Section one: Contracting authority
one.1) Name and addresses
NHS Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group
Town Hall, Norton Rd
Hove
BN3 4AH
Contact
Chris McCarthy
christopher.mccarthy@soeprocurement.nhs.uk
Country
United Kingdom
NUTS code
UKJ21 - Brighton and Hove
Internet address(es)
Main address
one.1) Name and addresses
NHS East Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group
Sackville House, Brooks Close
Lewes
BN7 2FZ
Contact
Chris Mccarthy
christopher.mccarthy@soeprocurement.nhs.uk
Country
United Kingdom
NUTS code
UKJ2 - Surrey, East and West Sussex
Internet address(es)
Main address
https://www.eastsussexccg.nhs.uk/
one.1) Name and addresses
NHS West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group
Wicker House, High Street
Worthing
BN11 1DJ
Contact
Chris Mccarthy
christopher.mccarthy@soeprocurement.nhs.uk
Country
United Kingdom
NUTS code
UKJ2 - Surrey, East and West Sussex
Internet address(es)
Main address
https://www.westsussexccg.nhs.uk/contact-us/
one.2) Information about joint procurement
The contract involves joint procurement
one.4) Type of the contracting authority
Body governed by public law
one.5) Main activity
Health
Section two: Object
two.1) Scope of the procurement
two.1.1) Title
Primary Care Escalation Framework 21.836
Reference number
21.836
two.1.2) Main CPV code
- 79430000 - Crisis management services
two.1.3) Type of contract
Services
two.1.4) Short description
Further to the previous publication of a voluntary ex ante transparency notice (2021/S 000-032261), and completion of the 10 day standstill period (that concluded on 4th January 2022), NHS Brighton & Hove Clinical Commissioning Group, NHS West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group, and NHS East Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group (the Sussex CCGs) have awarded a contract for a period of 14 months and 3 weeks to Care Unbound Ltd t/a HERE for the provision of a Primary Care Escalation Framework (PCEF) Service commencing on 10th January 2022.
The Sussex CCGs reserve the right to extend the contract by up to a further 12 months.
The PCEF is a programme of work the CCG has commissioned through a collaboration of Improved Access Service (IAS) providers who the CCG consider to be best placed to roll out the PCEF rapidly, at scale to respond to the on-going and escalating requirements from primary care of the Covid 19 pandemic and winter pressures while ensuring the stability of general practice in Sussex.
two.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots: No
two.1.7) Total value of the procurement (excluding VAT)
Value excluding VAT: £1,024,057
two.2) Description
two.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)
- 85121100 - General-practitioner services
two.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS codes
- UKJ2 - Surrey, East and West Sussex
Main site or place of performance
Within the boundaries of East Sussex, West Sussex, and Brighton and Hove.
two.2.4) Description of the procurement
Further to the previous publication of a voluntary ex ante transparency notice (2021/S 000-032261), and completion of the 10 day standstill period (that concluded on 4th January 2022), NHS Brighton & Hove Clinical Commissioning Group, NHS West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group, and NHS East Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group (the Sussex CCGs) have awarded a contract for a period of 14 months and 3 weeks to Care Unbound Ltd t/a HERE for the provision of a Primary Care Escalation Framework (PCEF) Service commencing on 10th January 2022.
The Sussex CCGs reserve the right to extend the contract by up to a further 12 months.
The PCEF is a programme of work the CCG has commissioned through a collaboration of Improved Access Service (IAS) providers who the CCG consider to be best placed to roll out the PCEF rapidly, at scale to respond to the on-going and escalating requirements from primary care of the Covid 19 pandemic and winter pressures while ensuring the stability of general practice in Sussex. The PCEF is a framework to demonstrate live resilience of primary care services at practice, primary care network, place, and system level to then coordinate an appropriate and timely response.
The Primary Care Escalation Framework (PCEF) will dovetail with wider ICS winter escalation framework which in turn is based on the NHS England, Southeast framework, NHS England OPEL (Operational Pressures Escalation) Framework October-2018. The current OPEL framework has focussed more on the visibility of the demand and pressure in acute and community services. The PCEF aims to address this by introducing a parallel system within primary care to ensure visibility across the whole health and care system in Sussex.
In relation to the proposals for the implementation of the primary care escalation framework breaks down into three phases:
-Phase one - Data Survey Collection Survey initiation across all Sussex Practices - to establish resilience needs.
Data warehouse, (incl helpdesk & technical support) & dashboard development.
-Phase two - Escalation Framework Liaison.
Regional Liaison with Primary Care.
-Phase three - Resilience Response Design.
Regional co-ordination and collation of resilience plans and emerging needs - including workshops to bring together regional learning and finalise re-design options appraisal.
This will be a prime provider contract delivered by Here who will then sub-contract with all Improved Access Services (IAS) in Sussex for the delivery of phases two and three of the programme, to utilise and build on existing relationships and geographical frameworks.
two.2.5) Award criteria
Cost criterion - Name: n/a / Weighting: n/a
two.2.11) Information about options
Options: No
two.2.14) Additional information
The value stated (excludes vat) includes the total potential amount in the event the contract was to be extended by the optional further 12 months.
