SIMS – Schools Management Information System

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

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

24 Mar 2022, 10:33 GMT

Last source update

24 Mar 2022, 10:33 GMT

Authority reference

CCS/21/487

FTS notice number

2022/S 000-007958

Classification (CPV)

Data servicesData-processing servicesDatabase servicesIT services: consulting, software development, Internet and supportSoftware supply servicesSoftware support servicesSoftware-related services

Delivery area

Wales (UKL18)

Official registry OCID

ocds-h6vhtk-0325b0 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 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). Neither the local authority nor the governing body of any of the schools listed above accepts that the FA and/or the individual SCs are within the scope of application of Part 2 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended). (1) The FA simply puts in place an administrative mechanism to manage the transition of contracts from local authorities to schools and therefore has no ‘value’. Each school is a separate contracting authority and each SC is a separate contract. The values of each SC is below the threshold in Reg. 5 (as reviewed pursuant to Reg. 5A) of the 2015 Regulations. (2) The services can only be provided by one particular economic operator (ESS) - competition is absent for technical reasons pursuant to Reg. 32(2)(b)(ii) of the 2015 Regulations. (3) All 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. 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 current arrangements. It would 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. The urgency provisions pursuant to Reg. 32(2)(c) of the 2015 Regulations apply. Due to the short notice given by ESS, together with the time it would take to prepare a specification and 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 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.

Publisher note: (WA Ref:119855)

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

No document links were published on the notice.