Professional and Technical Services (PTS)
CIPHER Framework Interim Personnel 2008
20 May 2008
The tendering exercise for the CIPHER Framework for Interim Personnel 2008 has now been completed.
The successful organisation in this competition was:
CAPITA Resourcing Limited
Suppliers who are interested in providing interim services should contact Capita direct on dwpinterims@capita.co.uk. A member of the DWP account management and delivery team will register their interest and arrange for follow up discussions to take place.
The Department would like to thank all the companies who showed an interest in this particular tendering exercise.
CIPHER Framework Re-let
CIPHER is one of a suite of Frameworks let by DWP to support its businesses. Let in 2004, CIPHER is the current preferred commercial route to access consultancy and interim personnel across DWP and is accessed by other Government departments. The contract length was for three years with an option for a fourth. DWP has extended the contract into the fourth year and this expires on 31 March 2008. The CIPHER framework comprises of 44 suppliers of consultancy and/or specialist interim personnel across 14 categories.
The CIPHER Communication Framework was let in 2005 as an extension to the main CIPHER framework. This sub-framework was created as a bespoke solution to DWP’s requirements for consultancy and interim personnel support specifically in the area of communications. CIPHER Communication framework comprises of 53 consultancy suppliers working across 11categories and 31 interim personnel suppliers working across 21categories.
Each requirement is competed between all suppliers in each category. The CIPHER Framework Agreement was extended for a final year to 31 March 2008.
The UNITY (Underpinning IT delivery) framework for the provision of client side information service and information technology is due to expire on 28 March 2009. After this date any IS/IT client side consultancy requirements will be serviced by the CIPHER 2008 Framework.
Future requirements:
Interim personnel
DWP propose to move to a single managed service provider arrangement for all professional interim personnel requirements and will invite bids from both Master Vendors (MV) and Neutral Vendors (NV) as part of an OJEU exercise. MV/NV are defined as follows:
Master Vendor – Provision of a one-stop shop for Professional Interim Personnel services utilising a web portal and service delivery managed as a seamless process to the end user. Provides its own interims and other interims via second tier agents. Contracts and manages all operational aspects of first and second tier agents to ensure an uninterrupted supply of quality staff with appropriate employment checks and single source invoicing to DWP.
Neutral Vendor – Provision of a one-stop shop for Professional Interim Personnel services utilising a web portal and service delivery managed as a seamless process to the end user. Interims are sourced via a pool of first and second tier agents. Contracts and manages all operational aspects of second tier agents to ensure an uninterrupted supply of quality staff with appropriate employment checks and single source invoicing to DWP.
Consultancy
DWP propose to adopt a similar commercial model to its existing CIPHER framework for meeting its future consultancy requirements. The new framework will be limited to four distinct service categories:
- Strategic and Business Change Consultancy
- Strategic Financial Consultancy
- Operational Financial Consultancy
- HR Consultancy
We will invite bids as part of two separate Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) exercises expected to start with the official adverts posted on the Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) section of the OJEU website. It is likely that the interim advert will be posted on 17 September 2007 with the consultancy one following on 24 September 2007. Exact dates for issue and further details on progress will be published here when available.
The main contact for the re-let of the CIPHER framework for Interim Personnel is:
John Pratt, tel 0191 225 2958, email john.pratt1@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
The main contact for the re-let of the CIPHER framework for Consultancy services is:
Paul Hellyer, tel 0207 391 1892, email paul.hellyer@dwp.gsi.gov.uk