Public procurement notice: Prior Information Notice Without Call For Competition
Published: 2018-12-26
Buyer: NHS England
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
CPV classification: 79410000 | 79632000 | 80000000 | 80500000 | 80561000
Estimated value: 12000000 GBP

Technical requirements: Service providers are sought to deliver the Productive General Practice Quick Start (PGPQS) Programme in England.
PGPQS forms a significant part of the Time for Care (TfC) programme delivered by NHS England’s Sustainable Improvement Team in its delivery of local support to General Practice. Between Autumn 2016 and March 2019 over 1 700 practices (out of a total of 7000+) have received the PGPQS support package.
In order to service a national TfC commission that will encourage the participation of all general practices across England. A number of ‘Delivery Partners’ (DPs) will be required to deliver PGPQS.
The number of practices to be supported each year is subjected to different factors and whilst no guarantees can be made, we would estimate around 400 to 600 practices per annum would receive the PGPQS package.
This contract would commence 1.12.2019 for a period of 36 months with a further possible extension period of 12/24 months thereafter.
In July 2016, the SI team’s general practice improvement team was commissioned to deliver a three-year development programme for general practice across England as described in the General Practice Forward View; this includes ‘Productive General Practice Quick Start’.
Practices also have access to tailored workshop facilitation (called Learning in Action), General Practice Improvement Leaders programme and ‘What is Quality Improvement’? Other than PGPQS all elements of the development programme are delivered by a ‘Faculty’ made up of people with a combination of primary care and improvement experience.
For the past 3 years PGPQS has been delivered by 3 DPs, with between 500–750 practices being supported each financial year, and around 100-300 practices being engaged at any one time. During peak delivery times DPs collectively therefore may have up to 40 whole time equivalent facilitators actively providing hands on support to practices. This contract has worked very well, and there is a continuing desire to provide support to practices but also to accelerate collaboration between practices in a geographical area.
The aim of this procurement is to find a suitable number of PGPQS Delivery Partners. The provider must have existing experience and expertise in relation to implementing service improvement within general practice and understand the environment within which PGPQS will be implemented. Working within general practice will require flexibility and sensitivity from the provider to manage issues and situations when they arise. The provider will deploy and manage their improvement facilitators to local cohorts (groups of between 8 to 12 practices) and for engagement and learning group sessions around England. Therefore their expertise in responsively planning resource allocation and capacity utilisation is imperative, as are demonstrable skills in service improvement facilitation in primary care and management of group based learning and sharing sessions.
The specific service requirement includes hosting a group of improvement experts to deliver the hands on PGPQS support and upfront engagement activity with the local scheme (PCO) and practices. It also includes providing both contractual and infrastructure support required to schedule, deploy and manage this delivery capacity.
— Engaging, in partnership with the local Development Advisor, with schemes that express an interest in PGPQS..
— Providing advice, in partnership with the local Development Advisor, to schemes to help them complete their Delivery Plan.
— It is only after the Plan has been submitted that it is assessed by the Central PGPQS Team and a decision made as to whether it will be supported or not.
— Delivery Plan deadlines are set at regular intervals throughout the year and are communicated to DPs in advance.
— Total management of delivery of the support to practices, engagement and liaison with the local PCO and TfC Development Advisor.


Award value: 12000000