Guildford Borough Council Leisure Services Contract Management

The service contract will be for the management and operation of Guildford Borough Council's Leisure Services, including Guildford Spectrum Leisure Centre, Ash Manor Leisure Centre, and Guildford Lido. The new contract will commence on 1 November 2025 with an initial 10-year contract term and the potential for an extension of up to 5 years subject to mutual agreement.

Arrangements will be made for all bidders (including technical colleagues) who wish to attend site visits to the individual leisure sites as they prepare for their bid development. Currently the thinking is to provide bidders with one opportunity to visit the sites as a group during the SQ stage and then shortlisted bidders will be given two opportunities to visit the sites on an individual basis during the ISIT stage.

The tender procedure selected for this procurement exercise will follow the 'Competitive Procedure with Negotiation' procurement exercise in accordance with Regulation 29 of the Public Contract Regulations. (PCR2015). TUPE regulations will apply to this procurement, to enable bidders to understand the detail of the overall TUPE requirement will be shared during the SQ stage.

Stage one of this process comprises a 'Supplier Questionnaire' (SQ) designed as an initial assessment tool to identify and shortlist suitable potential candidates.

Stage two will be the Invitation to Submit Initial Tenders (ISIT), involving those organisations identified and selected from stage one. Full details of the service requirements, specification, TUPE, and Contract will be published in the ISIT. GBC reserves the right to select an operator or reduce the shortlist at ISIT stage and reserves the right not to negotiate.

Stage three will be the Invitation to Submit Final Tenders (ISFT) for those bidders successful at ISIT stage. It will consist of negotiation meetings based around a small number of workstreams including, service delivery, commercials, contract and TUPE to explore with bidders their solution followed by the opportunity for bidders to submit a Final Tender Submission.