BWL Secures £5M Housing Development Contract for McCallion Group

BWL supported McCallion Group to win a £5m contract with a Donegal County Council to build a new housing development in Buncrana.  

The scope of services for the contract was to construct a new housing development for the Council, including all site preparation and construction works required.  

Scope and Requirements 

McCallion Group required our expertise to help produce the responses to 5 tender questions and the completion of the Suitability Assessment Questionnaire.  

The tender quality questions were heavily focused on how bidders were proposing to manage the key risks of the project; namely, management of health and safety, traffic management, resident/stakeholder interface, and minimising environmental impacts. The Suitability Assessment Questionnaire was made up of a standard set of questions and supplementary forms and annexes that required completion. 

Our Approach 

An initial bid kick-off meeting was called to meet the client’s team and establish the bid plan, including milestones for producing response storyboards, draft responses, and response reviews.  

We completed a gap analysis of all existing content held by the client to identify the extent of the content to be produced for the submission. This totalled 4 case studies, 6 CVs, and 5 written responses to the quality questions. 

Working proactively, we arranged meetings with the key stakeholders and subject matter experts within their team over the following five days to understand their experience and expertise and obtain key technical information on their methodology and solutions for the project.  

Challenges 

A key challenge for this tender was in identifying and understanding the extensive requirements for the Suitability Assessment Criteria. Consisting of several different forms and annexes, this required bidders to demonstrate capability and experience in fulfilling roles of the Work Contractor and the Project Supervisor Construction Stage (PSCS) in line with the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2013.  

Several case studies and CVs were required for each element of the Suitability Assessment Criteria that would need to be created, and therefore, gaining clarity on this was essential to the bid being successfully submitted on time and in a compliant manner. The instructions were not clear, and the best approach was to submit a clarification to the contracting authority to remove any ambiguity and to de-risk the tender submission. With our guidance and clarifications from the contracting authority, a firm plan was agreed and we set about developing the content for the responses and the Suitability Assessment Criteria.  

Another challenge for the bid was developing a clear strategy for managing the key risks on site, including: 

• Removal of peat on site in line with regulations and EU directives 

• Traffic and pedestrian management plans 

• Preventing contamination of local watercourses 

• Evidencing compliance with the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations (BCAR) 2014 and submission of certificates of compliance for all aspects of the work. 

These elements were discussed in detail and developed into a concise strategy that met the question requirements and demonstrated the client’s capabilities and expertise of managing similar risks and requirements on similar projects.  

Outcome 

Our support and input on this bid led to the McCallion Group being awarded the £5m project. This was BWL’s first time working with the their team and it clearly demonstrates our ability to produce compelling content that was responsive to the scoring criteria and clearly communicated their solution and methodology for the project.  

Testimonial 

“We were very pleased with BWL’s approach to the bid. They helped us to manage the bid process and ensure we were able to submit a compelling bid on time. We are very pleased with their input, and the recent outcome of the tender demonstrates they are very knowledgeable and have great expertise in public sector procurement.” 

Edward McKinney – Commercial Director 

McCallion Group