Aylesford School and Sixth Form College — Tender for Cleaning Services.

The successful tenderer will be required to provide cleaning services at Aylesford School and Sixth Form College.

Aylesford School and Sixth Form College is a forward thinking, exciting and educationally challenging environment. All of the School's fundamental principles centre on the teaching and learning experience, with students at the core of all work. The School believe in academic rigour and the concept of improving on previous best. Aylesford School is proud of the school ethos, their teachers and students and the learning relationship that they nurture. Aylesford School prepare their students to access higher education or employment and guide and encourage them to be good citizens capable of adapting to adult life in the 21st century.

The tender project is seeking to appoint a Contractor whose initiative and innovation will be welcomed for the provision of cleaning services within the facilities for Aylesford School and Sixth Form College. The high quality service levels proposed, should maintain excellent standards throughout, resulting in a pleasant environment for both the pupils and staff.

The basis and rationale that the Client requires the successful contractor to operate to at all times, is being able to provide a School that is fit for purpose and that the contractor is proactive in the management of the contract, thus ensuring that all specifications are achieved and that the frequency of cleans is as detailed within the Tender Specification.

The contract being tendered is for 3 years in duration from 1.4.2017 until 31.3.2020 and will be fixed price in nature, with the contractor invoicing the client for one-twelfth of the annual cost on a monthly basis.

It should be noted that the successful contractor will be expected to bring to the contract: innovation; new equipment; and cleaning methods, with BICSc standards being achieved as a minimum, thus ensuring that the highest levels of cleanliness are maintained in all areas at all times and also ensuring that the productivity of the cleaning operatives is enhanced moving forward into the new contract term.

At present 10 cleaning operatives (covering 14 areas — 9 operatives on the evening shift and 5 operatives on the morning shift) are employed to work between the hours of 6:00-8:30 and 15:30-18:00, Monday to Friday, which includes a Contract Manager undertaking cleaning and non-cleaning duties, totalling 30 hours per week.

The value of the current contract is circa 81 000 GBP + VAT which includes daily cleaning duties, washroom services and window cleaning once per annum.

Whilst the School prioritises value for money as a key objective of the Competitive Tender Process, the Governing body is not obliged to accept the lowest price.

Further information is available within the PQQ Documentation.

Additional information: Interest in the pre-qualification process should be expressed via email only to pqq@litmuspartnership.co.uk clearly stating within this email which contract / notice you are referring to. Please also provide, as a minimum, a contact name, full company postal address and telephone number.

The pre-qualification questionnaire and associated documents can be obtained at: http://www.litmuspartnership.co.uk/project/aylesford_school_cleaning_services

The closing date for receipt of the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire is 9.9.2016 (12:00). Tenderers are required to ensure that documents are obtained and returned to The Litmus Partnership Limited, by email to pqq@litmuspartnership.co.uk by the above closing date and time.

Documents in respect of economic / financial standing (where indicated in the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire) shall be returned to The Litmus Partnership Limited, by email to pqq@litmuspartnership.co.uk by the above closing date and time.

It will be the Tenderer's responsibility to obtain any necessary documents in order to submit a response by the closing date and time.

The contracting authority reserves the right not to award any or part of the contract which is the subject of this OJEU notice and reserves the right to terminate the procurement process at any time.

The contracting authority will not be liable for any costs incurred by those expressing an interest in tendering for this contract opportunity.

The contracting authority will consider variant bids, evaluating them (so far as the variant or the evaluation of the variant is in the opinion of the contracting authority practicable) on the same basis as a conforming bid, but shall not be obliged to accept any such bid in preference to a conforming bid even if the variant bid scores more highly. No variant will be considered unless the bidder simultaneously submits a conforming bid.