Community Health Services in the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group area

NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is considering how it wishes to commission community health services from 2020 onward. The CCG wants to ensure consistency of community health service provision across its geography and is interested in integrated and innovative models of care.

Subject to market scoping, stakeholder engagement and specification development, the CCG is considering seeking a partner to deliver community health services for the next seven to ten years across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. The final scope of the services is to be determined.

Any procurement may include adult community health services (indicative budget £120m per annum), with or without children's community health services and children and adolescent mental health services (indicative budget £50m per annum). If children's community health services are included, any procurement may be a joint procurement with the local authority and NHS England.

The CCG wishes to engage with the market to understand general market appetite to deliver the services, views about the emerging model of care and services, views about the potential design of any subsequent procurement process and other factors on which the market can provide intelligence. One or more market engagement events is planned to discuss the potential scope and to gauge market interest.

Dependent on market scoping, stakeholder engagement and development of specifications, the CCG is considering releasing a Request for Proposals in January 2019, using principles similar to competitive procedure with negotiation. Due to the scope and complexity of the services potentially to be included, the CCG wishes to engage in negotiation with interested parties to ensure that the final services meet population needs.

It is therefore likely that any procurement will involve an iterative process. The CCG is planning to hold a market engagement event the morning of Monday 15 October to describe the broad vision and scope.

Details will be provided to those who express an interest. To be invited to market engagement event(s) and be updated about any plans for commissioning these services, interested parties must register on the CCG's e-procurement system at https://in-tendhost.co.uk/scwcsu/aspx/Home by 12 noon on Wednesday 10 October 2018.

Parties should then review the list of 'current tenders' and select the option to 'express an interest'. This e-procurement portal is managed by NHS South, Central & West Commissioning Support Unit on behalf of the CCG.

Additional information: Interested parties should be aware that this Prior Information Notice is part of an information gathering and market engagement exercise rather than a call for competition in its own right. Any response does not commit the CCG or respondents to a future procurement, nor provide any process exemptions or preferential treatment to any parties expressing an interest.

The CCG will not be liable for costs incurred by any interested party in participating in this exercise. The services are healthcare services falling within Schedule 3 to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 ("the Regulations") which are not subject to the full regime of the Regulations, but is instead governed by the "Light Touch Regime" contained within Chapter 3, Section 7 of the Regulations (Regulations 74 to 77).

Any future tendering process will be conducted in accordance with the requirements and flexibilities provided by Articles 74 to 76 of the Directive, and Regulations 74 to 76 of the Regulations. The CCG will run a transparent tender process, treating all bidders equally.

For the avoidance of doubt, the CCG will not be bound by the Regulations or the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union or any other regulations or legislation except for the specific parts or circumstances that apply to the procurement of these services. To be invited to market engagement event(s) and be updated about any plans for commissioning these services, interested parties must register on the CCG's e-procurement system at https://in-tendhost.co.uk/scwcsu/aspx/Home by 12 noon on Wednesday 10 October 2018.

Parties should then review the list of 'current tenders' and select the option to 'express an interest'. This e-procurement portal is managed by NHS South, Central & West Commissioning Support Unit on behalf of the CCG. Any further information about market engagement will be released via the portal.