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Civil Service Resourcing E-Recruitment System & Service Wrap.

Prior information notice

Services

Directive 2004/18/EC

Section I: Contracting authority

I.1)Name, addresses and contact point(s)

HMRC
5th Floor West Ralli Quays, 3 Stanley Street
For the attention of: Thomas Atkins
M60 9LA Salford
UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone: +44 618270028
E-mail:

Internet address(es):

General address of the contracting authority: www.hmrc.gov.uk

Address of the buyer profile: www.civilservice.gov.uk/networks/hr/civil-service-resourcing

Further information can be obtained from: The above mentioned contact point(s)

I.2)Type of the contracting authority
Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local sub-divisions
I.3)Main activity
Other: Tax
I.4)Contract award on behalf of other contracting authorities

The contracting authority is purchasing on behalf of other contracting authorities: yes

Civil Service Resourcing
100 Parliament Street, Westminster
SW1A 2BQ London
UNITED KINGDOM

Section II.B: Object of the contract (Supplies or services)

II.1)Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority:
Civil Service Resourcing E-Recruitment System & Service Wrap.
II.2)Type of contract and place of delivery or of performance
Service category No 27: Other services

NUTS code UK

II.3)Information on framework agreement
II.4)Short description of nature and quantity or value of supplies or services:
1. E- Recruitment System
Civil Service Resourcing (CSR) wishes to procure an E-Recruitment system that supports internal and external recruitment for its customers within Central Government. These customers will have a range of hardware, software, and security firewalls. We are seeking best fit products and services that are sustainable, innovative and adaptable over the next 3-5 years.
The system and services must be able to comply with government policy on vacancy filling, equality and diversity, and security accreditation and to be updated if these policies change.
In providing a cross-Government service managing large volumes of personal data the requirement to protect this to a high level is imperative. You will need to work closely with Government security professionals to demonstrate effective controls are in place or implement new controls to an acceptable level and maintain good governance throughout the duration of the contract. Security compliance may be subject to assessment and audit at any time.
The system must support different types of recruitment which include but are not limited to permanent, interim, temporary, professional/specialist, graduate, secondments, work-experience, voluntary, internships, apprenticeships, executive, and volume.
The estimated total number of Civil Service employees for 2012 is 400 000. There are currently approximately 190 000 registered users for the CS Jobs Portal. Over the last 6 months, there have been approximately 13 000 vacancy adverts for 30 000 posts. A surge requirement in Jan 2012 dealt with 60 000 applications to fill 2 000 posts for one campaign.
The system must provide:
1.1 An end-to-end, secure, web based system accessible via different media in the UK and Overseas.
1.2 Functions to support recruitment campaigns which include but are not limited to job posting with hyperlinks, auto-posting to multiple outlets, capability for Welsh language, on-line application, end-to-end tracking, capability for on-line assessment selection processes, staged eligibility to manage applications and minimise redundancy, on-line event booking and management, and management information.
1.3 Capability to include but not limited to the provision of enhanced management information and customer feedback, processing some payments/invoicing, marketing and campaign targeting, on-line brochures, publicity, blog and video hosting and the management of search and keeping in touch arrangements.
1.4 Capability to manage groups of displaced staff, merit and reserve lists, talent pools and automated matching facilities.
1.5 Capability for data migration.
1.6 Capability to choose what is used when and enabling/disabling features.
2. Service Wrap
Civil Service Resourcing (CSR) wishes to procure a suite of supporting services (service wrap) to supplement the services it provides in-house for its customers within Central Government. The services will be ‘called off’ on an ad-hoc basis.
The system and services must be able to comply with government policy1 on vacancy filling, equality and diversity, and security accreditation2 and to be updated if these policies change.
In providing a cross-Government service managing large volumes of personal data the requirement to protect this to a high level is imperative. You will need to work closely with Government security professionals to demonstrate effective controls are in place or implement new controls to an acceptable level and maintain good governance throughout the duration of the contract. Security compliance may be subject to assessment and audit at any time.
Current recruitment services are provided by an internal team of approximately 35 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) staff. Career Transition services are provided by a team of 3 FTE staff. Support activities are potentially required if there are recruitment or redundancy campaigns that exceed their capacity.
Service wrap activities may include, but are not limited to:
2.1 Delivery of general and graduate recruitment campaigns, professional/specialist, talent, apprenticeship, internship schemes including volume recruitment due to one large or multiple smaller requirements which may involve:
- Sift, assessment and selection of candidates,
- Automated and manual processing,
- Delivering, resourcing and administering events and assessment centres to include provision of venue (using appropriate government buildings/contracts), facilities, materials, assessors, invigilators and IT,
- Candidate communication centres functionality, candidate management and on-boarding,
- Assessor management services.
2.2 Career Transition / outplacement / redeployment training and services, including surplus staff and volume demand.
2.3 Executive sourcing, assessment and appointments.
2.4 Provision of:
- Assessment services,
- Selection tests including but not limited to tests of capability, aptitude, personality inventories, professional, leadership, 360 and situational evaluations; production of individual and group reports. Tests should meet requirements for fairness and job relevance,
- Administration and calibration of assessment tools,
- Test administration and assessor training.
2.5 Helpdesk for internal staff and external candidates (including welsh language and overseas).
2.6 Baseline pre-employment checks, with a capability to support additional security and medical checks.
Service wrap must also provide added value requirements which include but are not limited to the provision of:
2.7 Advertising, marketing and employer branding.
2.8 Change management (system design, specification, test, implementation; automated data cleansing, future proofing).
2.9 Managing service uptake and on-boarding of new subscribers.
2.10 Guidance and training on the system and services.
2.11 Some tailoring for Departmental compatibility.
2.12 Data Mining.
All vacancy filling activity needs to comply with equality legislation. In addition, potential suppliers need to be aware of Civil Service specific rules on fair and open competition and on nationality. For filling internal vacancies, detailed guidance will be made available to potential suppliers about the National Vacancy Filling Scheme (NVFS). Other relevant guidance is given below:
- The Civil Service Management Code,
- The Cabinet Office Protocol for Handling Surplus Staff,
- Cabinet Office Recruitment Freeze Guidelines.
For filling external vacancies:
- The Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.
This latter guide incorporates the principles of these guidance documents but there may be specific situations which require you to consult them in more detail.
Data Security.
For security accreditation requirements:
- Cabinet Office - Security Policy Framework,
- Cabinet Office - Public Services Network documents.
II.5)Common procurement vocabulary (CPV)

