Invitation to tender
Specification
The Mayor’s London Violence Against Women Strategy
Introduction
1.1
The Greater London Authority (GLA) is a unique form of strategic citywide
government for London. It is made up of a directly elected Mayor - the Mayor
of London - and a separately elected London Assembly.
1.2
The GLA Group comprises the GLA, London Fire and Emergency Planning
Authority (LFEPA), the London Development Agency (LDA), Transport for
London (TFL), and the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), which oversees the
Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). The Mayor sets budgets for these bodies.
1.3
The Mayor also has specific powers to direct TfL, the LDA and LFEPA and will
chair the MPA from October 2008.
1.4
The Assembly scrutinises the Mayor's activities, questioning the Mayor about his
decisions. The Assembly is also able to investigate other issues of importance to
Londoners, publish its findings and recommendations, and make proposals to
the Mayor.
1.5
The authority is based at City Hall, The Queen’s Walk, London SE1 2AA.
1.6
A key part of the Mayor’s agenda for London is to lead the fight against crime
and improve public safety. One of the ways he is achieving this is by prioritising
community safety, particularly violent crime, because it is these crimes that are
causing the greatest harm to our communities.
1.7
To help achieve this the Mayor would like to develop and implement an
integrated violence against women strategy for London. This strategy will
address wider forms of gender-based violence in London for women and girls
(under the age of 18) including rape, domestic violence, forced marriage,
stalking, sexual exploitation, prostitution and trafficking, female genital
mutilation (FGM), other forms of female mutilation including breast ironing and
crimes in the name of honour. We are looking to appoint a person / persons /
organisation to develop and write this strategy.
1.8
The GLA Community Safety team will be responsible for the procurement and
management of this contract.
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Background and Scope
2.1
In 2001 the GLA launched the first London Domestic Violence Strategy, which
set out a vision for addressing domestic violence in London. Its objective was to
create a consistent and quality response across London to domestic violence and
for agencies to work together to address domestic violence more effectively.
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2.2
Building on the success of the first Strategy, the second London Domestic
Violence Strategy was launched in November 2005.
2.3
These strategies have championed many improvements to domestic violence
services in London which have led to:
• A reduction in domestic violence murders
• An increase in Independent Domestic Violence Advocacy services (IDVA)
• Expansion of services that enable ‘abused women’ to stay safely in their homes
• An increase in community-based children’s services
• Improving provisions for abused women from disadvantaged groups
2.4
In 2008 Boris Johnson was elected Mayor of London. To deliver his manifesto
commitments the new Mayor wants to continue this momentum of improvement
and to expand the remit of the current domestic violence strategy to include
wider forms of violence against women.
2.5
Unlike the first two strategies, this new strategy will address rape, domestic
violence, forced marriage, stalking, sexual exploitation, prostitution and
trafficking, FGM and other forms of female mutilation including breast ironing
and crimes in the name of honour.
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Overall contract output
3.1
The principal output from this contract is a London Violence Against Women
Strategy. The Strategy should identify the evidence and issues and then a set of
realistic priorities for London, that are agreed by stakeholders and key delivery
agencies, that will help to prevent and reduce rape, domestic violence, forced
marriage, stalking, sexual exploitation, prostitution and trafficking, FGM and
other forms of female mutilation including breast ironing and crimes in the name
of honour. The strategy should also address improvements to for supporting
victims and suggest innovative ways to ensure long term sustainable funding for
the sector.
4 Objectives
4.1
The objectives of this project are:
• Identify and map out the evidence for a Violence Against Women Strategy for
London. This should detail data, the national and regional policy context,
existing research as well as local/regional programmes and projects.
• Based on the evidence identify a set of achievable priorities for reducing the
number of incidents of, improving the criminal justice response to, challenging
public attitudes towards, raising awareness of and improving the victim response
to rape, domestic violence, forced marriage, stalking, sexual expliotation,
prostitution and trafficking, FGM and other forms of female mutilation including
breast ironing and crimes in the name of honour. These prioirities should be
developed in consultation with, and agreed by, the GLA Community Safety
Team and the Deputy Mayor for Policing.
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• A specific Mayoral commitment which should be covered within the Strategy
and its implementation plan is ensuring there are 4 rape crisis services in London
within this Mayoral electoral term.
• Identify ways of delivering and monitoring these priorities. This should focus
wherever practicable on engagement and delivery at the local level.
• Agree the priorities, with key stakeholders including the MPS, MPA, the London
Criminal Justice Board (London CJB), NHS, Government Office for London
(GOL), London Boroughs, Mayor’s Refugee Advisory Panel (MRAP) and the
voluntary and community sector. This agreement should include a commitment
to implementation.
• Identify innovative ways to ensure long term sustainable funding for the
priorities, especially those for the community and voluntary sector.
• Write the draft strategy; the strategy should clearly set out the agreed priorities
and the mechanisms for implementation. The strategy should be written in plain
English and should be in line with GLA style guidelines.
• Publish (GLA website) and consult on the draft strategy in line with best
practice and the compact agreement; this is a 12-week public consultation
period. Following consultation, and in discussion with the GLA Community
Safety Team and Deputy Mayor for Policing, make the appropriate changes to
the draft strategy ready for final publication.
4.2
The Strategy should be developed with the Mayor’s wider community safety
priorities in mind, including tackling youth violence, as well as other Mayoral
priorities including health, housing and immigration. The link between domestic
violence, rape and other forms of crime is well documented, for this reason this
strategy should also support a holistic approach to crime prevention.
5 Contract
Duration
5.1
The proposed commencement date for the services is November 2008.
5.2
The proposed contract completion date is July 2009.
6
Project Deliverables
6.1
The following bullet points set out key project deliverables and reporting
requirements:
• Agree project action plan with GLA Community Safety Team for contract
delivery.
