PS26195 - New Futures Procurement Framework

1. Introduction

The Government Office for Science (GO-Science) will shortly be undertaking a re-procurement of the current Futures Framework to ensure continued access to these critical services.

The intended value of the new Open Framework will be £9,000,000 over a duration of six years.

The Government Office for Science is the centre for Futures thinking in Government promoting strategic long-term thinking for better decision-making.

The Framework will be a register of Futures practitioners from which HMG departments, Agencies and UK public bodies can quickly, and at low cost, identify and procure futures services to support longer-term strategic work and further develop these capabilities in government; ultimately creating better connections with external Futures expertise and building a stronger network of Futures practitioners within UK government.

We encourage bids from new suppliers, as well as those who are on the existing framework.

We will be holding a pre-market engagement session on Thursday 6th August 11:00am to 12:00pm

2. Aims & Objectives

To ensure that government departments, agencies and public bodies can undertake longer-term strategic work, with confidence as widely and deeply as is needed, it is crucial that engaging suppliers in Futures, foresight and related work is straightforward and not time consuming.

The aim of the framework is to assist Government to quickly and with minimal cost identify and procure Futures and related services .

3. Scope

The framework will provide government departments, arm’s-length bodies and other eligible public sector organisations with access to suppliers able to deliver futures, foresight and related professional services. This may include, but is not limited to:

The framework is expected to be an open framework with a maximum duration of six years and one reopening point at year three. The recommended commercial approach is to retain the ability to make direct awards below £50,000 and to use mini-competitions for higher-value or more complex work.

The estimated total framework value is £9,000,000 over the six-year duration. This value is not a committed spend by GO-Science or any single department; expenditure will depend on demand from eligible organisations and will remain subject to their own internal approvals and budget controls.

4. Requirement

Suppliers appointed to the framework will be required to provide high-quality futures and foresight services that can be tailored to the needs of individual commissions.

Outputs will vary depending on the project but may include reports, briefings, slide packs, workshop materials, training materials, methodologies, analytical products, policy recommendation summaries and other practical tools for government users and, where agreed on a project-by-project basis, may be prepared to a standard suitable for publication..

Suppliers should be able to demonstrate appropriate expertise in futures and foresight approaches, including the ability to work with complex policy questions, uncertain long-term trends and diverse sources of evidence. They should be capable of engaging effectively with government customers, senior stakeholders, analysts, policy officials and external experts as required.

For individual commissions, suppliers will be expected to agree clear project plans, milestones, deliverables, quality assurance arrangements and routes for escalation. They should provide named points of contact, respond promptly to queries, and manage risks or changes to scope in a transparent and proportionate way.

The successful suppliers will be expected to comply with relevant government standards and requirements, including data protection, confidentiality, cyber security, accessibility and information management obligations where applicable.

Commissioning under the framework will follow agreed governance and commercial processes. GO-Science will provide policy and subject matter input, while UK Shared Business Services will lead the procurement process and support ongoing commercial management of the framework. Individual departments and public bodies using the framework will remain responsible for securing any internal approvals required for their own commissions.

Please note that this text may change between notice and the publication of the finalised tender document as we respond to responses from supplier outreach.

Budgets:

The proposed framework value of £9,000,000 excluding VAT is based on current and anticipated demand for futures-related services across government, including evidence from increased use of the current framework and an indicative annual planning assumption of up to £1,500,000.

Supplier Engagement Session:

To provide potential Bidders with an overview of the Futures Framework requirements, expectations and intended procurement process, we will be holding a pre-market engagement session on Thursday 6th August 11:00am to 12:00pm. To register your attendance on this session please follow the link below:

https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/5f943534-c092-4ad0-a86d-8dfc4fa459f5@2dcfd016-f9df-488c-b16b-68345b59afb7

Pre-market Engagement Questions:

To help us ensure that the scope, value and structure of the new Futures Framework is fit for purpose, we have proposed a few questions within the link below that we would be grateful for your feedback on.

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=FtDPLd_5jEixa2g0W1mvt7KtZ4KhJj5KoRx5Y7pHELRUNFZRN01VU1NUMFZGVElZM0xMNllWMlVOUS4u