Clarifications

124. In response to questions 179 of the SQ Evidence Submission section, can the Authority clarify what they mean by 'principle contract' and if there is a value threshold for these?

123. Re the following question within the Standard off the Shelf prospectus template: "Please provide a link to your organisation's training course information" Could you please explain what providers should do when able to provide multiple training courses within one learning category? Will it be acceptable to simply provide a link to our generic training landing page from which Buyers will need to navigate to an individual course, or is there a way to provide multiple links?

122. On our Selection Questionnaire after Q156 regarding Cyber Essentials Plus, we appear to be presented with a page of questions that are not listed on the SQ document shared within the Bid Pack. These are Q158 - 161 and titled "Part 3: NHS Requirements", please could you advise if these are relevant?

121. Categories for off-the-shelf training are stated as: Business Skills Coaching & Mentoring Health and Safety Digital, Data & Technology Financial Services Languages Leadership & Management Legal & Compliance LMS Software, Delivery & Content LMS Consultancy NHS Clinical NHS Non-Clinical NHS CPD Project & Programme Management Specialist / Niche Wellbeing Please can the Authority clarify which category HR training would sit under? Thank you

120. As a supplier 'Appointed' on the Learning and Training Services DPS, how can we add additional subcontractors to our profile?

119. Following a review of the DPS Core Terms by our Legal Team, please could you review and respond to the below questions? 4.11 Pricing and Payments - This clause appears to be inequitable since the Buyer retains the right to retain/set -off payments of any amount owed (4.7) and it is the Buyer who is liable to make payments. Please would it be possible to either make this right reciprocal at 4.11 or if not to explain this position? 24.5 Changing the Contract - This clause references the unknown and thus appears to be unfair that Supplier to bear all the risk of a General Change in Law. Particularly in view of the current climate and all regulations and orders being issued with regards the pandemic, for example, general changes in the law with immense impact on business operations are not beyond the realms of possibility. Should the Supplier have to bear the cost of say, further more stringent COVID restrictions? Please would it be possible to amend this clause or if not to explain this position? 34.6 Resolving Disputes - This clause may be unworkable depending on the nature of the dispute and is unreasonable the Buyer has the right to terminate or suspend a contract (e.g.10.7). Requiring that work continues regardless, secures continuity understandably, but there ought maybe to be some conditions under which the Supplier is entitled to suspend also. Please would it be possible to amend this clause or if not to explain this position?

118. Thank you for your response to our previous clarification, however our query is in relation to the timescale for logging and acknowledging complaints within 24 hours as stated at the bottom of Page 5 Schedule 1 Specification, not the timescales for resolution and associated KPIs. "All complaints shall be logged and acknowledged within twenty four 24 hours of receipt". Could you please confirm if this should be 1 working day for the reasons queried in our original clarification?

117. With regards to the Complaints Handling requirement for all complaints to be logged and acknowledged within 24 hours of receipt, could CCS please clarify; should this be a working day as opposed to 24 hours? It would not be possible to achieve 24 hours in some circumstances e.g., if a complaint was received on a Saturday when supplier staff will not be back in office until the following Monday.

116. Regarding Order Schedule 6 (ICT Services), the term "ICT Services" is used with capital letters but is not defined. Could you please provide a definition of such term?

115. •Regarding Schedule 12 (Lease Terms) could you please clarify to which equipment these Lease Terms would apply? Section 1 of this Schedule states the following "The Buyer has decided to lease Equipment under the DPS Contract using DPS Schedule 7 (Order Award Procedure)", however in DPS Schedule 7 (Order Award Procedure) we see no reference to this lease option. If this is something that a Buyer could decide to do at Order Contract level, could you please clarify the scope of this lease option.

114. •Regarding Order Schedule 11 (Installation Work) could you please clarify to which type of Deliverables this Schedule could apply based on the scope of this Framework? More specifically the definition of "Installation Works" refers to the works that the Supplier has to carry out at the beginning of the Order Contract Period to install the Goods. Could you clarify which type of Good would have to be installed in relation to training/learning services?

113. Could you also clarify if CCS would accept commercial and business reasons (eg supplier considers it doesn't have sufficient resources available), as acceptable reasons for not participating in a further competition?

