Lord Williams’s School is currently the sole academy in the Thame Partnership Academy Trust and is based in Thame, Oxfordshire. The school is co-educational secondary and sixth form. Educating students aged 11 to 18 the school has KS3, KS4 and KS5 students. KS3 and KS4 are required to wear uniform.
The Background
Tom Madelin, Chief Financial Officer, got in touch to enquire about support for a tender process in relation to the supply of school uniform items for the parents, carers and students at the school.
Due to a lack of clarity in the guidance issued in relation to tenders for school uniform supplies the decision was taken that, based on the annual spend by parents and carers, a process compliant with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 would be prudent.
Lord Williams’s School wanted to appoint a single supplier to undertake the supply of school uniform for the benefit of their parents, carers and students. The school was looking for the following deliverables from the successful bidder:
- Cost effectiveness
- Direct liaison with parents and carers – school involvement in administration and delivery to be kept to a minimum
- Reliable and timely provision
- An opportunity for parents and carers to purchase non branded generic items of uniform from other retailers e.g. high street shops or supermarkets
- Eco friendly
- A requirement to support year on year evolvement of the school’s uniform
A one-stage “open” procedure was recommended by Minerva as being the best route to market for the tender whilst ensuring compliance with the Regulations.
It also enabled the process to be run in a relatively swift timescale to support a decision on the preferred bidder before the end of the summer term.
Results
A total of 17 different suppliers viewed the opportunity which was hosted on Minerva’s In-tend e-procurement platform. Of those 17 the school was pleased to receive a total of eight high quality submissions of the combined Selection Questionnaire and Award Questionnaire.
Minerva undertook the initial evaluation work including reviewing the ‘technical’ pass/fail questions, we also followed up on the referees provided by bidders who completed a confidential online reference request to provide feedback on their supplier.
As well as draft scoring the qualitative question responses from bidders the Minerva team also undertook a detailed financial analysis of the pricing put forward by each bidder ensuring the school could be confident in the accuracy of garment prices.
A presentation day was held at the school where the highest scoring bidders were invited to elaborate on their tender submissions. This was also an opportunity to for the school to moderate the draft scoring undertaken by Minerva as well as ask questions of the shortlisted bidders and to review a selection of garment samples for quality.
On completion of the presentation day a decision was made on the successful bidder this being Price & Buckland. The school panel were delighted that there were in fact severable viable options open to them, and this made it a difficult decision to make on who to appoint – but all agreed this was a great position to find themselves in.
Post the contract award, and having undertaken all the compliance requirements such as publishing the Contract Award Notice on the Find a Tender Service, the Minerva team finalised a detailed Procurement Audit Report. This report covered the school’s obligations under Regulation 84 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 requiring them to have a written report for every contract awarded.
Customer Feedback
“The management of the project has been genuinely excellent and I am very happy that we have achieved the correct outcome.”
Tom Madelin, Chief Financial Officer
In addition Dawn Joshi, School Manager, commented “Thanks Lorraine. I was dreading this tender exercise but it has actually been enjoyable with your guidance and support.”
