Abuse & Rape Crisis Counselling Services

Portsmouth City Council ('the council') is inviting tenders from suitably qualified suppliers to provide Abuse and Rape Crisis Counselling Services.

The Service Provider will provide free, confidential, flexible counselling and psychotherapy services to women, men and young people resident in Portsmouth.

The aims and purposes of the service are:

Providers will need to have their own premises within the Portsmouth City limits (i.e. a premises within the PO1 to PO6 postal code areas).

This tender opportunity has been restricted to suppliers who are located in Hampshire, in accordance with Policy Procurement Note 11/20 'Reserving Below Threshold Procurements'. This allows the council to run a competition and specify that only suppliers located in a geographical area can bid. Supplier location is described as 'where the supplier is based or established and has substantive business operations and not by location of corporate ownership'.

The initial contract term will be for 3 years with possibility of extending the term by a further 2 years to a maximum total term of 5 years in increments to be agreed, subject to the agreement and performance of both parties.

The estimated value of the contract is £118,000 per annum, £590,000 over the maximum 5 year contract term. This is based on current service delivery.

The contract value is expected to remain in the region of £118,000 per annum for the term of the contract, however it may increase or decrease throughout the contract term subject to any known or unknown changes to budget allocation, variation of services, or addition of further associated services in order to meet changes in demand or the service delivery.

An accurate forecast cannot be made regarding the level of further funding, if any, that may become available, but it is not expected to equate to an increase of more than approx. 10% and therefore approx. £649,000 total value over the 5-year maximum term. However, these estimates are not guarantees and are non-binding in terms of any maximum total upper value that may be let via the contracts.

It is envisaged that the new service will commence on the 1st October 2022 allowing for a 1-month mobilisation period however the council are able to extend this to 2-months where a longer mobilisation period is necessary. Bidders must clearly state in the tender return what length of mobilisation period is required. This will not have any impact on the scoring of bids.

The procurement process will be undertaken in line with the following programme:

• Issue FTS Contract Notice - 10 June 2022
• Issue Invitation to Tender - 10 June 2022
• ITT Return Deadline - 15 July 2022 at midday
• Standstill period - 19 August 2022 - 30 August 2022
• Contract Award - 31 August 2022
• Service Commencement - 1 October/November 2022

Application is via completed tender submission by the deadline stated above via the Council's e-sourcing system InTend which will be used to administrate the procurement process, the system can be accessed free of charge via the web link below:

https://in-tendhost.co.uk/portsmouthcc/aspx/home