Fund Management Services for the Digital Development Loan 2019 - 2022

Concepts

• social work
• edinburgh
• fund management services
• community and personal services
• required amount of funding
• years of funds
• fund manager’s assessment
• fund manager
• skills development scotland
• management issues

Location

Edinburgh

Description

The Fund will enable Scotland’s small to medium sized enterprises to invest in the digital skills and capabilities of their staff and businesses. Organisations who meet the criteria can apply for loans from 10,000 GBP up to 100,000 GBP per annum. Under this contract organisations will be able to apply for up to 3 years of funds dependent on size of loans, which will not exceed 100k GBP in total. The contract will be for a period of 31 months with the option to extend for an additional 6 months, if required. There will also be the opportunity to recapitalise the fund should the fund over perform in the first 18 months of operation, by up to 3m GBP, upon agreement of all parties. The successful organisation (hereinafter known as the Fund Manager) will draw down the required amount of funding for dissemination to applicants on a quarterly basis and make the necessary arrangements to ensure that payments are made to the funded organisations in a timely manner. The key aims and objectives to be delivered by the Fund Manager are to: 1. Establish a system for loan payments, ensuring all succesful loan applicants receive their funds in a timely manner and that the recipient bank details are recorded and and verified prior to release of any funds. 2. Establish a system for the repayment of these loans, setting up a separate bank account for the purpose and ensuring the loans are repaid within the timescales set withing the loan agreement - i.e on a monthly basis over 12,24,36,48 or 60 month period. A robust system should be in place for dealing with late repayments.. 3. Develop support for all funded organisations based on the Fund Manager’s assessment of each project’s need (including the level of and priority for support) to ensure that they can report effectively on their progress towards achieving their agreed outcomes and that they have the skills and knowledge to increase their sustainability. 4. Clear linkage with assesing skills needs and linkage to the Skills Development Scotland offer will be key as will the capability to act on advisory recommendations from Business Gateway, Scottish Enterprise and HIE. As such, demonstarting a relationship with some, if not all of these organisations will be essential. 5. Knowledge EU regulations, specifically State Aid ‘de minimis’ procedures must be included in assesment of all applications. 6. Monitor organisations’ performance against their outcomes using a monitoring and evaluation framework to be developed by the Fund Manager and implement a robust means of capturing this progress. 7. Provide a clear, concise and robust marketing plan for the loan service and assist Scottish Government with any promotion as well as undertake continuous promotion and marketing of the fund themselves throughout the term of the agreement. 8. Identify any significant governance or management issues that might impact on an organisations’ ability to effectively deliver its stated fund request as early as possible to the Scottish Government Contract Manager along with an assessment of risk and options for the action required by the Fund Manager or the Scottish Government. 9. If required, help modify the funding programme in place for future iterations in response to identified issues or suggested improvements. 10. Once launched, the Fund Manager will be the first point of contact for any queries about the new fund. The Fund Manager will assess all the applications to this new fund and provide feedback to unsuccessful organisations. The Fund Manager will also provide feedback to the Scottish Government Contract Manager on the successful organisations; and will issue the loan offer letters. 11. The Fund Manger must ensure all loans are only for the purposes specified in ‘The Use of Funds’ paragraphs above.

Ammendments to Previous Notice

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• 98000000 - Other community, social and personal services

Indicators

• Contract modified due to additional needs.

Legal Justification

The Digital Development Loan is funded via the UK Government (UKG). At the time the contract was awarded the expectation from the UKG was that funding would not be made available past the 2021/22 financial year. UKG have recently made funding available for the existing financial year, with the caveat that it must be fully allocated during the 2022/23 financial year. A new supplier would need to invest significant time developing an IT system for loan dispersal as a result it would not be possible to award and fully mobilise a new contract to allow funds to be allocated within the required timescales.

Other Information

ESPD will be scored on a pass/fail basis. Question Scoring Methodology for Award Criteria outlined in invitation to tender: 0 — Unacceptable. Nil or inadequate response. Fails to demonstrate an ability to meet the requirement. 1 — Poor. Response is partially relevant but generally poor. The response addresses some elements of the requirement but contains insufficient/limited detail or explanation to demonstrate how the requirement will be fulfilled. 2- Acceptable. Response is relevant and acceptable. The response addresses a broad understanding of the requirement but may lack details on how the requirement will be fulfilled in certain areas. 3 — Good. Response is relevant and good. The response is sufficiently detailed to demonstrate a good understanding and provides details on how the requirements will be fulfilled. 4 — Excellent. Response is completely relevant and excellent overall. The response is comprehensive, unambiguous and demonstrates a thorough understanding of the requirement and provides details of how the requirement will be met in full. Bidders must complete the ESPD (Scotland) to demonstrate adherence to the Exclusion and Selection Criteria for this procurement. ESPD 2A.16.1 Statement for SUITABILITY - All potential suppliers MUST be a member/registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or similar equivalent in order to perform the required services. ESPD 4B.2.2 Statement for ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL STANDING - Financial Ratios: All potential suppliers must demonstrate a Current Ratio of greater than 0.9. Current Ratio will be calculated as follows: net current assets divided by net current liabilities. Note: The buyer is using PCS-Tender to carry out this procurement process. Please note this is a separate website and if you are not already registered, registration will be required. To access PCS-Tender, record your interest in this notice and access the tender documentation please visit https://www.publictendersscotland.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk and search for project Code 13620 under ITTs Open to All Suppliers. (SC Ref:701511)