Learning in Harmony is a Multi Academy Trust comprising of 14 schools with additional schools likely to join the Trust in the future.
The Trust has schools located in Newham and Southend-on-Sea some of which support pupils with Special Educational Needs.
The Background
Minerva was approached by Raheema Patel, Business and Infrastructure Lead Officer at the Trust as they sought to tender their Planned and Preventative Maintenance Services. The existing contract was due to renew and as the value exceeded the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 threshold (the legislation in place
at the time of the procurement) the Trust needed to run a process compliant with the Regulations.
The Trust estate includes a mix of older traditional school buildings and newer facilities or extensions. They plan to invest capital grants over the next five years to ensure that they continue to provide warm, safe and dry spaces that are a stimulating environment to support the learning and curiosity of pupils from ages 2 – 19.
The current provision was utilising several different sub-contractors making it difficult to maintain communication, logistics and requirements across all sites. In addition the Trust were not happy with some of the sub-contractors appointed by the PPM provider. Other issues were ensuring safeguarding measures were in place for multiple personnel, alongside quality control and cost management.
This ideal contractor would need to include swimming pool management, dedicated CAFM helpdesk, improvement in resilience and capacity of the estate, provision of necessary consumables (including essential spares), and general reactive maintenance services. The Trust completed the detailed checklists supplied by Minerva to provide the relevant background information, from which Minerva prepared all of the tender documents for potential bidders to review.
Minerva draft scored the SQ submissions, managed all correspondence and queries between the bidders and the Trust, organised and attended the site visits, draft scored the ITT submissions and also organised and attended the presentation day. The Trust were fully supported throughout the process.
Results
This tender received ten expressions of interest from both large and SME suppliers and resulted in four bidders making a formal submission at the SQ stage of the process all of whom were then taken through to the ITT stage.
The site visits were hosted by Minerva over three days and, bidders were given the opportunity to view all elements of the sites and ask any questions they felt necessary.
The presentation day was also hosted by Minerva which allowed the Trust panel to focus on the material being presented by the bidders. A number of areas across the bids were clarified during this process and this allowed the panel to appoint the bidder they felt most closely matched their needs.
Overall, the Trust were delighted with the end result and the contractor appointed.
Customer Feedback
Raheema Patel (Trust Business and Infrastructure Lead Officer) said:
“Lorraine has demonstrated exceptional professionalism and expertise throughout the tender process. Given the complex legal and procedural nature of the exercise, I sought frequent clarification on various aspects. Despite the volume and repetition of my queries, Lorraine consistently responded with patience,
precision, and clarity often beyond standard working hours to ensure the process remained on track and progressed smoothly. Her depth of knowledge and calm, methodical approach instilled great confidence in our team and ensured that we were fully supported at every stage.
The Minerva procedures were highly transparent, well structured, and straightforward to follow. Communication was clear and consistent, with timely updates and guidance on all required actions.
Overall, Lorraine’s support and Minerva’s robust framework ensured that the tender process was conducted with integrity, efficiency, and confidence”.
