ANNEX 1REQUEST FOR TENDER FOR BBO EVALUATION - GCGP ANNEXES

The Consultancy Home Counties Ltd (TCHC)

TCHC was set up in August 2004 and has since gained a wealth of experience working with important organisations such as the Skills Funding Agency, The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the European Social Fund (ESF).

We have been influential in helping to create and promote new ways of engaging with employers and individuals on the benefits that improved skills can bring to both businesses and careers. Our independent status has always offered our contractors a flexibility and impartiality that has helped to raise standards within the industry.

We have gained a reputation for our quality of work, our ability to meet challenging targets and our proactive and innovative approach. We have found ourselves in increasing demand, especially in helping failing projects meet their targets. Successive project evaluations have praised TCHC for our quality, cost-effectiveness and our imaginative approach to problem solving.

In our history, TCHC has been responsible for the delivery of a variety of different projects, which has helped thousands of people learn new skills they otherwise would not have had the opportunity to acquire.

Through the highest quality Information, Advice and Guidance from our highly trained, professionally accredited advisers we have helped people from the hardest to reach companies, people facing redundancy, job-seekers, senior managers and directors as well as working people from businesses of all sizes.

TCHC has played a big part in the success of flagship programmes such as Leadership and Management, Skills Support for Redundancy, and the Youth Contract in the East of England, helping to co-ordinate a programme that has benefited thousands of businesses and individuals. Our support has helped them survive this recession and develop vital skills and knowledge that will benefit our economy in the future.

In delivering all its contracts, TCHC has shown it can work within the stringent management and quality assurance processes set down by the respective Public and Private sector organisations.

In 2015 the company acquired All Trades Training Ltd (ATT), an outstanding training organisation that delivers Apprenticeships, Traineeships and Vocational Qualifications. ATT now forms part of the TCHC Group of companies.

In 2016, TCHC was awarded three grants by the Big Lottery Fund to deliver three partnership projects as part of their European Social Fund co-financed Building Better Opportunities programme. These projects cover the Local Enterprise Partnership areas of the South East Midlands, the Greater Cambridge and Greater Peterborough area and New Anglia.

In 2017 TCHC achieved an OFSTED Grade 2 grade across all four judgement areas: Leadership and Management, Quality of teaching, learning and assessment, Personal Development and Learner outcomes.

Our vision is to be the provider of choice for the delivery of employability and skills development for the public and private sectors. We plan to do this through the employment and development of best in class people, processes and partnerships

Page 1 of 6

ANNEX 2REQUEST FOR TENDER FOR BBO EVALUATION - GCGP ANNEXES

The Community Connections North GCGP Building Better Opportunities Project

The project supports those furthest from the labour market to become work-ready with progression routes into learning, training and job opportunities; and engages and supports disadvantaged people to enable them to overcome complex and multiple barriers to employment.

This may be done by addressing the barriers in ways that are additional to those services already provided by mainstream employment interventions or by targeting disadvantaged groups such as lone parent families that are not currently receiving any employment support.

Barriers may include, but are not limited to, factors such as substance misuse, mental ill health, poor literacy and numeracy skills, long-term physical health problems and disabilities and geographical isolation.

The project is being delivered across the North of the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough LEP area, including in the most rural communities and includes the key urban areas of Peterborough, Wisbech, March, Chatteris and King's Lynn.

Fifteen partner organisations are delivering this project that will deliver at least 641 people engaged in activities to improve their work readiness, including at least:

Target Group / Target Number
Men / 429
Women / 212
Unemployed / 318
Economically Inactive / 318
Aged 50+ / 101
People with Disabilities / 131
Ethnic Minority Group / 53
People enrolled on the project move into education or training on leaving / 84
People move into employment, including self-employment, on leaving / 83: of these 50% must have been unemployed when joining the project and 50% must have been economically inactive
People who were economically inactive when joining the project move into job-search on leaving / 86
Anyone who needs access to childcare in order to participate in the project receives childcare support / As required

Outcomes for Community Connections North

We have identified the following outcomes for this project. Many are perception-based, as we are building capacity and capability within individual participants. Their self-confidence to, for example, catch a bus to the nearest town is of more importance in most cases than the existence of a feasible bus route. So our indicators capture the participants’ perceived ability in relation to an outcome – this measures both the practical feasibility (“is it possible?”) and their ability to capitalise on it (“can I do it?”). Each outcome will have a direct impact on participants and their local community, which we expect to express itself as follows:

