Public procurement notice: Prior Information Notice Without Call For Competition
Published: 2020-03-20
Buyer: Liverpool City Council
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
CPV classification: 85100000: Health services

Technical requirements: The purpose of this PIN is to gauge market interest in the hosting, management and further development of an existing bespoke support service access gateway, developed to support the prevention of homelessness and rough sleeping sub-regionally – a system commonly known across the Liverpool City Region as MainStay.
This Prior Information Notice (PIN) is published on behalf of Liverpool City Council, working in Partnership with the other 5 local authorities in the Liverpool City Region and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA). The parties included in this request therefore consist of:
The purpose of this PIN is to gauge market interest in the hosting, management and further development of an existing bespoke support service access gateway, developed to support the prevention of homelessness and rough sleeping sub-regionally – a system commonly known across the Liverpool City Region as MainStay.
The MainStay delivery partner has a direct relationship and contract with the preferred software provider CDP for the software solution to manage the system. This includes leading any negotiation for the continuation of the IT system and any additional software development, training, and license purchases. Each LA has a license period up to 31 March 2020.
Commissioners are seeking expressions of interest from organisations experienced in working with the homelessness sector to work with the partners named above and a range of service providers to host, deliver and further develop the MainStay system building on the existing operational functionality to help support improvements in the referral, assessment, support and move on pathways.
The current MainStay operational functionality covers the following areas in relation to accommodation and associated support services for vulnerable groups (typically those at risk of homelessness and rough sleeping) in each local authority area and for the city region combined authority:
• the management and development of comprehensive common needs and risk assessment processes building on established protocols and working towards an asset based approach;
• the management of referrals and service waiting lists, including service user matching and prioritisation for placement in services;
• the functionality enabling individual case management and support planning in line with each LA/LCRCA requirements;
• the management and development of robust performance monitoring and reporting functions used by LA’s/LCRCA and MainStay services across the City Region;
The future development of the system will need to take account of current requirements and existing legislation but will need to be responsive to changing requirements as these emerge including legislative changes.
Please note: the MainStay system is currently hosted and managed on behalf of the partners listed above by an external organisation. Should Liverpool City Council proceed to a full procurement and tendering exercise, it is the Council’s view that TUPE may apply.
Interested parties should complete and submit the soft market testing questionnaire published on ProContract.