Background and aims

Cumbria Chamber of Commerce works with a number of partners to deliver support to SMEs throughout Cumbria through Cumbria Business Growth Hub and Cumbria Growth Catalyst. As part of this we expect to have a requirement for specialist support for businesses to prepare for and address the challenges around Brexit, funded by BEIS.

Specific requirements

We expect to have a requirement for specialist, including sector specialist, support for SMEs to help them to review and address the challenges and opportunities around Brexit.

This could include but is not limited to:

• Support for farm resilience/diversification
• Access to finance/financial restructuring
• International trade including imports
• Legal and data issues arising from Brexit

We would welcome and be happy to consider other suggestions of relevant support.

You will be required to:

• Deliver one-to-one advice, including as appropriate business reviews and provision of relevant information
• Complete and submit any required project paperwork and supporting documentation in a timely manner, and ensure that clients complete any they are required to

Please note:

• The funding anticipated covers advice only and cannot be used for events/workshops.
• Any contracts will be awarded on a call off-basis with actual delivery based on client demand, rather than for specific volumes of activity.

Timescales

Activity is anticipated through to 31^st March 2020.

Content of submission

Your submission should cover as a minimum:

• Outline of what you propose to deliver including content, anticipated outcomes and the type of clients/client needs it would be appropriate for
• Description of your delivery methodology
• CVs for all staff involved in the management and delivery of the service
• Demonstration of sufficient staff resources to deliver at an appropriate quality and to appropriate timescales across Cumbria
• Track record and relevant experience including examples of similar work and at least two relevant referees
• Pricing
• An outline of any other contracts you may have which will impact on your ability to deliver this programme, and how this will be managed
• Identification of any potential risks in delivery of service, contained in a risk register, along with mitigation strategies for each

Criteria

Where we believe there is a conflict of interest we reserve the right not to mark your tender and not to award the contract to you.

Tenders will be marked as follow:

Criteria	Which elements of your proposal we will look at	Weighting
Relevant track record, experience and expertise	Response on track record; references; staffing including CVs; relevant experience	30
Staffing	Response on staffing including CVs and risk/contingency planning; references	15
Management processes	Responses on management including management of the activity; support to be delivered; track record of experience; other contract delivery which could impact on delivery; risk/contingency planning; references	10
Pricing	Cost per hour and per anticipated average intervention; what is covered per unit price; rationale for unit price value for money	15
Proposed content	Response on proposed content	30
		100

Marks will be awarded against each as set out in the following table, with the score multiplied by the weighting.

Assessment	Score	Interpretation
Compliance with significant added value	5	Exceeds the requirement.  Exceptional demonstration by the applicant of the relevant ability, understanding, skills, resource and quality measures required to provide the services. Response identifies factors that will offer potential added value, with evidence to support the response.
Compliance with partial added value	4	Satisfies the requirement with minor additional benefits. Above average demonstration by the applicant of the relevant ability, understanding, skills, resource and quality measures required to provide the services. Response identifies factors that will offer potential added value, with evidence to support the response.
Compliance	3	Satisfies the requirement. Demonstration by the applicant of the relevant ability, understanding, skills, and resource and quality measures required to provide the services, with evidence to support the response.
Partial compliance but conflict in detail	2	Satisfies the requirement with major reservations. Considerable reservations of the applicant’s relevant ability, understanding, skills, and resource and quality measures required to provide the services, with little or no evidence to support the response.
Non-compliance	0	Does not meet the requirement. Does not comply and/or insufficient information provided to demonstrate that the applicant has the ability, understanding, skills, resource and quality measures required to provide the services, with little or no evidence to support the response.

Instructions for submission

Submissions should be sent by email to Suzanne Caldwell suzanne@cumbiachamber.co.uk marked ‘Confidential – Tender Enclosed’ to reach us by no later than 12 noon on Monday 18^th November 2019 with the intention for successful/unsuccessful responses being sent week commencing 25^th November 2019.

The Chamber’s rights

The Chamber reserves the right to:

• Waive or change the requirements of this ITT from time to time without prior, or any notice, being given
• Seek clarification or documentation in respect of a tenderers submission
• Disqualify any tenderer that does not submit a compliant tender in accordance with the instructions in this ITT
• Disqualify any tender that is guilty of serious misrepresentation in relation to its tender or the tender process
• Withdraw this ITT at any time or re-invite tenders on the same or any alternative basis
• Choose not to award any contract or accept the lowest or any tender as a result of the current procurement process
• Choose not to award a contract to any organisation it views as a competitor or to have another conflict of interest
• Make whatever changes they see fit to the timetable, structure of content of the procurement process

Bid cost

The Chamber will not be liable for any bid costs, expenditure, work or effort incurred by a tenderer in proceeding with or participating in this procurement, including if the procurement process is terminated or amended by the Chamber.