Big Lottery Fund Scotland ESF Programme, ref: BIG001-0592

The Big Lottery Fund in Scotland is seeking to procure five contracts to deliver support services to increase the financial capacity and therefore improve the social inclusion of the most disadvantaged individuals and households in Argyll and Bute, Inverclyde, Dundee, North Ayrshire and Glasgow.

The maximum number of contracts the Fund will award to a particular bidder at the ITT stage of this procurement is three (3). The criteria for determining which lots are awarded to the bidder where the application of the award criteria at the ITT stage results in the bidder winning more than three lots, will be set out at the ITT stage.

Service providers must achieve the following outcomes through the contracts:

• An increase in disadvantaged participants with improved money management skills; and
• A decrease in disadvantaged participants affected by debt as a barrier to social inclusion.

The investment is being part funded (via the Scottish Government) from the European Social Fund 2014-2020 (ESF). The successful bidders will therefore be required to meet ESF requirements such as audit, eligibility,

recording keeping, publicity and procurement as part of contract delivery.

The support must be delivered to eligible participants (as defined in the tender documents) We expect eligible participants to receive intensive holistic support to deal with issues including but not limited to:

• Debt;
• Fuel poverty;
• Accessing affordable credit;
• Accessing affordable products;
• Lack of basic banking services;
• Lack of money management skills; and
• Lack of IT/digital skills needed to manage money online.

The support may be delivered on a one to one basis or in group sessions and can be delivered face to face, over the phone or online as appropriate. Service providers will be required to use their knowledge and experience to propose the most suitable methodology for delivering the support.

The service provider will be required to promote the support services on offer throughout the term of the Contract in order to ensure a steady stream of participants are engaged and take up the support. For the purposes of learning and publicity the service provider will be required to collect and share suitable data, such as case studies, throughout the contract term in order to highlight service progression and success.

Service providers will also be required to contribute towards an evaluation of the overall Delivering Financial Inclusion programme.

Further details about the service requirement including our minimum targets for eligible participants benefiting from the support under each contract are provided in the tender documents, which can be downloaded from: https://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/about-big/tender-opportunities

Additional information: The Big Lottery Fund is procuring the contracts under the restricted procedure under the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015. Economic operators will be required to complete and return the ESPD available at https://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/about-big/tender-opportunities. Bidders must refer to the Annex to the ESPD when completing the ESPD and return the completed ESPD to the Big Lottery Fund as per the instructions in the Annex.

Bidders may complete ESPD responses for some or all five of the lots. For each lot, the top five highest scoring bidders will be invited to the ITT stage, provided that they have not been excluded under Parts III and IV of

the ESPD. If two or more bidders are tied for fifth place in a particular lot, the Fund will increase the number of bidders it will invite to the ITT stage for that lot to enable it to invite all those bidders tied for fifth place.

The maximum number of contracts the Fund will award to a particular bidder at the ITT stage of this procurement is three (3). The criteria for determining which lots are awarded to the bidder where the application of the award criteria at the ITT stage results in the bidder winning more than three lots, will be set out at the ITT stage.

Nothing in the ESPD, this Annex or other tender documents will constitute an offer or a commitment to award any contract or other agreement or arrangement to any person. The Fund does not bind itself to award a contract or contracts and shall not be liable for any costs incurred in the production or submission of ESPD responses. The Fund reserves The Fund reserves the right to change the timing or any other aspect of the procurement process or to cancel the procurement process (for one or more of the lots) at any stage or not to proceed with the procurement (for one or more of the lots) for any reason whatever without prior notice. Under no circumstances will the Fund or any of its advisers be liable for any costs or expenses incurred by bidders and/or their members in this procurement.