End of Life & Palliative Care Service (West Norfolk)

The contract relates to the provision of end of life and palliative care services in West Norfolk Place. The service comprises: 1) In-Patient Unit (IPU) End of Life (EOL) Beds x 9; 2) Out of Hours Rapid Response Service; 3) Care Home Support Service; and 4) Hospice at Home and Day Therapies Service.

The contract relates to the provision of an End of Life & Palliative Care Service in West Norfolk Place. The service comprises: 1) In-Patient Unit (IPU) End of Life (EOL) Beds x 9: This service provides specialist, high quality and compassionate EOL care for people who wish to die in a hospice setting, providing support to those (i) with life expectancy of 2 weeks or less (or up to 6 weeks where clinically appropriate) and (ii) who require specialist nursing oversight due to the complexity of their needs. 2) Out of Hours Rapid Response Service: This service provides 24/7 access to advice and support for people living with a life-limiting illness and their families, including (i) a rapid response to symptom advice and management outside of normal working hours, (ii) psychological, therapy and bereavement management support via the phone and home visits and (iii) signposting to other agencies which can offer help and support. 3) Care Home Support Service: This service seeks to improve the quality of end of life care provision within the care home sector and to reduce the number of avoidable admissions to hospital.

This includes (i) working collaboratively with care homes across West Norfolk providing proactive support to care home staff, giving them the confidence and competence to provide care in the last weeks and days of life to all residents and (ii) working with key stakeholders across health and social care boundaries, to drive a culture of integration, working towards a matrix of equitable delivery across the wider ICS footprint. 4) Hospice at Home and Day Therapies Service: The Hospice at Home Service supports service users and their carers at home in the last 6 weeks of life. This can include shared care provision with other care providers providing Fast Track Continuing Health Care to ensure that service users have access to all of the hospice services.

The Day Therapies Service provides non-pharmacological tailored therapy packages for service users and their carers to support independence and self management at home. The contract duration is 1 year and covers the period 1st August 2026 to 31st July 2027, with the option to extend by a further 1 year (in line with other end of life/palliative care contracts commissioned by the ICB).

NHS Norfolk and Suffolk Integrated Care Board are awarding the contract named within this notice under the Direct Award C process which is outlined within the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. The provider named in this notice is an existing provider and has been reviewed through a Key Criteria assessment to ensure the awarding body is satisfied with current performance and reasonably expects the provider to be able to satisfy the contract which is the subject of this notice.

The contract which is the subject of this notice has not changed considerably when compared with the existing / previous contract delivered by the named provider. The ICB may wish to introduce additional services during the lifetime of the contract ("Contract modifications").

Such contract modifications will be contemplated where additional requirements are similar and or complementary to the services already included in the Specification, at any given time. Such expansion would be by the addition of services commissioned by the Authority as named in the Contract Notice. To this end, after the award of contract, there is a possibility that the contract may be varied as allowable in accordance with the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023.