Wrong (again)

The VHCC Best Value Panel (BVP) is, to my mind, by far the most interesting of this weeks glut of consultations. Not only is there more detail to go at there is an intriguing underlying methodology to consider – potentially equally applicable to other planned and forthcoming contracting initiatives.
Very briefly it works like this. There are, similar to modern job descriptions/person specifications, a set of “essential” and “desirable” criteria against which the firm will be assessed. These include number of VHCC undertaken and the experience of staff etc. Firms are scored against this and then their sealed bids for a number of cases (minimum 3 over 18 months) at one of three prescribed rates are then assessed for Value for Money (VFM). The latter process will give a weighting to “quality” but the mechanics for this are not described (unless I’ve missed them). Whether this, or something similar, will prove unnecessary, or too complicated, for mainstream criminal and civil contracting remains to be seen.
So why the title? Well this bears more than a passing resemblance to BIDCOM the last competitive tendering experiment they tried and something I predicted we would not see the like of again.
Potential bidders wanting more detailed advice should pick up the phone.