Direct Payment Support - Soft Market Testing

Tender description

Direct Payment Support Soft Market Testing Swindon Borough Council is seeking input from the market for Direct Payment Support. This market assessment is not part of the procurement process, but is purely investigative in nature, to potentially assist the Council in defining a specification and contract for the Direct Payment Support Service. The same information will be gathered from all providers, who wish to participate in the Soft Market testing to assist the Council. This advert relates to a proposed ‘soft market testing’ exercise only and is NOT a call for competition. Any contracts for services or supplies relating to this exercise may be subject to separate procurement process(es) in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended). All participants in this ‘soft market testing’ exercise shall be responsible for their own costs (including third party costs) and the Contracting Authority shall have no liability to any participant. Description The purpose of this Soft Market Test is to gain intelligence on the supply market for Swindon Borough Council’s requirements, including information that will help define the most appropriate structure, plan and budget for any potential competitive procurement exercise. Any service user wishing to take a Direct Payment as a means to deploy their Personal Budget would have the following activities / services available to them within the proposed contract. • Advice, Guidance and Information • Peer Support • Training • Advocacy • Recruitment and Employment Support • Payroll Service • Managed Accounts • Support Planning for PHBs Process Participants are invited to respond to the attached soft market testing response document in writing, along with providing details of their organisation. Soft Market Testing Responses are required to be submitted no later than 29 October 2017, 1400 hrs UK Local time by e-mail to Caroline Gaulton: cgaulton@swindon.gov.uk only. For the avoidance of doubt, no information provided in response to this questionnaire will be used by the Council in assessing providers during any future procurement process, scheduled to commence in 2016. If you require any clarifications on the soft market testing documents please submit these in writing via e-mail, including the project name clearly in the e-mail title, to Caroline Gaulton: cgaulton@swindon.gov.uk by 26 October 2017, 1200 hrs UK Local time. The Council’s responses to these clarification questions will be uploaded as attachments on the project webpage attachments section. Therefore it is the Supplier’s responsibility to check the site regularly for updates to clarifications, as you will not be advised when updates have been made. In the event of difficulties downloading soft market testing documents, please refer to the named contacts Caroline Gaulton: cgaulton@swindon.gov.uk. Please note that this project has been advertised on Contracts Finder/ other web portals, however, Supplying the South West Portal is the only portal that includes all the relevant documents required to respond to this soft market testing exercise. We would encourage you to click on the ‘Register interest’ button to help the Council monitor the level of interest in this opportunity. No Soft Market Testing responses will be considered without completing the Soft Market Testing documents in full including attachments and returning them in alignment with the instructions within the documents. Following this soft market testing exercise it is our intention to complete a competitive procurement exercise for this contract. Keywords: social care support, personal budgets, direct payment, direct payments