Commercial Services: Preferred Partners Framework Agreement to Support Social Survey and Statistical Methodological Activities for the Office for National Statistics

UK-Newport: Market and economic research; polling and statistics.

Section I: Contracting Authority
   I.1)Name, Addresses and Contact Point(s):
      Office for National Statistics
      Government Buildings, Cardiff Road, Newport, NP10 8XG, United Kingdom
      Tel. +44 1633456764, Email: mark.tovey@ons.gsi.gov.uk, URL: www.statistics.gov.uk
      Contact: Mark Tovey, Attn: Mark Tovey
      Electronic Access URL: www.delta-esourcing.com
      Electronic Submission URL: www.delta-esourcing.com

      Further information can be obtained at: As Above       
      Specifications and additional documents: As Above       
      Tenders or requests to participate must be sent to: As Above       
   
   I.2)Type of the contracting authority:
      Other: Non Departmental Government Body

   I.3) Main activity:
      Other: Office for National Statistics is the contracting authority that provides UK statistical services.

   I.4) Contract award on behalf of other contracting authorities:
      The contracting authority is purchasing on behalf of other contracting authorities: No

Section II: Object Of The Contract: SERVICES
   II.1)Description
      II.1.1)Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority: Preferred Partners Framework Agreement to Support Social Survey and Statistical Methodological Activities for the Office for National Statistics
      II.1.2)Type of contract and location of works, place of delivery or of performance: SERVICES         
         Service Category: 8

         Region Codes: UK - UNITED KINGDOM         
      II.1.3) Information about a public contract, a framework or a dynamic purchasing system: The notice involves the setting up of a framework agreement                                                        

      II.1.4)Information on framework agreement:      
            Framework agreement with several operators

         Duration of the framework agreement:
            Duration in year(s): 5             
         Justification for a framework agreement the duration of which exceeds four years:
         A requirement of this Framework is to recruit potential partners to work with the Authority including the bidding of external contracts which may exceed four years in length. It should be noted however, that some external contracts that require the Authority to work with potential partners will be less than four years and can vary from between three months and four years in length.
         Estimated total value of purchases for the entire duration of the framework agreement:
                                    
            Range between: 6,000,000 and 12,000,000
            Currency: GBP
                  
      II.1.5)Short description of the contract or purchase:
      Market and economic research; polling and statistics. Social research services. Building surveying services. Research services. Statistical services. Market and economic research; polling and statistics. Social research services. Building surveying services. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) wish to operate a framework agreement with organisations and individuals with appropriate experience and expertise to enable the successful delivery and completiorganisationson of large scale social surveys either funded and commissioned internally or externally with other Government Departments.

The new Framework Agreement will require the use of a wide range of methodologies and technical innovation in order to support the delivery and completion of large scale social surveys.

The supplier activity will include but is not limited to:

- Research Experts in Dental Health
- Surveyor partners for household surveys of housing
- Fieldwork agency partners
- Research experts in Mental Health
- Experts in Big Data and Data Science
- Experts in Statistical Methodology
         
      II.1.6)Common Procurement Vocabulary:
         79300000 - Market and economic research; polling and statistics.
         
         79315000 - Social research services.
         
         71315300 - Building surveying services.
         
         73110000 - Research services.
         
         79330000 - Statistical services.
         

      II.1.7) Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA):
         The contract is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA): No       
      II.1.8)Lots:
         This contract is divided into lots: Yes          
         If yes, tenders should be submitted for: One or more lots

      II.1.9)Information about variants:
         Variants will be accepted: Not Provided   
   
   II.2)Quantity Or Scope Of The Contract
      II.2.1)Total quantity or scope:
      Lot 1 - Dental Health

ONS's requirements are for input of Clinical and/or public health expertise into the design and delivery of dental epidemiology surveys of adults and children and will be covered by the following strands of work.

- Writing and/or presenting proposals for research funding for survey work
- Running consultations with the users of dental statistics to inform the design of survey methodology and content
- Developing the content of survey instruments for adults or children, including dental examinations and questionnaires
- Recruitment of appropriately qualified dental examiners for national survey work
- Designing and delivering appropriate training for dental examiners and coders, including calibration of dental examiners
- Producing reports for publication

Lot 2 - Mental Health

ONS's requirements are for research experts in mental health and will be covered by the following strands of work

- Writing and/or presenting proposals for research funding for survey work
- Developing the content of survey instruments for adults or children, relevant to psychiatric morbidity
- Obtaining ethical approval for national survey procedures from NHS Research Ethics Committees or a University ethics committee
- Coding of mental health conditions and/or designing and delivering appropriate training for coders

Lot 3 - Housing

ONS's requirements are for Surveyor Partners for household surveys of housing and will be covered by the following strands of work:

-Overall management of the physical survey process
- The collection of high quality data on the condition, health and safety, composition and energy efficiency of properties and assessment of neighbourhood quality
- Application of strategies to maximise response rates
- Provide expert advice on a wide range of issues relating to the collection of data on the physical condition and energy efficiency of properties
- Advising on and implementing changes to the survey form and the associated validation software; piloting of changes
- Establishing effective fieldwork procedures and co-ordination of the interview and physical survey components including an electronic appointment system and web based validation systems
- Data cleaning and final data validation

Lot 4 - Field Work Agency Partners

ONS's requirements are for fieldwork agency partners to contribute to possible future work on social surveys and will be covered by the following strands of work:

- Writing and/or presenting proposals for research funding for survey work
- Developing the content of survey instruments for adults or children, e.g. question design, cognitive testing, questionnaire design
- Sample design, design and production of survey materials
- Data collection by web, telephone and face-to-face modes
- Designing and delivering appropriate training for interviewers and coders
- Data processing and analysis
- Producing reports for publication

Lot 5 - Big Data and Data Science

ONS's requirements are for partners with experience in Big Data and Data Science techniques to contribute to possible future work and will be covered by the following strands of work:

- The collection, storage cleaning, processing and classification of non-sampled, large and /or unstructured data sources
- Statistical analysis and modelling of unstructured, large and /or non sampled data sources
- Integration of non sampled data sources with traditional data sources
- Data mining and machine learning
- Algorithmic and text mining
- Methods for visualising these data sources
- Ethics and confidentiality

Lot 6 - Statistical Methodology

ONS's requirements are for partners with experience in statistical methodological techniques to contribute to possible future work and will be covered by the following strands of work:

- Survey Data Collection Methodology
- Sample Design and Estimation
- Statistical Classifications
- Statistical Modelling of Survey Data
- Edit and Imputation
- Index Numbers and Composite Indicators
- Time Series
- Record Linkage and Data Integration
- Statistical Disclosure Control
- Geography and Geographical Analysis      
      
      II.2.2)Options: Not Provided         
         II.2.3)Information about renewals:
            This contract is subject to renewal: Yes
                  
         Number of possible renewals: 1
                           
      If known, in the case of renewable supplies or service contracts, estimated time-frame for subsequent contracts:
         Duration in months: 24
         
   II.3)Duration Of The Contract Or Time-Limit For Completion      
         Duration in months: 60 (from the award of the contract)

   Information About Lots
            
      Lot No: 1
      Title: Reserch Experts in Dental Health

      1)Short Description:      
      Lot 1 - Dental Health

ONS's requirements are for input of Clinical and/or public health expertise into the design and delivery of dental epidemiology surveys of adults and children and will be covered by the following strands of work.

- Writing and/or presenting proposals for research funding for survey work
- Running consultations with the users of dental statistics to inform the design of survey methodology and content
- Developing the content of survey instruments for adults or children, including dental examinations and questionnaires
- Recruitment of appropriately qualified dental examiners for national survey work
- Designing and delivering appropriate training for dental examiners and coders, including calibration of dental examiners
- Producing reports for publication

      2)Common Procurement Vocabulary:
         79300000 - Market and economic research; polling and statistics.
                  79315000 - Social research services.
         
      3)Quantity Or Scope:      
      No guaranteed volumes or value are linked with this lot.
Range between: 1,000,000 and 3,000,000               
      4)Indication About Different Date For Start Of Award Procedures And/Or Duration Of The Contract Not Provided
                        
                  
         5)Additional Information About Lots: Not Provided
               
      Lot No: 2
      Title: Research Experts in Mental Health

      1)Short Description:      
      ONS's requirements are for research experts in mental health and will be covered by the following strands of work

- Writing and/or presenting proposals for research funding for survey work
- Developing the content of survey instruments for adults or children, relevant to psychiatric morbidity
- Obtaining ethical approval for national survey procedures from NHS Research Ethics Committees or a University ethics committee
- Coding of mental health conditions and/or designing and delivering appropriate training for coders
- Producing reports for publication

      2)Common Procurement Vocabulary:
         79300000 - Market and economic research; polling and statistics.
                  79315000 - Social research services.
         
      3)Quantity Or Scope:      
      No guaranteed volumes or value are linked with this lot.
500,000 and 1,500,000               
      4)Indication About Different Date For Start Of Award Procedures And/Or Duration Of The Contract Not Provided
                        
                  
         5)Additional Information About Lots: Not Provided
               
      Lot No: 3
      Title: Surveyor Partners for household surveys of housing

      1)Short Description:      
      ONS's requirements are for Surveyor Partners for household surveys of housing and will be covered by the following strands of work:

-Overall management of the physical survey process
- The collection of high quality data on the condition, health and safety, composition and energy efficiency of properties and assessment of neighbourhood quality
- Application of strategies to maximise response rates
- Provide expert advice on a wide range of issues relating to the collection of data on the physical condition and energy efficiency of properties
- Advising on and implementing changes to the survey form and the associated validation software; piloting of changes
- Establishing effective fieldwork procedures and co-ordination of the interview and physical survey components including an electronic appointment system and web based validation systems
- Data cleaning and final data validation

      2)Common Procurement Vocabulary:
         79300000 - Market and economic research; polling and statistics.
                  79315000 - Social research services.
                  71315300 - Building surveying services.
         
