Section one: Contracting authority
one.1) Name and addresses
NHS England
Skipton House, 80 London Road
London
SE1 6LH
Contact
Nick Knight
Country
United Kingdom
NUTS code
UKI31 - Camden and City of London
Internet address(es)
Main address
Buyer's address
one.2) Information about joint procurement
The contract is awarded by a central purchasing body
one.3) Communication
Additional information can be obtained from the above-mentioned address
Electronic communication requires the use of tools and devices that are not generally available. Unrestricted and full direct access to these tools and devices is possible, free of charge, at
one.4) Type of the contracting authority
National or federal Agency/Office
one.5) Main activity
Health
Section two: Object
two.1) Scope of the procurement
two.1.1) Title
Digital Maternity Programme
Reference number
C35296
two.1.2) Main CPV code
- 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
two.1.3) Type of contract
Services
two.1.4) Short description
In support of the NHS England and Improvement Maternity Transformation Programme and the Children and Young People Programme, NHSX are initiating a Digital Child Health and Maternity Programme. This is to support the attainment of optimal outcomes for women, children and families, described in the NHS Long Term Plan and a number of reports including, Better Births, Ockenden review of maternity services at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust and The best start for life: a vision for the 1,001 critical days. NHSX now wish to commence a baseline understanding of the market place and in advance of bringing together a coherent means for NHS providers to procure Digital Maternity Services to support NHS England and Improvement ambitions.The forthcoming RFI exercise in conjunction with an internal maturity assessment will help to shape the value of a future Digital Maternity Services Framework or similar.
two.1.5) Estimated total value
Value excluding VAT: £1
two.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots: No
two.2) Description
two.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS codes
- UKI - London
Main site or place of performance
England
two.2.4) Description of the procurement
As part of the Maternity Transformation Programme overseen by NHS England / Improvement, the Digital Child Health and Maternity Programme, led by NHSX, aims to meet the following outcomes:● Citizen Empowerment - empowering women and their families to access and interact with curated healthcare information and their data in order to make informed decisions;● Improved Patient Safety - providing clinicians and other practitioners with access to relevant and timely information at any point of care to ensure the best health and care outcomes for pregnant women; and● Digital Maturity - improving the user experience for women and professionals, including reducing the burden of data entry and driving towards a paperless environment.To support this ambition, NHS England / Improvement and NHSX are committed to working with the marketplace. As an early step, we are seeking to better understand what suppliers of digital technology-based solutions can offer to support, throughout pregnancy, any or all of women, their families and partners, and the health and social care professionals supporting them, and to hear about the supplier experience or perceptions of NHS procurement processes. This will inform the development of new commercial mechanisms and/or the evolution of existing mechanisms, to be utilised in the investment of the solution.To gather this information, a request for information (RFI) will be issued by close of play 11 June 2021, with responses requested by 9 July 2021.For the RFI, our interest is in the full pathway from pre-conception, through pregnancy to post-natal care. Solutions may support a specific part of this pathway or the full end-to-end journey.Our interest is in both solutions to be used by women, their families and by health and social care system professionals (including clinicians / administrators / commissioners). The former may encompass women with co-morbidities, such as gestational diabetes. We also have an interest in how technology can help address health inequalities. The latter includes fertility, midwifery and obstetrics services (in the community and acute services), and also primary care services (GPs) and other community based health and social care services when they are focused on the maternity pathway.We welcome RFI responses from suppliers with solutions that are already deployed in the UK or overseas, either in support of people and professionals engaged with the pregnancy pathway or a similar healthcare pathway that is transferable.Suppliers with early stage innovative solutions can instead approach innovation.offers@nhsx.nhs.uk as an initial step in accessing a support offer.Suppliers with ‘commodity’ or ‘general’ products and services do not need to engage in the RFI - examples include suppliers of laptops, mobile connectivity services, user experience specialists, evaluation services. Mature commercial mechanisms to support the procurement of such solutions already exist. [Link to comment, believe this is now resolved - suggest resolving the comment before resharing the next version]Participation in the RFI exercise is not a prerequisite for any future procurement activities, and will not impact on the outcomes of any such activities. Similarly, any information provided or views expressed in an RFI will not impact on the outcomes of any future procurement activities a supplier may engage in.
two.2.14) Additional information
The RFI will be published on our eSourcing Portal, Atamis. To ensure you are able to access and respond to the RFI, please register as a supplier here; health.atamis.co.uk . Once registered on the portal please email nicholas.knight@nhs.net to request to be given access to the RFI once it has been published.
two.3) Estimated date of publication of contract notice
29 October 2021
Section four. Procedure
four.1) Description
four.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: Yes
Section six. Complementary information
six.3) Additional information
We plan to run an event on the afternoon of 30 June 2021 that will set out the key architectural principles and components that will support our ambition. Further details will be provided when the RFI is published. The event will be recorded for those unable to attend.