Pilot of Psychological Supervision for Forensic Science Staff

SPA Forensic Services provide independent, impartial specialist forensic services to policing and the wider criminal justice system in Scotland.

Operational Forensic Services staff are routinely exposed to incidents, images and case material that is often distressing or traumatic in nature, and carries a high level of stress and psychological risk. Prolonged and repeated exposure to this is more prevalent in the scene attending disciplines and in areas such as Imaging where review of traumatic images is conducted daily.

As such, it is proposed that a Pilot be undertaken to evaluate any impact that incorporating psychological supervision into the professional practice could have on the mental health and wellbeing of forensic staff. The pilot will run for approximately 3 years, which will allow trends and impact to be apparent and measurable – the supervision will include regular meetings with specific, suitably trained counsellors for the full duration. Providers will also provide suggested improvements to the approach and the wider SPA occupational health strategy and full report detailing final results, analysis and recommendations for future support.

Economic operators may be excluded from this competition if they are in any of the situations referred to in regulation 58 of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.

If a Tenderers organisation has a policy for health and safety (H&S) management, then a copy of the policy may be requested.

Guidance. Organisations with less than five employees are not required by law to have a documented policy statement. The need to reduce documentary requirements on micro businesses in particular will be taken into account by buyers and the evaluation panel. Your policy should be endorsed by the chief executive officer and that it is regularly reviewed. The policy should be relevant to the nature and scale of the work and set out responsibilities for H&S management at all levels within your organisation. Your policy should be relevant to the nature and scale of your operations and set out your company's responsibilities of health and safety management and compliance with legislation.

The tenderer’s representative with overall responsibility for undertaking the works and the personnel assigned to the supply of the services shall be vetted to Non Police Personnel Vetting Standards (NPPV) Level 1.

Info Security Requirement

It is a mandatory requirement of the contract that the contractor and/or subcontractors are certified to ISO/IEC 27001 (or equivalent) or have equivalent arrangements in place against the 14 control areas listed below:

1) Information Security Policies

2) Organization of Information Security

3) Human Resource Security

4) Asset Management

5) Access Control

6) Cryptography

7) Physical and environmental security.

8) Operation Security-

9) Communication security - Network security management and Information transfer.

10) System acquisition, development and maintenance

11) Supplier relationships

12) Info security incident management

13) Info security aspects of business continuity management

14) Compliance

Cyber Security Requirement

It is a mandatory requirement of the contract that the contractor and/or subcontractors are certified to Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials plus or have equivalent arrangements in place; evidence of a robust cyber security strategy

If the contractor and/or subcontractors ARE certified to ISO/IEC 27001 (or equivalent) and Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials plus please select Yes against question 4D.1 below and upload a copy of the certificate(s).

If the contractor and/or subcontractors are NOT certified to ISO/IEC 27001 (or equivalent) and Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials plus but have equivalent arrangements in place please select Yes against question 4D.1, complete the attachment entitled '4D.1 Security Requirements Response Template' for each entity you rely upon to meet the requirements and upload the response(s).