Invitation to Participate: Stop Smoking Enhanced Digital Intervention Service (PSR MSPP)

Norfolk County Council's Public Health team are seeking to procure enhanced digital stop smoking intervention services for a pilot project. This notice is Norfolk County Council's intention to utilise the Most Suitable Provider Process under Regulation 10 of the Provider Selection Regime (2023).

This procurement is funded by the national SmokeFree Generation initiative to support smokers in their community access support and increase the number of quit attempts. Smoking is the primary cause of preventable illness and premature death as it harms nearly every organ of the body and dramatically reduces both quality of life and life expectancy, by approximately 10 years.

Smoking is the leading modifiable risk factor responsible for health inequalities, accounting for half the ten-year difference in life expectancy between the most and least disadvantaged in society. Recent estimates of smoking prevalence in Norfolk tell us that 12.2% of adults (aged 18+) in Norfolk report smoking regularly.

Digital health and care has become a model of not only necessity but also preference in recent years. With on-going issues around waiting times and restrictions of accessing traditional services (e.g. specific clinic times and locations), it is vital that we allow our health services to evolve with demand.

Digital health services empower users to take a more active role in managing their own health, promoting self-management. Ultimately, smarter health care provision will lead to improved quality, more efficient working, improved outcomes and higher service user satisfaction.

Developments in the provision of health and well-being services mean that people are looking for new and innovative approaches to accessing all types of services, stop smoking services included. By providing digital support to smokers we would expect not only an increase in local people accessing stop smoking support who might not have otherwise attended a stop smoking service, but also the opportunity to improve the efficiency of stop smoking service provision.

Norfolk County Council are seeking to procure services for digital and enhanced smoking cessation services for an initial 17 month term with the possibility to extend for a further 12 months. Healthcare Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulation 2023 utilising the Most Suitable Provider Process (Regulation 10).

For the avoidance of doubt, the provisions of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and Procurement Act 2023 do not apply to this procurement exercise. No Conflicts of Interest have been recorded as part of this process, and will continue to be monitored.

The decision makers for release of this procurement exercise are the Council's Head of Complex Transactions and Sourcing and the Council's Assistant Director - Public Health Commissioning. Framework agreement is not being established as part of this agreement.

Additional information: To obtain the documents to participate you will first be registered on the system at https://in-tendhost.co.uk/norfolkcc. Full instructions for registration and use of the system can be found at https://in-tendhost.co.uk/norfolkcc/aspx/BuyerProfiles.

Once registered you will be able to see the procurement project under the `tenders` section and `express an interest` to view the documentation. Requests to Participate must be submitted via https://in-tendhost.co.uk/norfolkcc