1. West Midlands Regional Residential Childrens Home Tender “A Bit Like Herding Cats!”

2. What We plan to Cover What this presentation is about…. – Tendering for Residential Care Service with 14 LA’s working in partnership. – The Good, The Bad and the Cock ups! What its not about – – How great we are !!! Or – Discussing the details of specific tenders.

3. The Project Pre-Requisites Dedicated Project Manager funded Via The Riep. (The Cat Shepherd!). Worcester agreed to lead the procurement process. A real appetite, commitment and resources From ALL WM authorities. Full use of www.westmidlandsplacements.com for documentation sharing and ultimately the search process.

4. The Tender Time Line What We Planned "2011""2012" AugSeptOctNovDecJanFebMarAprMayJuneJuly Tender Development Tendering Evaluation Award Contracting What Actually Happened AugSeptOctNovDecJanFebMarAprMayJuneJuly Market Warming Tender Development Tendering Evaluation Award Contracting Feedback

5. Market Warming (December 2010 & August-September 2011) Getting The Market Ready…. Informing The Regional Childrens Commissioning Group of our plans Running training sessions for providers In Tendering and Using the WM Database Running a Market Warming event and inviting providers to come and comment on our tender proposals

6. Market Warming (December 2010 & August- September 2011) How Did It Help ? Raised the profile of the tender with providers. Explored tendering options and detail – what, why, when, how and where Providers got a better understanding of the Tender Process – Out of 136 tenders only 7 (plus 2 late tenders) were disqualified as being non compliant at Stage 1. It informed our tender development

7. Tender Development (August –December 2011) Herding Cats! 14 LA’s with 14 views and 14 different political processes and procurement codes/policies have to come to a consensus. All have different priorities and views about what and how we would evaluate the tenders. Understand how different timescales and personal capacities impact on the process.

8. Tender Development (August –December 2011) What we did- (Trained to become cat shepherds !) Compromise Weekly meetings to thrash out issues. In terms of tender process decisions Worcestershire had ultimate veto (though any authority could walk away at any time). We planned to release the tender in October but due to various issues it was delayed until December.

9. Tendering (December –January 2012) Worcestershire lead for the tendering process. Tender was a mix of electronic and paper. Tender launched on Worcestershire’s E Portal … December. Opportunity for providers to ask written questions up until early January (regular releases of answers ). We had 84 questions in that time.

10. Receiving The Tenders (January 2012) County Hall Procurement, Reception and Mailroom Staff Briefed of the arrival of a large number of postal and hand delivered tenders. (we didn’t know how many and Storage!) County Hall started to receive tenders in early January. Anticipating a rush in the last hours we put additional staff on reception to receive the tenders. The last compliant tender arrived at 3.50pm The first (of only two) late (non compliant) tenders arrived at 4.15pm

11. Tendering Evaluation (January – April 2012)

12. Tender Evaluation (January to April 2012) Shared Out Responsibilities Amongst ALL The WM LA’s. Weekly meetings to Discuss Issues and Resolve Queries. Consistent evaluation for individual questions. Evaluate possible savings.

13. Tender Evaluation (January to April 2012) What We Did; Underestimate how long it would take to undertake all the evaluation. Had to delay award by about 3 weeks. West Midlands Database was a life saver in terms of being able to securely share 134 tenders between 14 LA’s. Good for providers too because their standard documentation could be uploaded there and not included in tender packs.

14. Award (April-May 2012) Successful and Unsuccessful Tenderers advised at the same time of their scores and Tier ranking. Standstill – 10 Days To allow queries and challenges to be resolved. Formal Contract Start Implemented 2nd Week Of May 2012

15. Award (April May 2012) What We did: Overlook the impact of different versions of software across the region. Didn’t realise how long it takes to mail merge and email 136 letters! Made a mistake in the calculations!@$&!@! Approx 20 providers didn’t receive the correct score for one question (but we were saved by the standstill) Some providers moved up, some moved down Unsuccessful providers sought clarification and got it. One LA decided not to proceed with the framework Finally We Commenced the Contract on May 9 th 2012

16. Contracting (May to Present) Each Participating LA took responsibility for contracting themselves. – Lesson learnt from Sub Regional Fostering Contract Signing Held a Launch event inviting all providers and LA’s to gear everyone up for the process. Used existing WM contracts already in existence – no surprises understood used and widely consulted on previously. Existing placements would move to the new contract where applicable.

17. Contracting (May – Present) What We Did- Not all Authorities able to formally agree immediately (Back to Herding Cats!). Although the contracts were fairly standard there were still queries around how existing transfers would be made, C&V and other pricing details would work. Some providers realised they had not priced their tenders correctly But we all got there! The Challenge Now is Making it Work!

18. Feedback Undertook a feedback session at the Regional Commissioning Conference with providers also E- mail feedback. Both Positive and Negative – Providers liked the ability to access 14 LA’s (especially new providers) – Most felt the process was fair – Thought Tender was focussed and well designed – Providers wanted more focus on quality (in particular the outcomes they have delivered) in the evaluation process.

19. Lessons Learned Dedicated Project Manager - Partnership relationships between all LA’s Flexibility in terms of time frames Market Warming Managing 136 tender bids –coms, storage,receipt and opening, mail merge,evaluation, Full use of electronic communication eg database and sharing electronic tender documentation. Compatibility of software across the Region (XL spreadsheet). Human Error!!!!