Afya Care is a family run domiciliary care agency based in Gloucestershire that was formed recently in July 2019. Afya Care is run by a qualified nurse, Nicholas Mwuara. Nicholas contacted Hudson via our web chat function requiring support for the Gloucestershire County Council Pseudo Framework. As a new start-up company, Afya Care required external assistance to produce a competitive tender response and to support them in growing their business. After conversing with Hudson’s Client Engagement Manager, Jamie Peacock, Director of Afya Care, Nicholas Mwuara was passed to the Hudson Succeed Division and subsequently to Bid Writer, Robyn Crawford, who was assigned to lead the project.
Hudson were required to complete a selection questionnaire (SQ), 3 contract examples and 16 quality questions, equalling 12,800 words.
As Afya Care was a start-up company, Nicholas had not tendered before and, therefore, did not understand the full tender process. The team therefore supported Nicholas by clearly breaking down the information required in the form of an initial plan, which was subsequently discussed further via a phone call. This phone call was also an opportunity for the Hudson Team to develop a positive working relationship with Afya Care and for us to find out a little more about Afya Care as an organisation.
As a start-up in the midst of a global pandemic, Afya Care had faced struggles with gaining satisfactory experience required to develop 3 comprehensive case studies.
Although Afya Care did not have the experience required to develop 3 substantial contract examples, Nicholas himself had over 10 years’ experience in acute and nonacute care and had ran units within care homes with at least 20 residents in each. From extracting Nicholas’ and his teams experience from him over the phone, we managed to develop an excellent 500-word response demonstrating that Afya Care had the capabilities, competency, experience and resource to undergo the contract requirements effectively.
Afya Care’s responsive input and vast knowledge and experience enabled seamless information sharing and as a result of this, the Hudson Succeed Team managed to produce all responses and supporting documentation, have them internally and externally reviewed and submitted 24 hours prior to the deadline on the 22nd January 2021.
We overcame the challenge of Afya Care being a start-up company and along with Nicholas himself, we did not let that defer us from completing a high-quality tender submission and as a result, Afya Care have now proudly earned a place on the Gloucestershire County Council Pseudo Framework. Nicholas says:
“The staff at Hudson are approachable, supportive and well-co-ordinated even during the pandemic. As a new care provider, the team did not automatically rule me out and we managed to secure a tender.” – Nicholas Mwuara, Director