• Draw up and report on the map of evidence for a Violence Against Women
Strategy for London.
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• Initial consultation with GLA Community Safety Team, Deputy Mayor for
Policing, MPA, MPS, NHS, London CJB, GOL, London Councils and a
representative selection of the voluntary and community sector, to draw-up an
initial priority framework for the strategy. (The GLA Community Safety Team will
assist in providing relevant contacts in the listed statutory sector organisations
and some voluntary and community sector organisations.)
• Agree initial priority framework with GLA Community safety Team and Deputy
Mayor for Policing for consultation.
• Agree priority framework with MPA, MPS, London CJB, NHS, GOL, London
Councils and the voluntary and community sector, including mechanisms for
delivery and monitoring delivery.
• Draft Violence Against Women draft Strategy based on the agreed priority
framework. This should inlclude an action plan and a summary.
• Agree draft Violence Against Women Strategy with GLA Community Safety
Team and Deputy Mayor for Policing.
• The GLA will publish (website only) draft strategy for public consultation.
• Following public consultation, agree with the GLA Community Safety Team
appropriate changes to the Strategy and revise ready for final publication.
• GLA will publish and launch the Strategy: the contractor will be required to
provide logistical support for the launch.
• On request, carry out a limited number of stakeholder engagement events to
communicate the strategy to key stakeholders. These will be agreed in the
action plan, once the contract has been awarded.
6.2
Ownership and copyright of the Strategy will remain with the GLA.
7 Reporting
requirements
7.1
There will be formal monthly meetings between the contractor and the GLA
Community Safety Team during the lifetime of the project. This includes an
initial project inception meeting at the beginning of the project and a project
handover/close at the end of the contract.
7.2
In addition, it is expected that the contractor will provide weekly feedback on
progress via email/phone or informal face-to-face meetings. An exact timetable
of meetings will be decided at the inception meeting.
7.3
The process will be contract managed by the GLA Community Safety Team.
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Outline Project Timetable
8.1
Outline procurement timetable
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Action
Date
The tender notice issued by e-mail
27 August 08
Proposals are required by
22 September 08
Tender Evaluations
22 September – 10 October 08
Results announced
15 October 08
Contract start date
November 08
8.2
Proposed draft contract timetable
Action Date
Agree project action plan
November 08
Map out the evidence for a Violence
November 08
Against Women Strategy in London
Initial consultation on draft priority
December 08
framework
Agree priority frame work
January 09
Develop / write the draft strategy
February – March 09
Publish the draft strategy for
April 09
consultation
Public consultation closes
June 09
Amend and prepare strategy ready
July 09
for final publication
9 Performance
9.1
Your performance will be measured against delivery on project deliverables in
terms of both quality and time.
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Submission of quotes
10.1
Deadline for return tender documents noon 22 September 08.
10.2 Three hard copies and an electronic copy of the proposal should be provided,
clearly marked Contract for Violence Against Women Strategy for the attention
of:
Helen Bowes ([email address])
GLA
Community Safety Team
City Hall
More London
The Queen’s Walk
London
SE1 2AA
10.3 Enquiries on this specification can also be made by email to
[email address] by noon on
8 September 2008. A response will be
provided by 12 September 2008.
11
Return of Tender Documents
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11.1 Information required from the Tenderers is detailed below. Please ensure your
tender responds to each sub-heading separately and is set out accordingly.
• Completion of the attached pricing schedule inclusive of day rates for
consultant/employee, cost per work element/phase (including labour fees and
expenses). Note that there should be a fixed maximum cost for delivery against
the specification.
• A list and CV of all the consultants or employees that will work on the project,
their individual responsibilities and a single named lead contact.
• An outline plan showing how the contract deliverables will be delivered and
information on the method to be used.
• Details of relevant experience, including case studies if possible, as well as
demonstrable understanding of the policy area and community safety field
including the different cultural / religious views around these issues.
• A schedule outlining number of staff and the time (in days) that each person will
spend on the project.
• Demonstrable ability and commitment to deliver the contract and project
deliverables within the timeframe set out in point 8.2.
• Details of internal quality systems.
• Details of relevant equal opportunities policies.
• Evidence of systems in place that conform to the GLA responsible procurement
policies.
• Completed Diversity Monitoring form.
• Signed copy of the GLA’s Form of Quotation.
• Three relevant references from previous work undertaken.
• Two sets of audited accounts.
12 Subcontractors
12.1 If any subcontractors are proposed, this must be clearly specified, with all
associated costs and tasks. In the event that this approach is adopted, potential
contractors must supply full details (e.g. CVs and references) from each partner.
13 Evaluation
13.1 Award of the contract will be subject to a competitive tendering process and
evaluated against the requirements outlined in this brief. The evaluation criteria
are:
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Evaluation Criteria
Weightings (%)
Strategy development abilities including
35%
technical ability and capacity to deliver the
project
Method and understanding of issues
25%
Price
20%
Track record and relevant experience
20%
13.2 The Contract will be awarded on the basis of most economically advantageous
Tender.
14 Payment
14.1 Monthly payments up to a maximum of 75% of the total fixed cost, with the
final 25% to be paid on acceptance of the final Strategy document
14.2 Payment may be withheld in case of non-completion of identified outputs /
contract delivery.
14.3 All contract variations to be agreed in writing with the GLA Community Safety
Team prior to expenditure.
15 Contract
15.1 Any contract awarded will be governed by the contract conditions issued with
this invitation to tender and tenderers are deemed to have accepted these
conditions by the act of submitting their tender. The preferred consultant
cannot assume they have been granted the contract until formal contracts are
signed.
16 GLA
Responsibilities
16.1 Access to GLA information and non-project team staff to be coordinated by the
GLA Community Safety project team.
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Document Outline
