Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2017-11-02
Buyer: NHS West Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 85100000: Health services
Estimated value: 243809000 GBP

Technical requirements: Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG and West Suffolk CCG have been working on the Health and Care Review for a number of years which has culminated in a vision for integrated/accountable care organisations (ICO/ ACO) being formed between health and social care providers (listed in II.2.4) within 2 systems (East and West Suffolk). To achieve the vision the CCGs believe true integration of services vertically and horizontally would best secure the identified needs of the population, improve quality and efficiency of services, realise seamless service provision across pathways and increase system sustainability. To achieve this vision community services would fall within the services provided by the ICO/ACO. The community services which are subject of this notice include a range of adult general and specialist community services, including Local Healthcare Teams, children's specialist services and equipment services.
The Integrated care organisations will function across 2 localities, Ipswich and East Suffolk and West Suffolk. For the purposes of this notice the locality is West Suffolk.
The providers listed currently deliver a wide range of services within the localities, including, acute, community,mental health, primary care and social care services. The CCGs began a process to ascertain whether the ICOs would be most capable of delivering the vision of the Health and Care Review through integrating delivery of the listed community services with their own service provision. This process assessed whether the ICOs were the most capable providers and therefore uniquely placed to deliver the specifications and vision derived from the Health and Care Review.
To demonstrate their ability the alliances were required to evidence that they were uniquely placed to deliver the level of integration across the pathways; willing to work with other statutory providers; experienced in multidisciplinary integrated care; able to mobilise at pace; capable of financially holding and managing the scale of risk.
The structured dialogue sessions covered a number of areas to allow the CCGs to receive this assurance; an overview of the areas covered were as follows:
At the end of the structured dialogue the CCGs reviewed the progress and documented evidence delivered through the most capable provider process and concluded through evaluation against the set criteria that the assurance had been received to evidence that the ICOs were the most capable providers of the service(s) and presented a unique opportunity for delivery of the services. As the assurance had been received the CCGs progressed through to stage 2 and the end stage gateway.
Stage 2 focused on generating plans, documentation and direction for the duration of the contract. Working together the ICOs produced mutually agreed delivery and innovation plans and service contracts.
The services covered by the arrangement may change and expand as the alliances / ICOs develop through a contract of up to ten (10) years. This contract is formed of 7 years plus an extension period of 3 years.
On 4.11.2016 a PIN was issued in OJEU calling for providers interested in providing community services as part of an existing integrated care organisation (‘ICO’) to contact the CCGs. Following this, the CCGs have engaged in discussions with the existing ICO providers and interested third party providers and have now awarded the contract as set out above on the basis that the listed organisations are the only providers with the requisite capacity and capability to provide the community services and that competition from other providers is absent.
On the 23.9.2017 a Voluntary ex ante transparency notice 2017/S 183-375766 was published to declared the commissioners intention to award the contract.
NHS Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG and NHS West Suffolk CCG (the ‘CCGs’) have been working on the redesign and recommissioning of community healthcare services, GP Out-Of-Hours and 111 services as part of the Suffolk Health and Care Review. As part of this commissioning exercise, the CCGs have undertaken a process to ascertain whether the proposed Integrated Care Organisations within both East and West Suffolk are the most capable providers to best secure the delivery of community healthcare services for the current population in each area. As a result of this process and an absence of wider competition the CCGs have awarded the above contracts.


Winner: West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
Award value: 243809000
Number of bids: 1