Direct Award of Contract for Zero to Five (0-5) Years Childcare / Nursery Provision

Concepts

• torquay
• education and training
• torbay council
• mama bear's day nursery
• nursery provision
• years childcare
• childcare
• day nursery
• direct award of contract
• st margaret's academy

Location

Description

Torbay Council has a current contract in place, for Childcare / Nursery Provision at Mama Bear's Day Nursery, (on the site of) St Margaret's Academy, Barewell Road in Torquay, Devon. The contract expires on 06 December 2020. Initial Tender preparation and planning for a re-tender, took place in early 2020, but was halted with the onset of the Covid pandemic and subsequent lockdown restrictions. During the summer months of 2020, there was an increasing workload on Children's and Education Services within the Council, in dealing with the Covid crisis and the return to school for children in the local area. This has been on-going moving into the Autumn and the subsequent priorities have impacted on the Council's ability to undertake a re-tender process for the Childcare / Nursery Provision, in good time before the current contract expires. As a result, Torbay Council proposes to issue a directly awarded six month contract to the incumbent provider, subject to internal approval, to continue providing the current services at the Day Nursery. It is anticipated that the re-tender and award (of a new contract) processes can be conducted, during this time, to commence in the Summer of 2021.

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• 80000000 - Education and training services

Indicators

• Contract is suitable for SMEs.

Other Information

Negotiated procedure without prior publication: Extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable for the contracting authority and in accordance with the strict conditions stated in the directive Explanation: Torbay Council has a current contract in place, for Childcare / Nursery Provision at Mama Bear's Day Nursery, (on the site of) St Margaret's Academy, Barewell Road in Torquay, Devon. The contract expires on 06 December 2020. Initial Tender preparation and planning for a re-tender, took place in early 2020, but was halted with the onset of the Covid pandemic and subsequent lockdown restrictions. During the summer months of 2020, there was an increasing workload on Children's and Education Services within the Council, in dealing with the Covid crisis and the return to school for children in the local area. This has been on-going moving into the Autumn 3 / 4 and the subsequent priorities have impacted on the Council's ability to undertake a re-tender process for the Childcare / Nursery Provision, in good time before the current contract expires. As a result, Torbay Council proposes to issue a directly awarded six month contract to the incumbent provider, subject to internal approval, to continue providing the current services at the Day Nursery. It is anticipated that the re-tender and award (of a new contract) processes can be conducted, during this time, to commence in the Summer of 2021. The authority has a duty to continue providing the service for the benefit of the local community and cannot be without this provision for any period of time. In accordance with paragraph 5 of Article 32 of Directive 2014/24/EU the new contract will provide an identical and continued service to the existing provision being delivered by the supplier under contract, which was procured in accordance with Article 26 of Directive 2014/24/EU. Work commenced on this procurement prior to lockdown and we had hoped to recommence this work in time to put a new contract in place on expiry of the existing arrangements. Due to the current situation with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the increases in cases within Torbay, the Council still does not have the capacity to undertake a procurement process at this time. The uncertainty for childcare providers at this time and the need to fully focus on delivering services to support the Council's response to Covid-19 and ensure families have access to appropriate and safe childcare, potential providers are not in a position to commit resource to submit a tender.