Guidance for officers and members
Critical success factors for specifications
Do not over - or under-specify your requirements. The results
will be expensive. Reflect your needs, not your wants. State your
required outputs/outcomes but allow suppliers to suggest how to
provide these. Time taken to produce the specification will be
rewarded. Involve stakeholders in developing and signing-off the
specification. Be alert as to how the specification is allocating
risks. The time and effort applied to developing a specification
should be in keeping with the risks and complexities attached to
the requirement. However, a specification will be helpful for all
requirements, even routine procurements as it provides a useful
contractual record of what was requested.
Involving relevant stakeholders, particularly users, in the
development of a specification is essential to ensure it properly
reflects their needs. A basic rule for producing a specification is
to ensure that it is as output-based as possible -
that is, it states the desired output/outcome but does not
prescribe how a supplier should meet this. However
there are three main types of specification.
Functional and performance
descriptions of requirements provide an output-based approach. The
approach is most effective because it promotes supplier
innovation and recognises that in most instances
they are best placed to identify the most appropriate
solution. Technical
specifications are generally too restrictive, particularly for
service provision, and retain the risk of failure with the
authority.
Other Tender Documentation
For all contract requiring tenders, tenderers will be asked to
provide method statements setting out, for
example, their proposed solution, how they will resource and manage
the contract and the supply chain, and how they will bring about
continuous improvement and added value and how they will ensure
compliance with Health and Safety legislation.
Terms and Conditions
Generally speaking, the Council uses standard forms
terms and conditions of contract,
approved by Legal Services which suppliers will be requested to
accept with minimal variation prior to award of contract. These set
out the basic requirements that will be common to most procurement
such as what will happen in the case of a default by a supplier and
when and how payments will be made. These are included in all
invitations to tender and on order forms where quotations are
sought (less than £25k).
Such terms and conditions should not however be overly
adversarial so that fair and trusting
relationships can be developed with suppliers.
Where a large number of replies are expected an early sifting
(pre-qualification or supplier
assessment) exercise, based on information requested in
the advertisement, will help to provide a manageable number to
invite to tender. The criteria used at this stage normally concern
financial risk and technical capability of the supplier. Criteria
should be carefully chosen to avoid unnecessary ruling out at this
stage of suppliers who might be suitable to provide the
requirements. For contracts being awarded under the procurement
regulations (open, restricted and negotiated procedures) there are
rules on the information that can be sought to assess the financial
risk capacity and capability of suppliers and on the minimum number
to be invited to tender or negotiate.
Inviting Tenders
Once suppliers have been identified as suitable for further
consideration, they may be invited to tender. Invitation to tender
(ITT) documentation typically comprises four main parts:-
• ITT itself, including tendering instructions;
• specification (drafted by client or project owner);
• contract;
• pricing schedule;
All of the above, with the exception of the Specification, will
be prepared by the Procurement Department.
Tendering Instructions: This section provides
advice on the timescales and administration of the procurement
process and conditions for tendering.
Developing the Specification
The specification provides potential suppliers with a statement
of the authority’s requirements and will form an important part of
any contract with the supplier. It will also provide the
information on which suppliers will base their pricing and resource
structure and therefore must be comprehensive and clear. The
importance of getting the specification
right should not be underestimated.