      3)Quantity Or Scope: Not Provided
               
         Value range between: 500,000 and 1,500,000
         Currency: GBP      
                     
      4)Indication About Different Date For Start Of Award Procedures And/Or Duration Of The Contract Not Provided
                        
                  
         5)Additional Information About Lots: Not Provided
               
      Lot No: 4
      Title: Fieldwork Agency Partners

      1)Short Description:      
      ONS's requirements are for fieldwork agency partners to contribute to possible future work on social surveys and will be covered by the following strands of work:

- Writing and/or presenting proposals for research funding for survey work
- Developing the content of survey instruments for adults or children, e.g. question design, cognitive testing, questionnaire design
- Sample design, design and production of survey materials
- Data collection by web, telephone and face-to-face modes
- Designing and delivering appropriate training for interviewers and coders
- Data processing and analysis
- Producing reports for publication

      2)Common Procurement Vocabulary:
         79300000 - Market and economic research; polling and statistics.
                  79315000 - Social research services.
         
      3)Quantity Or Scope: Not Provided
               
         Value range between: 1,000,000 and 2,000,000
         Currency: GBP      
                     
      4)Indication About Different Date For Start Of Award Procedures And/Or Duration Of The Contract Not Provided
                        
                  
         5)Additional Information About Lots: Not Provided
               
      Lot No: 5
      Title: Big Data and Data Science

      1)Short Description:      
      ONS's requirements are for partners with experience in Big Data and Data Science techniques to contribute to possible future work and will be covered by the following strands of work:

- The collection, storage cleaning, processing and classification of non-sampled, large and /or unstructured data sources
- Statistical analysis and modelling of unstructured, large and /or non sampled data sources
- Integration of non sampled data sources with traditional data sources
- Data mining and machine learning
- Algorithmic and text mining
- Methods for visualising these data sources
- Ethics and confidentiality

      2)Common Procurement Vocabulary:
         79300000 - Market and economic research; polling and statistics.
                  79330000 - Statistical services.
         
      3)Quantity Or Scope: Not Provided
               
         Value range between: 100,000 and 2,000,000
         Currency: GBP      
                     
      4)Indication About Different Date For Start Of Award Procedures And/Or Duration Of The Contract Not Provided
                        
                  
         5)Additional Information About Lots: Not Provided
               
      Lot No: 6
      Title: Statistical Methodology

      1)Short Description:      
      ONS's requirements are for partners with experience in statistical methodological techniques to contribute to possible future work and will be covered by the following strands of work:

- Survey Data Collection Methodology
- Sample Design and Estimation
- Statistical Classifications
- Statistical Modelling of Survey Data
- Edit and Imputation
- Index Numbers and Composite Indicators
- Time Series
- Record Linkage and Data Integration
- Statistical Disclosure Control
- Geography and Geographical Analysis

      2)Common Procurement Vocabulary:
         79330000 - Statistical services.
                  79300000 - Market and economic research; polling and statistics.
         
      3)Quantity Or Scope: Not Provided
               
         Value range between: 100,000 and 1,000,000
         Currency: GBP      
                     
      4)Indication About Different Date For Start Of Award Procedures And/Or Duration Of The Contract Not Provided
                        
                  
         5)Additional Information About Lots: Not Provided
                  
Section III: Legal, Economic, Financial And Technical Information
   III.1)Conditions relating to the contract
      III.1.1)Deposits and guarantees required:
      Not Provided
      
      III.1.2)Main financing conditions and payment arrangements and/or reference to the relevant provisions governing them:
      Not Provided
      
      III.1.3)Legal form to be taken by the group of economic operators to whom the contract is to be awarded:
      Not Provided
      
      III.1.4)Other particular conditions:
         The performance of the contract is subject to particular conditions: No       
   III.2)Conditions For Participation
      III.2.1)Personal situation of economic operators, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers:
         The Authority will apply all the offences listed in Article 45(1) of Directive 2004/18/EC (implemented as Regulation 23(1) of the Public Contract Regulations (PCR) 2006 in the UK) and all of the professional misconducts listed at Article 45(2) of Directive 2004/18/EC (see also Regulation 23(2) in the PCR 2006) to the decision of whether a Candidate is eligible to be invited to tender.
         