112. •According to DPS Schedule 7 (Order Procedure) we understand that a Supplier can always decide not to tender, when invited to do so. However, clause 3.8 of DPS Schedule 4 (DPS Management) indicates that a failure to bid could lead to a suspension from the DPS if a Supplier repeatedly fails to bid on further competitions without an acceptable reason. Could you please clarify what does CCS mean by "a repeated failure to bid" (how many refusal to bid? - over which period of time? - would be considered under this clause).

111. In regards to question 22 to 29 in RM6219, I was hoping you could provide some clarity.We will be able to provide you with the information for our third party suppliers, as there is a handful of companies that we work with. However in regards to our setup for delivering sessions, we have a very large pool of coaches who are technically sub-contractors. When we work with a client we will scope who is the best coach from our pool to use (based on criteria such as the audience, learning needed and industry). Therefore, would it be sufficient for us to submit 5 coaches' details (VAT, DUNS and Company Registration Number ), and then if we are selected for work, we can provide the specific coach details for the project.

110. In regards to question 133 in RM6219 'Are you able to provide details of your first example contract? Can we provide this for 2nd and 3rd contract?: (Yes/No) Please provide details'. Confirmed with our Legal Department, we cannot share actual client data with anyone as we cannot share the personal details of client contacts (not authorized the disclosure of commercially sensitive information; name of customer, start and end date and estimated contract value, etc). But on Question 137 in RM6219, 'If you cannot provide at least one example customer contract (Question 133), in no more than 500 words please provide an explanation for this e.g. your organisation is a new start-up or you have provided services in the past but not under a contract'. Is none of those situations, the reason is explained above (not authorized the disclosure of commercially sensitive information), but we can relate to RM6145 where you already have a contract with us on this), would you need also our MSA template?

109. In regards to question 21 in RM6219 'The approximate % of contractual obligations assigned to the sub-contractor', will you please be able to clarify what this question mean? We are not very clear on what % it is indicating to. We have a very large pool of coaches who are technically sub-contractors. When we work with a client, the % will vary massively from coach to coach - we have some coaches who deliver for us on a regular basis whereas others only deliver a handful of times a year.

108. Could CCS please confirm if SQ questions under the heading "Part 3: NHS Requirements apply to this DPS? In the SQ document within the Bid Pack the final SQ questions are regarding Cyber Essentials, however we have clicked continue and have an additional page of questions to answer as below: Part 3: NHS Requirements You are 86% through this questionnaire This section gathers information required from organisations applying for NHS and health related contracts in the public sector. 158. Does your organisation provide temporary labour to the health sector? Yes No 159. Is your organisation a member of The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC)? Yes No 160. Is your organisation a member of any other Professional/Trade Association? Yes No 161. Does your organisation have a fully comprehensive occupational health screening service in place? Yes (additional questions requiring attachments appear if Yes is selected for this question) No

107. With regards to the Self Audit Certificate and report requirement, please could CCS define what is meant by an "appropriate and legitimate procurement route"? Furthermore, are suppliers expected to inform CCS which customers the invoices inspected that are not supplied under the DPS relate to? It is a common occurrence in public sector contracts that confidentiality clauses in agreements will prevent this.

106. There is a 300 word limit per free text box in the prospectuses - does that equate to each text box in the exported PDF version of the box having a 300 word limit? I.e. in the Generic Prospectus, under the section 'About your organisation', would that have a 300 word limit?

105. Thanks you for the response you provided on the 3rd of November which stated "No, the only pricing required for this DPS is for Standard Off The Shelf training". For the Learning and Training Services (Learning Technologies) the MI Template (Attachment 3 in the bid pack) identifies for the categories LMS Consultancy and LMS Software delivery and content that the pricing model can be either (or both) Bespoke or Standard_off_the_Shelf. The Learning Technologies prospectus (Attachment 1d) sets out the requirement for our response regarding how we would implement, advise, improve and integrate these technologies in a client organisation (for which we would expect to propose Bespoke pricing). It also sets out questions concerning training delivery (such as delivery modes, locations, delegate numbers etc). We don't believe we would provide training of this nature. Are we correct to assume that we can propose a 'Bespoke' only response for this area?