Project Partners - Community Connections North

Cross Keys Homes

FACET

Hanseatic Union

Headway Cambridgeshire

Keystone Development Trust

Kickstart Norfolk

Papworth Trust

Pre-School Learning Alliance

Sharing Parenting

The Consultancy Home Counties

The Ferry Project

The Princes Trust

The Rosmini Centre

Page 1 of 6

ANNEX 3REQUEST FOR TENDER FOR BBO EVALUATION - GCGP ANNEXES

Sustainability Actions
Use digital systems wherever possible
Organise logistics in order to keep car-travel to a minimum
Support and promote recycling across the project
Encouraging staff and participants to use public transport to travel to events and engagements, and where possible organising carpools in the event that public transportation is not possible
Deliver all staff training in the requirements of our Sustainability policy and best sustainable practices;
Appoint a Sustainable Development Champion in the organisation who is responsible for ensuring BBO activities are as environmentally friendly as possible, who will conduct regular reviews and highlight areas for the BBO programme to improve its sustainable practices
Support the environmental technologies sector. Participants going through the programme will be encouraged to explore work within this sector, specifically supported by TCHC’s employer engagement team
Track resources used such as paper, electricity, ink cartridges, and other supplies;
Measure necessary distance travelled by staff and participants to project related engagement

Page 1 of 6

ANNEX 4 REQUEST FOR TENDER FOR BBO EVALUATION - GCGP ANNEXES

Equality and Diversity Action Plan / Target Group / Purpose / Measure
A Service User Forum of representatives of participants will be established at the beginning of this project. / Ensuring the EO action plan is delivered and monitoring performance data / Service User Forum
Develop Equality and Diversity Policy and Procedures / Disability Race Gender / A single overarching equality and diversity policy to promote coherent approach / Policy developed, shared and implemented
Disability Access Assessments for all buildings / Disability Race Gender / Ensure accessibility and reasonable adaptations made (including for specific clients based on their needs) / Disability Access Assessment Records
Staff refresher Equality & Diversity training / Disability Race Gender / Reinforce legislative requirements plus prioritising gender and equality issues. Staff know how to report incidents of racism, and discrimination / Training Matrix Updated
Implement monitoring system for equality performance data / Disability Race Gender / Monthly review of equality data to ensure project is inclusive and reaching all groups / Performance monitoring records and data for each partner
Embed equalities monitoring in self-evaluation / Disability Race Gender / Establish the views of all stakeholders. Clients report equalities in surveys to ensure satisfaction / Self-evaluation survey data and analysis
Communication Planning / Disability Race Gender / Provide communication and marketing in formats and languages that make them accessible to all user groups. Ensure communications and marketing doesn’t rely on written text alone. / Communication and marketing documents/leaflets accommodating needs of key groups. Evidence of nonverbal communications/ marketing
Project Outreach / Disability Race Gender / Project outreach activities to actively target hard to reach groups in the community through enduring face-to-face presence / Outreach activity in local community centres, groups. Evidence of recruitment in participant monitoring forms.

Page 1 of 6

ANNEX 5REQUEST FOR TENDER FOR BBO EVALUATION - GCGP ANNEXES

Selection Criteria and Methodology

TCHC will select an appropriate organisation by applying a fair and transparent process in line with EU Procurement Regulations. Completed applications will be assessed by TCHC’s business development and delivery teams. They will be subject to a formal qualitative evaluation using the methodology and criteria as outlined below.

TCHC will identify an appropriate organisation that is able to demonstrate the required capacity, delivery capabilities and geographic coverage. Successful and unsuccessful providers will be notified.

Please note: Price will not be a weighted criterion for any tender. However, if a tender is above the contract value stated in this document, it will not be considered.

Criterion / Overall Weighting to the nearest % / Question weighting
1 / Technical merit (fit for purpose)
1a / Degree to which services meet or exceed requirements / 23% / 15 marks
Qu 1, 3, 4, 6, 7
1b / Quality of services / 14% / 9 marks
Qu 2, 4, 6
2 / Capability of the supplier to deliver
2a / Supplier’s size and structure / 5% / 3 marks
Qu 2
2b / Track record in delivering similar goods/services / 18% / 12 marks
Qu 1, 5, 6, 7
2c / Understanding of the requirements / 32% / 21 marks
Qu 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 15
2d / Operational and financial systems to manage delivery / 9% / 6 marks
Qu2, 15
Total weightings / 100% / 66 marks
Score / Criteria to Award Score
0 / Response does not meet requirements or no response is provided
1 / Response partially meets requirements but contains significant weaknesses, issues or omissions.
2 / Response meets requirements to an acceptable standard but contains some weaknesses, issues or omissions.
3 / Response meets requirements to a high standard. Robust and detailed in all respects.

Page 1 of 6