Please note: NHS England and Improvement have announced that the Sussex Health and Care Partnership, which is made up of all health and care organisations across East Sussex, West Sussex, and Brighton and Hove, has successfully met the criteria to become an Integrated Care System (ICS). An ICS is a way of working across health and care organisations that allows them to work closer together, to take collective responsibility of the health and wellbeing of populations across large areas.
It is not anticipated that the statutory responsibility or accountability of the individual health and care organisations working as an ICS will be affected, save for the expectation that CCG organisations will be abolished and functions transferred to the ICS. As a result of these intended healthcare reforms, the Contracting Authority(s) currently NHS East Sussex CCG/NHS West Sussex CCG/NHS Brighton and Hove CCG, may change during the life of the contract.
Section four. Procedure
four.1) Description
four.1.1) Type of procedure
Award of a contract without prior publication of a call for competition in the cases listed below
- The services can be provided only by a particular economic operator for the following reason:
- absence of competition for technical reasons
- Extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable for the contracting authority
Explanation:
Sussex CCG's have successfully bid for funding through the October 2021 nationally announced 'Winter Access Fund' (WAF) . It is a requirement for the WAF to be allocated in this financial year , which would not align with timescales for a full procurement. As a transformational piece of work the plan is that the PCEF will extend into 2022/23, with outputs evaluated to determine any further extensions. The PCEF will be part of a range of initiative funded as part of the WAF.
Due to the funding window and requirement for rapid mobilisation Here - Care Unbound Ltd as the lead contractor subcontracting to Improved Access Service (IAS) providers are the only viable providers to deliver the Primary Care Escalation Framework, rapidly, at scale across Sussex and mobilise within the required timescales across all three CCG footprints, particularly where federated due to their local expertise, existing relationships with primary care, direct delivery of some services and support to practices and primary care networks.
Here, are well placed to work across primary care in Sussex. Here have led on establishing an alliance of federations, including Innovation in Primary Care (IPC), Alliance for Better Care (ABC) in West Sussex, South Downs Health Care (SDHC) and Integrated Family Healthcare (IFH) in East Sussex. This collaboration was originally formed as an provider initiative to enable a joint approach across IAS providers to respond to wider system requests and not exclusively for the purposes of delivering the PCEF.
Here has been linking with wider Federations both in their role as the link with primary care and as resilience providers - on of the goal of this project is to allow immediate resilience support from IA services.
Here has proven track record in developing bespoke technical solutions with primary care and commissioners in B&H and HWLH. For example:
• Practice Covid resilience survey tool developed in 2020.
• Racecourse vax site analytics dashboards used by all participating practices
• PCN analytics tools/dashboards in use in B&H
IAS providers are supportive of the proposals which are seen as a collaborative effort
with Here as primary contract holder.
Due to the funding framework and timescales the CCG needs to use the existing alliance of federations and IAS providers which has been established for delivery of the PCEF, due to their specialist expertise and relationships rapidly mobilise the PCEF at scale linking with wider Federations both in their role as the link with primary care and as resilience providers. The goal of this project is to allow immediate resilience support from IAS - hence contracting with the IAS provider partnership.
The proposed rapid prototyping approach employed by Here reduces the risk of system redundancy and means iterations of the solution will be developed throughout its lifetime.
Here has significant experience of system integration within primary care they already provide system resilience through IAS and the Urgent Treatment Centre. This has included providing dedicated capacity to support individual practices when necessary.
Here and all the IAS providers currently have existing information sharing agreements in place with their respective practices. These information sharing agreements have been developed between practices and IAS providers over a number of years, bespoke to meet the data sharing requirements for each of the 161 individual practices. The information sharing agreements are a key and critical element of delivery of the PCEF. Putting in place such arrangements with a new provider would involve building trusting relationships and negotiation with 161 individual practices on the terms of the agreement and buy-in to the intentions of the supplier in terms of the uses of the data. The IAS providers have built up this trust over several years, and for a new provider to get this in place during a 3-6 month mobilisation period would be unrealistic.
four.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: Yes
four.2) Administrative information
four.2.1) Previous publication concerning this procedure
Notice number: 2021/S 000-032261
Section five. Award of contract
Title
Primary Care Escalation Framework
A contract/lot is awarded: Yes
five.2) Award of contract
five.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract
5 January 2022
five.2.2) Information about tenders
Number of tenders received: 1
The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators: No
five.2.3) Name and address of the contractor
Care Unbound Ltd t/a HERE
Fourth Floor, 177 Preston Road
Brighton
BN1 6AG
Country
United Kingdom
NUTS code
- UKJ21 - Brighton and Hove
The contractor is an SME
No
five.2.4) Information on value of contract/lot (excluding VAT)
Total value of the contract/lot: £1,024,057
five.2.5) Information about subcontracting
The contract is likely to be subcontracted
Section six. Complementary information
six.4) Procedures for review
six.4.1) Review body
Refer to South of England Procurement Services to trigger the review process.
Fareham
christopher.mccarthy@soeprocurement.nhs.uk
Country
United Kingdom