Schools Information Management Systems (SIMS)

Concepts

• information technology
• schools information management systems
• sims
• merthyr tydfil
• associated support services
• local authority
• sims and associated support services
• individual schools
• contractual model of perpetual licence of sims
• schools

Location

Merthyr Tydfil

Description

Transition from existing contractual model of perpetual licence of SIMS to local authority with associated support services, to software as a service model contracting directly with individual schools to provide SIMS and associated support services.

Total Quantity or Scope

Prior to the award of these contracts, the current provider (ESS) had a contract with the local authority under which it provided a perpetual licence to the local authority for the purpose of providing SIMS to the schools in the local authority's area, with associated support services. ESS has now served notice to terminate that contract and requires that, in order to continue provision of SIMS, individual schools must enter into direct contracts with ESS to receive SIMS as software as a service. In order to bring about the transition, the local authority will enter into a Facilitation Agreement ("FA") with ESS under which nothing of value is received by ESS and no material services are provided to the local authority; it is purely an administrative arrangement to effect the transition. Each school in the local authority's area will enter into a School Contract ("SC") with ESS for the direct provision of SIMS as software as a service, at substantially the same cost as before. The highest value SC is GBP15376.20 and the lowest value SC is GBP673.50. The schools in the local authority's area whose governing bodies will enter into contracts with ESS are as follows: Abercanaid Primary School Afon Taf High School Bedlinog Primary School Bishop Hedley RC High School Caedraw Primary School Cyfarthfa High School Cyfarthfa Park Primary Dowlais Primary School Edwardsville Primary School Gellfaelog Primary School Goetre Primary School Greenfield Special School Gwaunfarren Primary School Heolgerrig Community School Lawb Provision Pantysgallog Primary School Pen-y-dre High School St Aloysius RC Primary School St Illtyds RC Primary School St Marys RC Primary School Trelewis Primary School Troedyrhiw Community Primary School Twynrodyn Community School Ynysowen Community Primary School Ysgol Gymraeg Rhyd-y-grug Ysgol Gynradd Coed Y Dderwen Ysgol Santes Tudful Ysgol Y Graig Primary School The local authority publishes this notice on behalf of itself and the schools listed above but is not acting as a central purchasing body on behalf of the schools.

Award Detail

Award Criteria

CPV Codes

• 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
• 72260000 - Software-related services
• 72268000 - Software supply services
• 72261000 - Software support services
• 72300000 - Data services
• 72310000 - Data-processing services
• 72320000 - Database services

Indicators

• Award on basis of price and quality.

Legal Justification

This contract award notice is intended to be a relevant contract award notice pursuant to Reg. 93(2), (3) and (4) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. It 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).

Other Information

Contract duration: 36 months 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). The FA has no "value" as such but simply puts in place an administrative mechanism to manage the transition of contracts from local authorities to schools. It is therefore below the threshold set out in Reg. 5 (as reviewed pursuant to Reg. 5A) of the 2015 Regulations and thus Part 2 of the 2015 Regulations does not apply. The governing body of each individual school is a separate contracting authority and each individual SC is a separate contract. The values of the individual SCs entered into in the local authority's area range between GBP673.50 and GBP15376.20 in total over the three-year duration of each SC. Each such individual contract is therefore below the threshold set out in Reg. 5 (as reviewed pursuant to Reg. 5A) of the 2015 Regulations and thus Part 2 of the 2015 Regulations does not apply. Further or in the alternative, neither the FA nor the individual SCs are subject to a requirement to carry out prior publication of a contract notice and/or any form of competitive tender, because the services can only be provided by one particular economic operator (ESS), because competition is absent for technical reasons pursuant to Reg. 32(2)(b)(ii) of the 2015 Regulations. This is because all of the schools in the local authority's area currently use ESS' SIMS product. It would take a minimum of 1 year to transition from ESS' SIMS product to another product, including implementation, testing, training staff and migration of data. 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 the current arrangements, shortly before Christmas 2021. It would therefore 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. Further or in the alternative, neither the FA nor the individual SCs are subject to a requirement to carry out prior publication of a contract notice and/or any form of competitive tender, because of urgency pursuant to Reg. 32(2)(c) of the 2015 Regulations. The provision of an information management system is essential to the running of a school and a school cannot function without it. The notice to terminate the current contracts and the short timescale imposed by ESS were unforeseen by the local authority and the schools. Due to the short notice given by ESS, together with the time it would take to prepare and agree a specification and (following a tender exercise) 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 award and 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. (WA Ref:118818)