Decision details

Bristol City Council is in the process of re-profiling it's children’s homes in favour of a new model of smaller homes able to better meet the needs of children in our care, and situated in communities across the city. It is important that each one has its own homely aesthetic and is furnished like a modern family home avoiding institutional styles.
For the remaining homes we pursued an open tender, with a view to procuring a single supplier framework for each lot required. By pursing this option we allow ourselves more flexibility and future proof the contract in any event that over the course of the scheme the number of anticipated homes are either not realised or become delayed prohibiting delivery.

Following a competitive tendering process the evaluation results recommend that the framework agreement be awarded to the highest scoring supplier for each lot. The successful supplier is the same for all four lots tendered.
The following opportunities exist by appointing a single supplier framework for the remainder of the scheme:
• Having one supplier framework including all furniture lots gives economies of scale and the same level of quality throughout all homes.
• By establishing pricing during the competition it gave the best pricing solution that is fixed for the three year period of the framework
• Of suppliers evaluated, the supplier appointed can provide all items to high quality in a variety of different styles and colours as well as delivering the family style aesthetic we need.
• The Council will be entering into a framework agreement with the successful supplier and will call-off requirements as each home becomes available. This provides a more flexible approach when taking into account property and construction industries experiencing unexpected delays, which then poses a risk that new homes are delayed or not achieved. A framework mitigates that risk if the volumes considered didn’t actually materialise or even if volumes increased. By procuring this requirement through a framework the Council has made no guarantee of any minimum quantities or any quantities to be purchased at all.

Consideration was given to a contract already in place with a supplier that was competitively and compliantly procured. However, that contract had already been varied through the inclusion of the requirements for another team and adding in the Children’s homes furnishings would have pushed the contract value over the limit which triggers re-procurement. Therefore the approved approach was pursued to ensure requirements are met, best value for money and quality product offering.