Asbestos removal services

Tender description

Purpose Northumberland County Council wished to undertake an early market engagement exercise for the provision of an Asbestos Management Consultancy Service. This is an open early market engagement exercise, which means that a procurement idea is currently active. It is in the early stage of development and Northumberland County Council is judging market interest with potential suppliers. The purpose of this early market engagement exercise is to allow and enable potentially interested organisations with appropriate expertise and relevant experience to: — Outline and generate initial views and ideas around the outcomes, scope and the potential procurement strategy (with no commitment to individual organisations or the Council) — Engage with the Council to understand its challenges, intentions and desired outcomes. — Inform the Council of current market developments. — Enable the Council to understand how the current requirements could be shaped and delivered. — The Council will consider the feedback and responses received to help inform the Council's options. For the avoidance of doubt, this early engagement exercise is not part of a formal procurement process and the Council is not committing at this stage, to carry out such a process. Participation or non- participation in this early market engagement shall not prevent any supplier participating in a potential future procurement, nor is it intended that any information supplied as part of this early market engagement shall place any supplier at an advantage in a potential procurement process. Participation in this early market engagement will be at each organisation's own cost. No expenses incurred in responding to this exercise will be reimbursed by the Council. The Council will not enter into a contract based solely on the responses to this PIN and no information contained in the documents or in any communication made between the Council and any organisation in connection with this early market engagement shall be relied upon as constituting a contract, agreement or representation that any contract shall be awarded. What we want from a new arrangement The current delivery model adopted by the Council is via a single supplier consultancy contract with consultants working alongside Council staff in the same building. This model has worked very well for the Council and there have been no enforcement notices served on the Council during the period of this framework. The contract is coming to its natural conclusion. The Council is facing unprecedented challenges from the government's austerity programme and it must ensure value-for-money is demonstrated in all areas of Council activity. The management of asbestos is not exempt from this requirement, but we must ensure safety of Council employees and customers is not compromised in this process. Each Council building has a current Asbestos Management Plan which is regularly reviewed and updated when asbestos is removed or encapsulated. All buildings are monitored with the frequency of visits determined by risk assessment. The consultant appointed to the new framework will be expected to continue with this role. As new premises are acquired by the Council these will be added to the consultant's management portfolio. If required, a new management survey will be commissioned with the consultant to inform the management plan. Laboratory services will also be required. The consultant will additionally be involved with all improvement works and will undertake pre-demolition and refurbishment surveys as well as managing asbestos removal contracts. The Council will not restrict itself to a prescribed method, preferring to seek the views of a cross-section of different organisations willing to work with the Council, being cognisant that the framework must be a ‘win — win’ arrangement for both parties. Delivery of the service must be responsive and timely giving an economic, good quality solution to building issues and ensuring that customer focus is maintained at all time with building users being regularly updated of progress. The consultant will be expected to provide all required professional management, surveying, analysis and administration support for the effective delivery of the contract. It is likely that the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE) will apply to a new contract. The Council's ‘Grow Northumberland’ objective will be adopted on these programmes and consultants will be expected to use a locally procured supply chain that uses local labour. Property Portfolio Northumberland covers an area of 5 013 km² of which 96.7 % is classed as rural. The county is sparsely populated with 63 people per km². 51 % of the population live in the 3 % of urban land based mainly in the South East of the county. The Council has a property portfolio of 785 buildings spread across the county with a gross floor area of 638 086 m². The portfolio includes schools, civic and office buildings, libraries, fire stations, leisure centres, depots, pavilions and the like. Procurement Strategy It is envisaged that the new contract will operate for a period of between three and five years. The contract will be let on a non-exclusive basis. The procurement route is likely to be the OJEU Open Procedure. Asbestos Removal Programmes Expenditure per financial year cannot be guaranteed. To give an indication of scale of management required on asbestos removal projects, in the last financial year the value of asbestos removal was approximately £130,000. The final estimated total value of the proposed contract will be provided within any Contract Notice published if the Council proceeds with a formal procurement process. Timescales It is proposed to seek consultant's views on the proposed replacement contract in March/April 2016 with invitations to tender being issued in May 2016 for a September 2016 contract commencement.