         A full list of these criteria are at http://www.delta-esourcing.com/delta/project/reasonsForExclusion.html#pcr
         
         Candidates will be required to answer these questions as part of the qualification process. For candidates who are registered overseas, you will need to declare if you have any offences/misconduct under your own countries laws, where these laws are equivalent to the Regulation 23 lists. Candidates who have been convicted of any of the offences under Article 45(1) are ineligible and will not be selected to bid, unless there are overriding requirements in the general interest for doing so. Candidates who are guilty of any of the offences, circumstances or misconduct under Article 45(2) may be excluded from being selected to bid at the discretion of the Authority.
      
      III.2.2)Economic and financial capacity
         Economic and financial capacity - means of proof required:         
         (a) appropriate statements from banks or, where appropriate, evidence of relevant professional risk indemnity insurance;
         (b) the presentation of balance-sheets or extracts from the balance-sheets, where publication of the balance-sheet is required under the law of the country in which the economic operator is established;
         (c) a statement of the undertaking's overall turnover and, where appropriate, of turnover in the area covered by the contract for a maximum of the last three financial years available, depending on the date on which the undertaking was set up or the economic operator started trading, as far as the information on these turnovers is available.

      
      III.2.3)Technical capacity
         Technical capacity - means of proof required         
         (a) a list of the works carried out over the past five years, accompanied by certificates of satisfactory execution for the most important works. These certificates shall indicate the value, date and site of the works and shall specify whether they were carried out according to the rules of the trade and properly completed. Where appropriate, the competent authority shall submit these certificates to the contracting authority direct;
         (f) the educational and professional qualifications of the service provider or contractor and/or those of the undertaking's managerial staff and, in particular, those of the person or persons responsible for providing the services or managing the work;
         (g) for public works contracts and public services contracts, and only in appropriate cases, an indication of the environmental management measures that the economic operator will be able to apply when performing the contract;
         (j) an indication of the proportion of the contract which the services provider intends possibly to subcontract;
      
      III.2.4)Information about reserved contracts: Not Provided   
   III.3)Conditions Specific To Service Contracts
      III.3.1)Information about a particular profession:
         Execution of the service is reserved to a particular profession: No       
      III.3.2)Staff responsible for the execution of the service:
         Legal persons should indicate the names and professional qualifications of the staff responsible for the execution of the service: No
Section IV: Procedure
   IV.1)Type Of Procedure
      IV.1.1)Type of procedure: Open
   
   IV.2)Award Criteria
      IV.2.1)Award criteria:      
         The most economically advantageous tender in terms of
            The criteria stated in the specifications, in the invitation to tender or to negotiate or in the descriptive document

      IV.2.2)Information about electronic auction:
         An electronic auction will be used: No       

   IV.3)Administrative Information
      IV.3.1)File reference number attributed by the contracting authority: PU-16/0031      
      IV.3.2)Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract: Yes
         Prior information notice
            Notice number in OJEU: 2015/S 149 - 275540 of 31/07/2015
               
         Other previous publications: No                

      IV.3.3)Conditions for obtaining specifications and additional documents or descriptive document:



         Payable documents: No       
      
      IV.3.4)Time-limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate
         Date: 17/12/2015
         Time: 17:00      
      IV.3.6)Language(s) in which tenders or requests to participate may be drawn up:         English
         
      IV.3.7)Minimum time frame during which the tenderer must maintain the tender Not Provided      
      IV.3.8)Conditions for opening tenders
         Not Provided

Section VI: Complementary Information

   VI.1)This Is A Recurrent Procurement: No
   VI.2)Information about European Union funds:
      The contract is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: No       
   VI.3)Additional Information: The contracting authority considers that this contract may be suitable for economic operators that are small or medium enterprises (SMEs). However, any selection of tenderers will be based solely on the criteria set out for the procurement.
For more information about this opportunity, please visit the Delta eSourcing portal at:
https://www.delta-esourcing.com/tenders/UK-UK-Newport:-Market-and-economic-research%3B-polling-and-statistics./CF5TFV6UZ5

To respond to this opportunity, please click here:
https://www.delta-esourcing.com/respond/CF5TFV6UZ5
GO-20151116-PRO-7331572 TKR-20151116-PRO-7331571
   
   VI.4)Procedures For Appeal
      VI.4.1)Body responsible for appeal procedures:
      Office for National Statistics
      Government Buildings, Cardiff Road, Newport, NP10 8XG, United Kingdom
      Tel. +44 1633456764, Email: mark.tovey@ons.gsi.gov.uk

      VI.4.2)Lodging of appeals: Not Provided   
   
      VI.4.3)Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained:
            Not Provided

   VI.5) Date Of Dispatch Of This Notice: 16/11/2015

ANNEX A