UK SBS BLOJEU-CR17110HEFCE - HEFCE Assessment of strategies to tackle violence against women, harassment and hate crime affecting higher education students

The final date and time for the submission of bids is 04/10/2017 at 14:00hrs. **NOTE** Please disregard any content in this notice that requests your organisation "apply directly to the buyer" as this unfortunately is a system generated error, that is outside of the contracting authorities control. DO NOT apply directly to the buyer.

All tender information MUST be submitted through the CCS eSourcing Portal. In 2015 the Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation, Jo Johnson invited Universities UK (UUK) to prepare a report on addressing violence against women, harassment and hate crime affecting students.

UUK established a Taskforce to support universities in addressing all forms of harassment and to examine what further steps the sector can take to ensure an inclusive, safe and tolerant environment for all students. HEFCE has been asked by DfE to support UUK's implementation of the Taskforce's recommendations and we are therefore leading this follow-up work to qualitatively evaluate the sector's progress in meeting the recommendations and safeguarding their students Aims The outcomes we are seeking to achieve are: • An assessment of the sector's progress, or barriers to progress, in implementing the UUK Harassment Task Force's recommendations, to inform the Minister, HEFCE and UUK on what further action/support might be required. • Useful information to enable HEPs to benchmark/self-assess their own progress in meeting the recommendations and to signpost sources of further help/support.

Please ensure you review all attached information to ensure a full understanding of this requirement. All attachments can be found with the RFx attachments tab within the Emptoris System.

This contract will be awarded based on the evaluation criteria set out in the ITQ document. How to Apply As part of the strategic alliance between UK Shared Business Services Ltd (UK SBS) and Crown Commercial Service (CCS), UK SBS will be using the CCS eSourcing Suite for this procurement.

To register on the CCS eSourcing portal please follow the details contained within the Additional Information section of this notice. Responses received outside or concurrently using the eSourcing process will not be accepted or considered further for this opportunity.

How to Register on the CCS eSourcing Suite Full details of this opportunity can be found on the e-sourcing portal please follow instructions below. If you have not yet registered on the eSourcing Suite, this can be done online at https://gpsesourcing.cabinetoffice.gov.uk by following the link 'Register for CCS eSourcing'.

Please note that, to register, you must have a valid DUNS number (as provided by Dun and Bradstreet) for the organisation which you are registering, who will be entering into a contract if invited to do so. Once you have registered on the eSourcing Suite, a registered user can express an interest for a specific procurement.

This is done by emailing expressionofinterest@crowncommercial.gov.uk. Your email must clearly state: • name and reference for the procurement you wish to register for; • name of the registered Bidder; • name and contact details for the registered individual sending the email.

Crown Commercial Service will process the email and then enable the Bidder to access the procurement online via the e-Sourcing Suite. The registered user will receive a notification email to alert them once this has been done.

The Sourcing documents can then be accessed on the eSourcing Suite at: https://gpsesourcing.cabinetoffice.gov.uk using the instructions detailed in the Specification documents within Contracts Finder. As a user of the e-Sourcing Suite you will have access to Emptoris email messaging service which facilitates all messages sent to you and from you in relation to any specific RFX event.

Please note it is your responsibility to access these emails on a regular basis to ensure you have sight of all relevant information. For technical assistance on use of the e-Sourcing Suite please contact Crown Commercial Service Helpdesk: Telephone: 0345 010 3503 Training documents to support Bidders to utilise Emptoris CCS eSourcing are available in the Contracts Finder Tender documents section.

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