
The guidance in part three of this document may help you understand the
requirement for this bid:
https://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk//media/Files/Programme%20Documents/Building%20Better%20Opportunities/BBO%
20Stage%202%20materials/Guide%20to%20stage%20two.pdf
Please outline in your proposal:


Which parts of the writing process for this bid you believe will be your main
strengths. Please note that the Wise Group has issued a separate ITT for
research and mapping alongside this ITT, therefore research and mapping is
not required within this commission.
There will be short term deadlines set throughout February, March and April.
Please set out the overall number of days and level of flexibility you will be
able to provide in your methodology section.
Please allow for a two hour inception meeting in the week commencing Monday 25
January 2016 which will take place in Newcastle.
As part of the wider bid writing and delivery solution development there will be
partner events and events with potential customers to discuss the design of the
programme. Each event will be in Newcastle and last around two hours and they will
be spread between early February and early April (dates not yet confirmed). Please
allow two days in your proposal for you to attend some of these events – this will be
agreed at the inception meeting.
Due to the short timescale and inflexibility of the deadlines, it is important that the
proposed approach is sufficiently flexible to enable delivery even if the start date is
delayed by up to one month and the end date by brought forward by two weeks.
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4.
SUBMISSION GUIDANCE
The closing date for submission of proposals is Wednesday 20 January at 1700hrs.
Proposals should be submitted by email to moragh_hastie@thewisegroup.co.uk. No
proposals submitted after this time will be considered.
Please submit a proposal containing the following sections:






Contact details and introduction (page limit one page)
Technical section (page limit five pages)
o
Understanding the requirement including understanding of bid writing
best practice
o
Approach/methodology including your strengths on bid writing
o
Risk assessment including deadline management
o
Timescales and flexibility
Expertise section including CVs
Pricing section, including day rates and expenses
Confirmation of insurances
Please supply contact details of references for two similar pieces of work.
The technical section has a page limit of five pages. Where a page limit has been set,
any words beyond the limit will be disregarded in the assessment process. Tables and
diagrams may be included in your submission. All words and figures included in
diagrams or tables and in any headings are included in the word count. Please submit
using Verdana font size 11 as the main font.
Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) are the only acceptable
formats. No proposals submitted in other formats will be considered.
Clarification questions on this invitation to tender may be submitted by email to
moragh_hastie@thewisegroup.co.uk. All questions and responses will be sent to all
parties. The closing date for clarification questions is Tuesday 12 January 2016 at
1700hrs. No questions submitted after this time will be responded to.
5.
EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS
A maximum score of 100 points will be available. For the:



Technical section evaluation a maximum score of 30 points will be available
Expertise section evaluation a maximum score of 40 points will be available
Pricing section evaluation a maximum score of 30 points will be available.
An eligible tender with the highest score will be accepted and invited to contract.
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Technical Section Evaluation
For the technical section evaluation a maximum score of 30 points will be available.
Category
Understanding the requirement
Approach and methodology
Risk assessment including deadline management
Timescales and flexibility
Maximum Points Available
10
5
5
10
The following scoring criteria will be used for each category in the technical and
expertise sections and will consider all sections (eg including the timescales and
pricing section). The rating is based on the detail provided and evidence of
competency to deliver, will then be multiplied by a weighting to provide a score out
of the maximum points available.
Rating
0
Rejected
1
Poor
2
Partial
3
Satisfactory
4
Good
5
Excellent
Detail
No relevant detail
Competency To Deliver
Unable to assess due to
lack of evidence
Little relevant detail
Little
evidence
of
competency
Contains some relevant detail, Some
evidence
of
but incomplete
competency
Complete but basic
Sufficient
evidence
of
competency
A good level of detail, which Good
evidence
of
evidences that the organisation competency
can meet the needs of the
programme
An impressive level of explicit Excellent
evidence
of
detail, which clearly evidences competency
that the applicant can fulfil the
needs of the programme
Expertise Section Evaluation
For the expertise section evaluation a maximum score of 40 points will be available.
This section should include, as a minimum, include CVs for all team members and set
out responsibilities and management roles within the team. The scoring will
principally consider those team members with key responsibilities or who are shown
in the pricing section to have a key role in delivery.
Price Section Evaluation
For the pricing section evaluation a maximum score of 30 points will be available.
The pricing section must show separately the number of days and a day rate for each
team member separately. As well as the total number of days offered in your tender.
The value of the contract is fixed at £9,000 including expenses and including VAT.
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The number of days support offered for the fixed sum in your tender will be used to
determine the score for the pricing section. The score will be calculated by comparing
the number of days offered in the tender to the tender offering the largest number of
days support. The following formula will be used to give the score for the pricing
section:

[Total days offered in tender] divided by [total days offered in tender with
highest number of days] multiplied by 30.
The funding for this consultancy contract is paid for through a Big Lottery Fund BBO
Stage 2 Development Grant. The contract for services and invoicing will be between
the Wise Group and the consultancy services provider and will be in the form of a
contract. You are responsible for the treatment of VAT but the value of the contract
and the number of days of service offered will remain fixed.
Insurance & Confirmations
This section is not scored but is a requirement before contracting.
Please indicate the minimum level of insurance that you will have in place during the
contract. We need to see this for each of Employers Liability Insurance, Professional
Indemnity Insurance and Public Liability Insurance. The Wise Group will need to be
satisfied that the level is proportionate before contracting.
Please confirm that you are able to fulfil all the specifications within the timescales
and on budget and commit to meeting or exceeding the number of days work set out
in the pricing section using the team members set out in this tender.
References
Please submit contact details for two individuals in two organisations who can provide
evidence of your expertise and suitability for these services.
Quality Management
Please attach your policy for assuring quality to your proposal.
Interview
The Wise Group reserves the right to interview bidders if necessary.
Notes
The Wise Group reserves the right not to accept any tenders or to withdraw the
invitation to tender at any time.
A submitted tender is considered valid until 1 June 2016.
By submitting a tender you confirm that you are willing and able to provide these
services and the personnel named in the proposal.
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During delivery of this contract, evidence will be required by the Wise Group to
demonstrate that the team members named in the tender are delivering the service
and the same number of day’s service as set out in the tender. Any exceptions must
be agreed with the Wise Group, in writing, in advance.
Consortia are able to bid and subcontracting is permitted, but you must name a lead
organisation with responsibility for the entire project and with whom the Wise Group
will sign a contract. All team members who will deliver any aspect of the service must
be named in the tender.
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