Education Services

The London Borough of Barnet (the Council) is seeking an investment and delivery partner to create a joint venture vehicle to: deliver education services (the services) to the Council and to stakeholder members (i.e. Barnet schools); to develop new and innovative service offers; and to expand the services’ client base. The core objectives of the Council in setting up the joint venture are to:

1. Maintain Barnet’s excellent education offer;
2. Maintain an excellent relationship between the Council and schools
3. Achieve the budget savings target already set by the Council

In addition the Council would be seeking to:
1.Deliver high quality products and services directly to the Council and other customers;
2.Provide opportunities to develop skills in the existing and future Barnet workforce;
3.Create a sustainable organisation which is fit for purpose now and in the longer term;
4. Provide long term financial benefits to the Council.

The investment and delivery partner will be expected to provide up front financial investment to achieve the Council’s budget savings target for these services and to provide business acumen and commercial discipline to deliver the objectives of the joint venture.

The joint venture vehicle will have the benefit of the strong relationships that existing Council staff have built up with the Borough’s schools as a result of their experience, professional specialist knowledge and skills. It is anticipated that this, together with the input of the investment and delivery partner, will enable the joint venture vehicle to capitalise on this opportunity to create an education services venture to support the Council and stakeholder members, as well as potentially a business at a national level serving new customers in the public and private sector.

Key elements for consideration in dialogue will be the most appropriate form and composition of the joint venture vehicle and the most effective way of actively engaging stakeholder members in the governance of the vehicle and/or the commissioning of services to be provided by that vehicle.

The investment and delivery partner will be expected to respond to the changing commissioning needs of the Council and individual stakeholder members, emerging statutory requirements in the education sector and changes in schools' performance.

The stakeholder members consist of 24 secondary schools, 88 primary schools, one all through school and 4 nurseries throughout the Borough, serving some 54,524 pupils. A full list of stakeholder members will be provided in the pre-qualification questionnaire.

The services to be provided by the partner through the joint venture vehicle to the Council and stakeholder members comprise, but are not limited to, the following:

Strategic and financial management of the service
•Strategic oversight of the Education and Skills service
•Strategic support and advice to the Schools Forum
•Management of the Dedicated Schools Budget and the distribution of funding to schools (including SEN place-funding and top-up funding)

School improvement
•Statutory local authority services, such as monitoring, supporting and challenging schools, and intervening in maintained schools where necessary
•Narrowing the gap service (DSG funded)

Special educational needs (including changes implemented from 1st September 2014)
•SEN placements & performance team
•SEN Early Support Programme
•SEN Transport – assessing pupils’ eligibility for SEN transport support; brokering provision (liaising with the family and school and commissioning appropriate transport/travel assistance); and managing the contractual arrangements for the provision of transport/travel assistance
•Educational psychology team (part traded)
•SEN placements (DSG funded)
•SEN specialist support services (DSG funded)

Admissions and sufficiency of school places
•Pupil place planning
•Admissions Service (DSG funded)

Vulnerable pupils
•Education welfare service (part traded)

Post 16 learning
•14 - 19 service to ensure sufficiency and breadth of supply
•Monitoring, tracking and supporting participation

Traded services
•Catering service
•Governor clerking service
•Barnet Partnership for School Improvement (BPSI)
•Newly Qualified Teachers support
•Educational psychology (part)
•Education Welfare Service (part)
•North London Schools International Network (NLSIN)

The new delivery model would be expected to take over all of the services above. Please see MoI for more information about these services.

In addition, the services to be transferred to the joint venture vehicle may include the operation and performance of some incidental and related corporate support services, inside and outside the education sector, but these are not expected to constitute a significant share of the joint venture's operations. This may include, for example, the brokering and contract management arrangements in respect of transport for Adult Services.

The joint venture vehicle will be awarded a contract for a minimum term of seven years, with a maximum three year extension by LBB to supply the services which originate from core services funded by grant from Central Government. All schools have the ability to procure services independently from the Council and it is envisaged that existing contracts awarded by schools and relevant third parties will be assigned and/or novated to the joint venture vehicle (note: most of these contracts are on a 12 month rolling basis).

The joint venture vehicle is expected to grow its business by contracting with schools, academies and the wider education and skills sector both within London and beyond.

The joint venture vehicle will also be able to identify new markets within the Education sector for the services it can supply.

LBB may transfer certain assets into the joint venture vehicle where these are necessary for the provision of the Services. The period during which the partner investor is locked into its investment will be a matter to be discussed as part of the dialogue process.

The Pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) will be publically available from Wednesday 28th January 2015 at:
https://n3g.4projects.com/document/publicfiles.aspx?DocumentID=29035c9f-50e2-4b65-a549-363039895576
VI.3.4) The contracting authority is purchasing on behalf of other contracting authorities. These other contracting authorities are the London Borough of Barnet schools. The names and addresses of these schools are publically available at:
https://n3g.4projects.com/document/publicfiles.aspx?DocumentID=29035c9f-50e2-4b65-a549-363039895576

VI.3.5) This is an electronic tender. All communications and documentation will be managed
through the electronic tendering portal and messaging facility on the 4Projects system.
To enable registration as a user on the 4Projects system, facilitating collaboration on this Education Services procurement and specifically to those organisations interested in submitting responses to the PQQ, you are invited to register by following the procedure shown here;

1. Email barnet.es@4projectsmail.com with your full name, email address and the name of your organisation.

2. An invitation to register as a user will be emailed to you from invitations@4projects.com, detailing acceptance and return deadlines.
Please allow 24 hours between Monday to Friday for this invitation to be generated. If a response is not received after this time, please dial the telephone number or email the address specified in section I.1 to confirm if your request to participate has been received.
3. Existing users will be prompted to accept (or decline) via the 4Project portal.
New users will be prompted to register for 4Projects before proceeding to accept (or decline) in the invitation via the 4Project portal.

For instructions on how to use 4Projects, including frequently asked questions, visit the 4project support page available at https://help.4projects.com/Home/tabid/143/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

Advanced instructions for bid managers is available at https://help.4projects.com/Advanced/BidManagement/tabid/266/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

If you require further assistance or are expecting technical issues with the portal, the support team is able to help. Contact details are available at https://help.4projects.com/Support/Contactsupport/tabid/399/

£89,000,000 to £986,000,000

26/01/2015

02/03/2015