79600000, 79635000, 79611000

II.6)Scheduled date for start of award procedures
II.7)Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The contract is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA): yes
II.8)Additional information:
The purpose of this Prior Information Notice (PIN) is:
a) To give advance notice that HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), acting on behalf of Civil Service Resourcing (CSR) (the Client), shall be undertaking a tendering exercise to set up a contract(s) for the provision of an e-recruitment portal and ancillary services.
b) To request information from the marketplace as to the type of services that may be required; and
c) To allow potential tenderers to register for an upcoming supplier event by completing an online questionnaire.
The Requirement:
In respect of the requirement initial indications are that the services required will be broken down into the following categories including, but may not necessarily be restricted to, the following recruitment services:
Consideration is being given as to whether the requirements will be best serviced by:
- A single contract with one prime contractor for all services,
- A framework contract with one contractor per lot,
- A framework contract with three or more contractors per lot,
- A managed service provider across all lots/services; or,
- A combination of any of the above.
The contract(s) duration will be determined by how the requirements are best serviced, as per the options detailed above. In line with EU procurement regulations a framework contract can only have a maximum term of 4 years, however alternate contracting methodologies may have a term greater or lesser depending on a number of factors including continued value for money.
CSR in its role as the shared service for recruitment and resourcing across Central Government will utilise the contract(s) to deliver recruitment and resourcing services on behalf of its customers across Central Government Departments, Executive Agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies.
Online Questionnaire.
Any organisation (tenderers) wishing to provide details of the types of services that they may be able to provide in respect of the outline requirement referred to above, and thereby assist in the development of the Client’s market place knowledge and/or register for the upcoming supplier event 30th August, Paragon Hotel, 145 Alcester Street, Birmingham, B12 0PJ, can do so by completing an online questionnaire. The Client is particularly interested in suggestions on how the specification can be developed to actively encourage the use of organisations in the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) size range and also commercial models regularly used across the sector.

To obtain access to the online questionnaire, please send an email entitled "Civil Service Resourcing" to containing the following information: organisation name, contact name, contact email address and contact telephone number. Respondents will then receive by return an email notification providing password access to the online questionnaire - the deadline for completion of the questionnaire is (insert date). Please note:

a) That non-completion of the online questionnaire will not disqualify organisations from participating in any future related tendering exercise and
b) That completion of the online questionnaire will not remove the need to respond to and fully comply with any future related Competitive Contract Notice.

Subject to finalising the scope of the requirement and obtaining approval to proceed, it is intended that the tendering exercises will be conducted under a Part A "Open” award procedure, with the relevant Contract Notice expected to be published in OJEU (insert date). Tenderers will be required to provide their Tender response electronically using the HMRC e-Sourcing system, which utilises a web based portal. Further details about the e-Sourcing system can be found in the Suppliers Guide for Selling to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) using the following link: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/about/supplying.htm.

Interested parties may want to familiarise themselves with the content of the Suppliers Guide, which includes training on the use of the e-Sourcing system. Further details of the requirement will be provided, in due course, in any future Contract Notice and Tender documentation.

Section III: Legal, economic, financial and technical information

III.1)Conditions relating to the contract
III.1.1)Main financing conditions and payment arrangements and/or reference to the relevant provisions governing them:
Full details regarding legal, economic, financial and technical information to be provided at the tender stage will be detailed in the Contract Notice and/or in the tender documentation. Potential tenderers should be aware,however, that they may be required to forward the following information:
(a) A copy of the most recent audited accounts covering the tenderer’s last two years of trading (or for the period that is available if trading for less than two years) or
(b) For the most recent full year of trading, where this information is not available in audited form, a copy of the draft or unaudited financial accounts or equivalent information showing the tenderer’s turnover, profit and loss and cash flow position and an end period balance sheet or, where this cannot be provided, a statement signed by the finance director or similar responsible person detailing any major changes in the current financial position since the date of the latest audited accounts provided.
III.2)Conditions for participation
III.2.1)Information about reserved contracts

Section VI: Complementary information

VI.1)Information about European Union funds
The contract is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: no
VI.2)Additional information:
GO Reference: GO-2012820-PRO-4171402.
VI.3)Information on general regulatory framework
VI.4)Date of dispatch of this notice:
20.8.2012