A site visit is an important part of your tender process, as it allows bidders to fully understand your school and the ‘on the ground’ requirements that may be difficult to convey solely through the tender documents.
Please note that site visits are only relevant for services where suppliers will have an on-site presence such as cleaning, catering, grounds maintenance or ICT Managed Services. It isn’t necessary to do a site visit for services such as MIS or Payroll and HR Administration although for those you might like to hold a ‘Bidder Discovery Call’. But we’ll save that for another blog post!
Here is some guidance on what to expect from a site visit, and what the bidders will want to see.
What to expect
Ahead of the visit, the bidders will want to know where they can park, where to check in, who to ask for on arrival, and what identification/DBS they need to bring.
We recommend all bidders attend the site visit together, rather than on different times/dates – this ensures that bidders all receive the same information, avoiding any challenges to the process. It also saves you time as you only need to show everyone around once. If a bidder is unable to attend, then you can photograph and/or film the site for them – don’t offer the chance for them to attend on another day. During Covid we filmed most of our site visits, and it worked perfectly well!
The visit should ideally be led by someone who most closely knows the service being tendered such as the Business Manager, Facilities Manager etc. The person running the tender should also attend (e.g. School Business Manager or an external consultant such as Minerva) to answer any questions relating to the tender process.
The bidders will need to know at the start whether photographs can be taken, and any conditions of this (e.g. ensure no confidential information is visible, ensure no staff or pupils are in the photos).
If questions arise during the tour, it is important that everyone can hear the questions and responses, so that all the bidders receive the same information. If you can’t immediately answer a question, there’s no issue with you making a note of it and informing all the bidders of the answer at a later date. However, do make sure your response is suitably timely so as to not delay the bidders when they’re pulling their tender submission together.
If there are any problem areas with your current service/incumbent and they are on the site visit, you will need to be mindful of how you express this. However, still feel able to convey the current challenges/ideal expectations as this is important information for all bidders, including your incumbent!
There will always be questions! It is a good idea to plan some time at the end of the visit for a Q &A session – you may want to set aside an office or empty classroom for this.
We would always recommend informing any current staff who are part of the service by way of courtesy ahead of the visit, should they be onsite. Reassure them that the bidders are there to see the school and the service, not to assess them in any way.
Service Specific Requirements
Catering visits
Bidders will expect to:
- view the kitchen layout, equipment and storage,
- view the front of house set up (servery, tables, trays, menus, branding etc)
- watch service happen (how queuing works, possible purchasing/selection of food, payment transactions, seating)
- visit other serving areas e.g. Sixth Form Café, outdoor Pod (if applicable)
Cleaning visits
Bidders will want to:
- view storage spaces (which will hold consumables, chemicals, equipment etc)
- view the Cleaning Supervisors office (if relevant),
- view all areas which contain different types of flooring, edges, ledges, high spaces (sound boards, panelling, canopies),
- if within the specification, view any areas for external window cleaning
ICT Managed Services visits
We recommend showing bidders some of the following (at a minimum):
- IT cupboards (housing switches, hubs),
- IT labs/suites,
- trollies which move IT equipment around the site,
- repair rooms,
- classrooms where there is AV equipment e.g. (interactive digital whiteboards) – if there are multiple rooms utilizing different types of AV equipment, these may need to be shown
Planned and Preventative Maintenance visits
We recommend showing the following (not an exhaustive list):
- boiler houses
- generators
- electrical cupboards/storage
- switch panels
- passenger lifts
- primary heating
- water pumps/storage tanks
- control panels
- AC units/ventilation/extraction
- mechanical systems
- fire alarm systems/dampers
- biomass boilers
- solar panels
- maintenance office including relevant storage of equipment/spares
So, there you have it, our top tips on how to plan and execute a successful site visit!
