The procurement exercises to appoint lead providers were carried out separately by both local authorities, but the authorities worked very closely together to ensure as much alignment as possible. Online ‘meet the buyer’ events were organised to help refine the procurement process and allow providers potentially interested in tendering to find out more.
Each local authority’s contracts and procurement teams supported the process and published tender specifications on Sell2Wales. Three lots were offered, on Essential Skills provision, Employability provision and to provide a LLWR data processing service. (LLWR is the Welsh Government database on which ALC and other post-16 providers record information about their learners and programmes)
In commissioning lead providers, the local authorities’ contracts teams used the same commissioning framework to assess suitability, including a pre-approval questionnaire. The pre-approval questionnaire included questions on policies and processes, health and safety and safeguarding. A finance evaluation was also submitted for each tender.
For potential providers to move through to the second stage, local authority management teams individually evaluated each tender against set criteria. The team then worked together to standardise scores. Results were based on 80% quality and 20% price. An overall score for each tender was then calculated for each tender and the highest scoring tenders secured the contracts.
Organisations were informed if they had been successful or not, with a ten-day standstill. This allowed organisations to challenge the decisions made. After the ten-day standstill providers were informed of the final decisions. Across the partnership, contracts were awarded to two providers in Wrexham and three in Flintshire, with one provider awarded to a contract to input LLWR data.
In April 2021 a management and quality committee was formed, made up of officials from the local authorities, and representatives from the lead provider and partner organisations. The remit of this committee was to work together, transparently and in partnership, to work towards the highest quality delivery and the best 21st century learning provision. A curriculum group was also formed to support the planning of provision and share good practice across all partners; and a quality committee whose aims include:
- promoting a culture where quality improvement is at the heart of provision
- monitoring and evaluation of the outcomes of the partnership’s provision
- monitoring and reviewing the partnership’s self-evaluation report and quality improvement plan
Both local authorities retain responsibility for the funding they receive from the Welsh Government and submit separate annual service delivery plans. However, the planning and self-evaluation of the service delivery plans are carried out in collaboration.
