UK Public Sector Contracts & Tenders

Belfast City Council requires agile and flexible Employability and Skills solutions to be able to respond to challenges and opportunities within the labour market. Sufficient flexibility within the delivery of Employability & Skills interventions is required to take account of: a) Emerging needs. b) New initiatives and areas of development e.g. skills interventions within the Local Economic Partnership, Labour Market Partnership etc. c) Specialist employability and skills delivery. d) To test new areas of work as agreed. e) E&S specialist technical assistance. f) Sectors that are not covered within the current Employment Academy Framework (T2474) g) To pick up overflow of delivery if the current Contractors on T2474 are working to full capacity On this basis, the Council is considering setting up an "Open Framework", which would allow an open, fair, and transparent way of procuring the above services in the most efficient way possible. There will be no guarantee of any work for those Contractors on the new Open Framework, and any future call-offs will not be initiated until the following happens sequentially (which is designed to provide budgetary control): 1. Workplan and budget approval. 2. When agreed, a direct award or mini-competitions will then undertaken. 3. Delegated authority approval prior to awarding the call-off contract. An Open Framework will provide an opportunity for SMEs and Social Enterprises/Not-for-Profits to secure a place on the Framework, with the opportunity re-opening at various stages for new entrants to apply/re-apply.

The Authority invites tenders to provide the works for Belfast Stories Integrated Supply Team (IST) – Main Contract The contract is for the provision of the delivery of a new building to house the Belfast Stories visitor attraction and creative hub, including new internal and external public spaces at lands bounded by North Street, Union Street, Kent Street and Royal Avenue, Belfast. Belfast Stories can be summarised as Belfast City Council’s declared ambition to create ‘a unique visitor destination of unprecedented scale and ambition in the heart of the city centre, that will serve as a catalyst for economic, social, and cultural regeneration of the city and the wider region. To respond to this ambitious brief, the project is conceived as a combination of 3 core components: • Visitor attraction: Stories backed ticketed visitor experience designed to allow people to live their stores, share their stories and tell their stories • Creative Hub: Media Production Studio, 3x cultural cinemas, and a series of educational workshops and classrooms • Public Space: The building programme wraps around a large scale urban room at the heart of the scheme, serving as a focal point for gathering and containing the main horizontal and vertical circulation connecting all of the inter-related components of the building. The central space is conceived as being covered, but distinctly external / urban in character, creating an expressly public place where the visitor is readily presented with opportunities to tell and make their story.