Contract

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOL's) - Mental Health Assessor (Doctors S12)

  • Leicestershire County Council

F03: Contract award notice

Notice identifier: 2023/S 000-012923

Procurement identifier (OCID): ocds-h6vhtk-034b83

Published 5 May 2023, 11:33am



Section one: Contracting authority

one.1) Name and addresses

Leicestershire County Council

County Hall, Leicester Road, Glenfield

Leicester

LE3 8RA

Contact

Mr Martin Hall

Email

martin.hall@leics.gov.uk

Telephone

+44 1163053623

Country

United Kingdom

Region code

UKF2 - Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire

Internet address(es)

Main address

https://www.eastmidstenders.org/index.html

Buyer's address

https://www.eastmidstenders.org/index.html

one.4) Type of the contracting authority

Regional or local authority

one.5) Main activity

General public services


Section two: Object

two.1) Scope of the procurement

two.1.1) Title

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOL's) - Mental Health Assessor (Doctors S12)

Reference number

DN657017

two.1.2) Main CPV code

  • 85000000 - Health and social work services

two.1.3) Type of contract

Services

two.1.4) Short description

This is a notification of award by exception - Local Authorities have primary responsibility as the Supervisory Body under the DoL Safeguards. In operational terms this means that Local Authorities (Supervisory Body's) receive requests from Managing Authorities (residential/nursing homes and hospitals) and are required to organise, complete and respond to requests for authorisations within the mandated deadlines under the DoLS regulations. As part of this the Supervisory Body needs to arrange for a qualified assessor to complete relevant assessments. This process is currently arranged via an approved list of appropriately qualified assessors.

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: £900,000

two.2) Description

two.2.3) Place of performance

NUTS codes
  • UKF2 - Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire

two.2.4) Description of the procurement

This is a notification of award by exception - Local Authorities have primary responsibility as the Supervisory Body under the DoL Safeguards. In operational terms this means that Local Authorities (Supervisory Body's) receive requests from Managing Authorities (residential/nursing homes and hospitals) and are required to organise, complete and respond to requests for authorisations within the mandated deadlines under the DoLS regulations. As part of this the Supervisory Body needs to arrange for a qualified assessor to complete relevant assessments. This process is currently arranged via an approved list of appropriately qualified assessors.

The Standing List that is currently used to select a Doctor to undertake an assessment is established as follows:

To undertake mental health and eligibility assessments, the Doctor must:

Be approved under section 12 of the Mental Health Act 1983, or a registered medical practitioner with at least three years’ post-registration experience in the diagnosis or treatment of mental disorder

Provide evidence they have completed the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards mental health assessor programme, made available by The Royal College of Psychiatrists

Undertake annual update training provided by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and provide evidence of this.

Join the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) update service which lets applicants keep their DBS certificates up to date online and allows employers to check a certificate online.

Have a current registration with the General Medical council.

Comply with the Law for the time being in force and in particular will comply with all Equal Opportunities Legislation and anti-discriminatory practices and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 in the supply and provision of the Service under this Agreement.

Have attended, or would be prepared to attend, the Supervisory Body’s Training Programme.

Leicestershire County Council are open to any suitably qualified professionals joining the list at any point during the period that the list is open

two.2.5) Award criteria

Quality criterion - Name: Suitably Qualified (as above) / Weighting: 100

Price - Weighting: 0

two.2.11) Information about options

Options: No

two.2.13) Information about European Union Funds

The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: No


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 procurement falls outside the scope of application of the regulations

Explanation:

In the lifetime of the previous Framework we did an engagement event with Doctors to look at introducing a Framework for these Assessments.It was evident that the current cohort of Doctors at that time would not be interested in applying to be on a Framework. Over this period the Government announced changes to the current DOL's BIA assessment process introducing the new LPS standards which where due to introduced in 2020.This has been previously delayed and it is now expected that the new LPS arrangements will be introduced sometime in 2024.The purpose of this exception is to continue under the current arrangement until the guidance is issued for LPS for LCC to understand the new requirements.

This current arrangement will end once the Government announce changes to DoLS, and once the details of the new legislation are known, a new procurement can be undertaken.

The new procurement may also take place under the Provider Selection Regime, once this legislation goes live and we understand its scope. This legislation may give us further flexibility in terms of how the procurement is undertaken.

four.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)

The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: No

four.2) Administrative information

four.2.1) Previous publication concerning this procedure

Notice number: 2022/S 000-017629


Section five. Award of contract

Contract No

DN657017

A contract/lot is awarded: Yes

five.2) Award of contract

five.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract

17 February 2023

five.2.2) Information about tenders

Number of tenders received: 30

The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators: No

five.2.3) Name and address of the contractor

30 Qualified Professionals

Leicestershire

Country

United Kingdom

NUTS code
  • UKF2 - Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire
The contractor is an SME

Yes

five.2.4) Information on value of contract/lot (excluding VAT)

Total value of the contract/lot: £900,000


Section six. Complementary information

six.4) Procedures for review

six.4.1) Review body

Leicestershire County Council

Glenfield

Country

United Kingdom