Schools Information Management System (SIMS)

CPV: IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

Procedure method

Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition

Legal basis

CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)

Procurement category

Services

Notice status

Awarded without competition

Procurement threshold

Unspecified in notice

Regulatory regime

Standard

Commercial structure

Stand-alone contract (no framework)

Competition type

Direct award (no call for competition)

GPA / WTO covered

Yes (GPA)

Recurring procurement

Unspecified in notice

First published

7 Apr 2022, 08:54 BST

Last source update

7 Apr 2022, 08:54 BST

FTS notice number

2022/S 000-009322

Classification (CPV)

IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

Delivery area

Wales (UKL13)

Official registry OCID

ocds-h6vhtk-032b05 Find a Tender

Why no open competition

The procurement falls outside the scope of application of the directive

Published justification

This contract award notice is intended to be a relevant contract award notice pursuant to Reg.93(2),(3)and(4) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. It is published on a wholly voluntary basis and without prejudice to the local authority's (LA) and the governing body of each individual school. No prior publication of a contract notice, and thus no competitive tender exercise was required in respect of the Facilitation Agreement (FA) and/or the individual Schools Contracts (SC) as neither are within the scope of application of Part 2 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended) due to the following reasons: - The FA has no "value" but simply puts in place an administrative mechanism to transition contracts from LA to schools. It is therefore below the threshold set out in Reg. 5 (as reviewed pursuant to Reg.5A) of the 2015 Regulations. - The governing body of each individual school is a separate contracting entity and each individual SC is a separate contract, each of the individual SCs in the LA's area ranging between 255.00 GBP and 19,000 GBP in total over the three-year duration of each SC. Each individual contract is therefore below the threshold set out in Reg.5 (as reviewed pursuant to Reg.5A) of the 2015 Regulations. Further or in the alternative, neither the FA nor individual SCs are subject to a requirement to carry out prior publication of a contract notice and/or any form of competitive tender, because; - the services can only be provided by one particular economic operator (ESS), because competition is absent for technical reasons pursuant to Reg. 32(2)(b)(ii) of the 2015 Regulations. All of the schools in the LA currently use ESS' SIMS product. It would take a minimum of 12mths to transition from ESS'SIMS product to another product. ESS served 90 days notice to terminate the current arrangements mid December 2021, therefore not possible in the timescales for schools to tender and purchase an alternative product and transition to it. - urgency pursuant to Reg. 32(2)(c) of the 2015 Regulations. The provision of SIMS is essential to the running of a school and a school cannot function without it. Due to the short notice given by ESS timescales did not allow for the open or restricted procedure, or competitive procedure with negotiation to be undertaken. It is intended to advertise a competitive tender for SIMS on an all-Wales basis. Award and transition of new contracts to coincide with the end of the 3yr term of the SCs with ESS.

Publisher note: (WA Ref:120150)

• Education Software Solutions LimitedAwarded supplier 11 Kingsley Lodge, 13 New Cavendish Street, London, Wales, W1G9UG

No document links were published on the notice.