The most frequent reasons why cleaning and FM companies don’t pass the pre-qualification questionnaire and selection questionnaire phase of UK public sector tenders – and how to avoid each one prior to submission.The most frequent reasons why cleaning and FM companies don’t pass the pre-qualification questionnaire and selection questionnaire phase of UK public sector tenders – and how to avoid each one prior to submission.
Cleaning and facilities management companies that miss out on winning public sector contracts typically miss out for reasons other than price and quality. The reason they fail is due to PQQ the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire, also known as the Selection Questionnaire (SQ) well before the buyer even gets to the point where they can review the quality of the service offering.
It’s the bitter pill to swallow. You might be the cream of the crop when it comes to your cleaning operations, but if a certificate has expired, an insurance figure doesn’t add up, or a question has been answered incorrectly, then you can say goodbye to any chance of winning the contract.
These are the top five reasons we see, and here’s how to avoid them.
- Mismatch between insurance cover needed by the contract and your own
Buyers specify the minimum Employers’ Liability and Public Liability insurance cover within the contract notice, typically in the range of £5 million to £10 million, depending on the size and characteristics of the sites to be used. Your insurance policy falls short of that amount, or you have an expired certificate awaiting renewal, and you fail to satisfy the criteria automatically. There is normally no escape once the deadline has been reached.
How to fix: look at the insurance cover requirement in the PQQ before drafting any other part of the response. - Absence or lapse of accreditation
A typical PQQ for cleaning services may request certification in ISO 9001 (quality management), ISO 14001 (environmental management) or BICSc (accreditation of supervisory personnel). You also need to be registered with SafeContractor, Constructionline or Achilles. If you have a lapsed accreditation, or you have such an accreditation but cannot provide the certificate number and expiry date, your answer is non-compliant.
How to fix: maintain a record of all the relevant certificates, their numbers and dates, in one single file and compare against the PQQ requirements before submitting the PQQ. - Responding to a question posed in another tender document, not this one
This is the one that trips up many experienced tenderers. A question might specifically ask you how you would mobilize a contract within a set number of weeks with regard to staff TUPE issues, equipment purchasing and who the designated mobilization lead will be. Your “generic” response about “our proven mobilisation procedure,” which does not take into account TUPE, does not name a lead, and does not refer to any time frame against the number stated in the question, will receive low scores or no scores even if it is not wrong it simply does not answer the question posed. Not sure which tender documentation you are looking at, a PQQ, an ITT, or a PSQ? This is what they all mean.
Fix: read each question at least two times before you begin your answer. Underline each specific requirement time frames, named roles, numbers, named procedures. - Financial standing below threshold
PQQs require minimum annual turnovers, generally two or three times that of the annual contract value, or the number of years with filed accounts. Even newer and small cleaning organizations will be left out at this stage despite having good operational capability due to the pass/fail nature of the financial aspect.
Fix: assess your financial standing early. If you are borderline, some buyers accept the guarantee from the parent organization or a bond, but this is something you have to know in advance. - Failure to conform to exact submission guidelines and/or deadlines
The portals of the public sector will not tolerate any errors. A submission made in PDF format, when only Word format is allowed, a submission filled using the incorrect font size where the use of a template was required, or a submission that is only four minutes late due to locked deadlines all these automatically lead to disqualification, regardless of how good the responses may be.
Fix: leave some leeway. Submit your submission at least one hour before the deadline, and make sure that you understand fully the file format, name format, and page limits in the instructions to tenderers. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://sebids.co.uk/pqq-itt-psq-what-they-mean-and-which-one-youre-facing-next/&ved=2ahUKEwjYz563p4eWAxW2R0EAHWr0K-A4ChAWegQIHRAB&usg=AOvVaw2PG1QgOMLFS-aWDxrJsB0R