Tenders

INVITATION TO TENDER FOR THE PROVISION OF SUPPORT TO DEVELOP THE NEXT PHASE OF DATA AND LABOUR MARKET INTELLIGENCE IN CHESHIRE AND WARRINGTON

ECW in collaboration with our three local authorities and key partners including the Data and Labour Market Steering Group have been working over the last ten years to develop data and labour market intelligence that can inform the development of local strategies, delivery plans, targeting of investments (including most recently, the skills bootcamp programme) and the development of the curriculum offers across Cheshire and Warrington. 

Key recent strategies and delivery programmes include the Sustainable Inclusive Economic Strategy, the local Get Britain Working Plan, the Merseyside and Cheshire Integrated Care Board Health and Work Plan, the Local Skills and Improvement Plan, the Careers Hub delivery plan, investments in skills bootcamps and the work of our local jobcentres. 

The labour market intelligence is also used to inform the work of the Workforce and Economic Recovery Group and the Into Work Board and to support the Jobs Portal (Cheshire & Warrington Opportunities (candwopportunities.co.uk) which in turn is providing real-time labour market intelligence that complements historical job vacancy data (currently from Lightcast) and the DWP Stat Xplore data about recipients of Universal Credit.

The Data and Labour Market Intelligence Group has a wide membership including representatives of all the local authorities, the further education colleges, DWP, the University of Chester and other training and education providers, the local deliverers of the National Career Service and a number of local Housing Associations.

The Skills Bootcamp Steering Group uses data and labour market intelligence as part of their assessment of proposed investments in skills bootcamps and the Workforce and Economic Recovery Group and the Into Work Board regularly review the key messages emerging from the data and labour market intelligence and identify issues that need further investigation. Issues include new and emerging job opportunities and associated skills requirements, the impact of new technologies, the nature of worklessness and economic inactivity and the risks associated with people dropping out of employment, education and training.

Indicative Budget

The indicative budget for this work is up to a maximum of £60,000

Timescales

The following are the key milestones:

• Issue brief for procurement by Friday 12 September 2025
• Deadline for submissions (3 weeks after brief is issued) – Friday 3 October 2025
• Appointment of consultant (1 week after submissions received) – Friday 10 October 2025
• Inception meeting week commencing where scope of initial piece of work will be set out Monday 13 October 2025
• Monthly reviews to be undertaken to assess progress to date and agree timetable for further reports

The contract is expected to run over a twelve-month period to enable regular review and feedback from key partners including the Data and Labour Market Steering Group to help shape the work programme and final reports. 

The following are key meetings to be attended during the period of the contract where the consultant will present emerging findings and associated key issues requiring further investigation:

• Regular review meetings with ECW
• Regular meetings with the Workforce and Economic Recovery Group and the Data and Labour Market Steering Group
• Meetings as required with key partners to be agreed with ECW

Submission requirements

Bidders are required to submit tenders in an electronic format (i.e. MS Word/PDF) setting out the following:

• Approach and methodology to the commission
• Track record of undertaking similar commissions
• The proposed consultancy team, their qualifications, expertise and relevant experience
• A breakdown of costs by task and team member and disbursements. Submissions should be sent via email to: tenders@cheshireandwarrington.com.

The deadline for submissions is Friday 3 October 2025.

Invitation to tender for Outline Infrastructure and Sustainability Assessment for High Growth Areas

Infrastructure constraints across Cheshire and Warrington have the potential to limit new development. These constraints cover various vectors including energy supply, water supply, heat and cooling provision, and biodiversity net gain requirements for new developments – particularly where overlapping priorities for housing development, industrial decarbonisation, and energy generation overlap. An initial evaluation at these high growth locations for key infrastructure and sustainability linked constraints, utilising, analysing, and synthesising existing datasets, will identify key priorities for further work over the near term.

ECW are seeking a consultant(s) to work alongside ourselves and Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWAC), Cheshire East Council (CEC), and Warrington Borough Council (WBC) to conduct an initial high-level Infrastructure and Sustainability assessment at high growth places (c. 10 total areas, to be communicated to the successful bidder) across Cheshire and Warrington. Given a tight budget and timeline, initial work will be constrained to a given number of vectors and available data to enable screening at these locations and provide early evidence ahead of future detailed work.

This evidence will inform future work across the subregion, including broader energy planning, Regional Energy Strategic Plan submission development, Local Authority planning, and potential work on a Growth Plan, and Spatial Development Strategy – with the underpinning blockers and opportunities at these key high growth locations clearly noted in advance of further business case development around these sites.

The successful bidder will also need to provide a high-level sustainability analysis for the pipeline at each of the high growth places. The Cheshire and Warrington Sustainable and Inclusive Economic Strategy, recently published for consultation, states our ambition to be the most sustainable, inclusive, healthy, and growing place in the UK by 2045. It is vital that new development is carried forward in line with these ambitions, and an early pipeline assessment at each location to better understand impacts on climate and nature is vital to ensure

The successful bidder will be required to deliver services in accordance with all tender documents and the contract to be placed with the successful bidder. Tenderers are requested to study the specification in detail and ensure that the specified requirements can be met and thus your understanding of our requirements is reflected in your Pricing Schedule return.

The contract is expected to commence Thursday 16th October with the exact dates to be agreed depending on the agreement between the successful provider and ECW.

The Contract will be awarded for approximately 8 weeks, and the appointed consultant(s) will be assessed for satisfactory performance through continuous monitoring and performance review.  We expect the consultant(s) to produce interim outputs by late November, and final outputs by 19th December 2025.

This tender is published subject to funding, with funding confirmation expected to be received mid-September.

The successful appointees will:

• Produce a high-level infrastructure constraints analysis for Cheshire and Warrington – identifying major overlaps between constraints on:
  • Energy Supply
  • Water Supply
  • Water Quality
  • Heating and Cooling Demand
  • Nature
• Estimate infrastructure demands and identify major constraints for each priority site across this same range of vectors for the proposed place-based developments.
• Produce a high level sustainability analysis for the project pipeline at each identified priority site.
• Provide data to ECW in a coherent integrated set of GIS layers that can be used for future work.

Further detail of requirements can be found in the specification at Section 3.

Budget 

This tender is published subject to funding. A budget of up to £25,000 excl. VAT is expected to be available for this work.

If you have any specific questions concerning this document or the process for submission of your proposal, then please email through to: tenders@cheshireandwarrington.com no later than Monday 22nd September 2025, 09:00. Only questions submitted to this email address will be answered.  Queries received after this date will not be accepted and will not be responded to.

It would be most helpful if queries could be submitted in one email rather than piecemeal. If any question or request for clarification is considered to be of material significance, both the question and the response may be issued for review by all potential providers in a suitably anonymous form. All communication received from potential providers will be treated in strict confidence but are subject to this paragraph.