Official UK procurement notice
Torfaen County Borough Council Schools Information Management System (SIMS)
Authority: Torfaen County Borough Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionTransition from existing contractual model of perpetual licence of SIMS to local authority with associated support services, to software as a service model contracting directly with individual schools to provide SIMS and associated support services.
CPV: Data services · Data-processing services · Database services · IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support · Software supply services · Software support services · Software-related services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Prior to the award of these contracts, the current provider -ESS- had a contract with…Awarded
Prior to the award of these contracts, the current provider -ESS- had a contract with the local authority under which it provided a perpetual licence to the local authority for the purpose of providing SIMS to the schools in the local authority's area, with associated support services.
ESS has now served notice to terminate that contract and requires that, in order to continue provision of SIMS, individual schools must enter into direct contracts with ESS to receive SIMS as software as a service.
In order to bring about the transition, the local authority will enter into a Facilitation Agreement "FA" with ESS under which nothing of value is received by ESS and no material services are provided to the local authority; it is purely an administrative arrangement to effect the transition. Each school in the local authority's area will enter into a School Contract "SC" with ESS for the direct provision of SIMS as software as a service, at substantially the same cost as before.
The highest value SC is 9105.44GBP and the lowest value SC is 615.06GBP.
The schools in the local authority's area whose governing bodies will enter into contracts with ESS are as follows:
Abersychan Comprehensive School
Alternative Home Tuition
Blaenavon Heritage VC Primary School
Blenheim Road Community Primary School
Coed Eva Primary
Croesyceiliog Primary
Croesyceliog Comprehensive School
Crownbridge Special School
Cwmbran High School
Cwmbran RC Primary School
Cwmffrwdoer Primary School
Garnteg Primary School
George Street Primary & Nursery School
Green Meadow Primary School
Griffithstown Primary School
Henllys JI School
Llantarnam Community Primary School
Llanyrafon Primary School
Maendy Primary School
Nant Celyn Primary School
New Inn Primary School
Padre Pio RC Primary
Penygarn Primary School
Ponthir Church in Wales Primary School
Pontnewydd JI School
St Albans RC Comprehensive School
St Davids RC JI School
West Monmouth Comprehensive School
Woodlands Community Primary School
Ysgol Bryn Onnen
Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw
Ysgol Gymraeg Cwmbran
Ysgol Panteg
The local authority publishes this notice on behalf of itself and the schools listed above but is not acting as a central purchasing body on behalf of the schools. Additional information: Contract duration: 36 months
The FA has no value
Individual SCs have a value between 9105.44.GBP and 615.06GBP
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record · publisher note attached- 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
- 22 Apr 2022, 12:30 BST
- Last source update
- 22 Apr 2022, 12:30 BST
- FTS notice number
2022/S 000-010468- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-032f82Find 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 and the governing body of each individual school's position that 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).
Publisher note: Further or in the alternative, neither the FA nor the 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. This is because all of the schools in the local authority's area currently use ESS' SIMS product. It would take a minimum of 6 weeks to transition from ESS' SIMS product to another product, including implementation, testing, training staff and migration of data. To avoid serious disruption to the school's functions, that transition has to take place over the long summer holidays. ESS served 90 days' notice to terminate the current arrangements, shortly before Christmas 2021. It would therefore not be possible, in the timescales imposed by ESS, for schools to tender for and purchase an alternative product and transition to it, without suffering serious disruption to essential services which would affect the ability of schools to continue to function and which may require schools to close. Further or in the alternative, neither the FA nor the individual SCs are subject to a requirement to carry out prior publication of a contract notice and/or any form of competitive tender, because of urgency pursuant to Reg. 32(2)(c) of the 2015 Regulations. The provision of an information management system is essential to the running of a school and a school cannot function without it. The notice to terminate the current contracts and the short timescale imposed by ESS were unforeseen by the local authority and the schools. Due to the short notice given by ESS, together with the time it would take to prepare and agree a specification and (following a tender exercise) to transition to a new product, the timescales for the open or restricted procedure, or competitive procedure with negotiation, cannot be complied with in the time available. It is intended in the future to advertise a competitive tender exercise for SIMS on an all-Wales basis, with award and transition to the new contracts resulting from such tender to coincide with the end of the 3-year term of the SCs entered into with ESS. Pre-tender market testing is likely to commence in the near future. (WA Ref:120676)
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Education Software Solutions Ltd | £9,105 † | — | Awarded |
Contracts
Contract 010468-2022-1 · Education Software Solutions Ltd
- Signed
- 25 Mar 2022
- Value
- £9,105
- Status
- active
Bid statistics published by the authority
| Bids | SME | VCSE | Valid bid range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1bids · 1 electronic · 1 from abroad | 0 | — | — |
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Dispute resolution & review bodies
- High CourtReview body
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- Education Software Solutions LimitedAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications
Official links; attachments are not copiedNo document links were published on the notice.