Award

North East Essex GP Support Service

NHS SUFFOLK AND NORTH EAST ESSEX ICB

This public procurement record has 2 releases in its history.

Award

28 Nov 2024 at 12:17

Award

08 Oct 2024 at 13:57

Summary of the contracting process

NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB) has awarded a contract for the provision of the North East Essex GP Support Service to GP Primary Choice Ltd (GPPC). This contract focuses on providing office-support services to General Practice across the Tendring and Colchester district areas in North East Essex. The procurement stage for this contract, valued at £800,560 (exclusive of VAT), has been completed, with the contract active from 27th November 2024. The service is scheduled to run from 1st April 2025 to 31st March 2027, with an option for a 2-year extension. The procurement method used was a limited process, without prior publication of a call for competition, due to technical reasons ensuring continuity and effectiveness in service delivery.

This tender presents a substantial opportunity for businesses specialising in office support, quality improvement methodologies, and operational, non-clinical enhancement for healthcare services. Companies with experience in working closely with General Practice and those capable of providing bespoke support plans tailored to the unique challenges of primary medical care settings would excel. The contract prioritises collaborative efforts with local support providers, optimising resources and improving patient outcomes. Businesses that can offer expertise in improving operational techniques, best practices, and resource management in a trusted, confidential setting will find this tender highly relevant to their growth objectives.

Find more tenders on our Open Data Platform.
How relevant is this notice?

D3 Tenders Premium

Win More Public Sector Contracts

AI-powered tender discovery, pipeline management, and market intelligence — everything you need to grow your public sector business.

Notice Title

North East Essex GP Support Service

Notice Description

This is an Award notice to outline NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board's ("the ICB") award of a contract for the provision of a GP Support Service to General Practice across North East Essex. This service will be for north east Essex based GP practices, who face a range of significant challenges in the day to day delivery of primary medical care. This service will reactively support invited practices, via quality improvement methodologies, to build their capability and resilience. Support is also available to practices wishing to proactively achieve quality improvement. There will be a focus on collaborative working with other local support providers, to achieve a co-ordinated approach that optimises resources.

Lot Information

Lot 1

Nationally and locally, primary medical care is seeing growth in the challenges faced by GP Practice teams to respond to growing patient populations, growing older populations, and increasing demand for services to meet population health needs, whilst mitigating the impact of infrastructure constraints (like those of workforce and estates). This can pose challenge to the effective delivery of quality and safe primary medical care services. The national Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to General Practice alongside the SNEE Primary Care Strategy, provide a strategic vision and accompanying delivery plan to improve patient access to primary medical care, address the gap between demand and capacity, and increase workforce well-being, via various initiatives. Included in the Delivery plan is a requirement for ICBs to provide support offers to GP practices who are facing challenges in operationally delivering a sustainable and safe level of primary medical care services. To this end, the NE Essex GP Support Service is being retained to deliver bespoke support offers to General Practice, spanning both reactive and proactive approaches to respond to realised and emerging challenges. A NE Essex Quality, Sustainability and Innovation (QSI) Group of local stakeholders, through an MDT style approach will oversee delivery of support services to GP Practices and support a co-ordinated approach between the current providers. Identified practices will be referred to the contract holder for full assessment, followed by development of a bespoke, co-produced support/improvement plan. The provider will work in partnership with other support providers such as the ICB's training hub to provide a co-ordinated support approach, to optimise resources and patient outcomes. This service will provide operational, rather than clinical support, and will be expected to signpost to other complementary services as appropriate. In addition to action planning, the service will provide subject matter expertise in the local primary medical care environment, introduction to quality improvement methodologies, supporting timely, face to face analysis and problem-solving support, providing advice and guidance on best practice, operational techniques, access to tools and resources and the sharing of insights and lessons. The support will be hands-off, in a trusted, confidential environment, encouraging independence and sustainability, once the support is withdrawn. This is a voluntary ex ante transparency notice and is intended to provide notice of the ICB's intention to award a 2-year contract (from 1st April 2025 - 31st March 2027), with a potential extension of 2 additional years. The maximum contract value is PS800,560 (exc. VAT) and this will be subject to inflationary rises in line with NHS Guidance. Following an extended pilot period, tested in response to identified needs within Primary medical Care, the ICB is seeking to establish this service for a longer period. The pilot undertaken within Primary medical Care, has undergone a full evaluation at the end of the pilot period, reviewing outcomes against need, to determine future commissioning requirements. The initial outcome of the evaluation identified the need to secure ongoing provision of this service in response to General Practice needs. GPPC, who have delivered the service during the extended pilot period, are an embedded organisation within the North East Essex Alliance, with established working relationships, interdependencies and links with Primary medical Care, as well as knowledge obtained about the needs within the practices and an understanding of the local demographics, which supports improvement plan development. GPPC is also locally based and is able to respond to referrals, with the preferred face to face support, within hours when urgent cases present. This places them in a unique position to deliver this service in a way that will support the ongoing realisation of the maximum benefits possible. The ICB will award the contract utilising the NHS terms and conditions of goods and non-clinical services. Additional information: Contract review provision: Please note that the services and associated specification and prices commissioned within this contract may be subject to review and change, any changes will be through a variation to the contract in accordance with Regulation 72 (1) (a) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. Additionally, the contract may also be amended in terms of the original services supplied, where, following assessment it is identified that it is logical for additional services to be delivered in conjunction with this contract and by the provider, both in terms of actual service delivery and to avoid duplication of costs.

Options: 2 years with a potential extension of 2 years

Procurement Information

The incumbent provider (GP Primary Choice Ltd) has successfully delivered this service for the past 2 years and has the knowledge, expertise, experience and interdependencies from close working partnerships with General Practice partners that has taken time to develop. This service retains in depth knowledge of the Practices it serves and embedded and trusted relationships with multiple partners, particularly in General Practice teams such as Practice Managers and Practice partners. Introducing a new provider would risk turbulence and disrupting vital links, which would impact the effectiveness of the support offer, putting general practice recovery and quality patient access and care at risk of untimely recovery. Relationship and trust building has been a key requirement of this service throughout the course of the extended pilot. GPPC has worked to develop relationships which support and enable access to key Practice information that assists in the identification and delivery of key quality improvement opportunities within Practices for the benefit of both the Practice and the population. It is believed that introducing a different organisation with different branding, to deliver this service would significantly impact the ability to quickly and effectively engage with General Practice, due to the need to establish trust with individuals. The service has experienced and trained staff in place that have worked locally within General Practice and developed that trust with General Practice teams which can flex to the individual needs of the Practices to provide face to face bespoke improvement support throughout the referral packages. The ICB deems that changing providers at a time where General Practice is under increasing pressure and facing ever increasing challenges, would have an adverse impact on achievable outcomes for both the practices being supported and for their populations. The ICB is therefore seeking to re-commission the current provider to continue its service delivery to provide stability in a fragile environment.

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-04a6c6
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/038434-2024
Current Stage
Award
All Stages
Award

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
Award Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Limited
Procurement Method Details
Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
Tender Suitability
Not specified
Awardee Scale
SME

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

79 - Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security


CPV Codes

79500000 - Office-support services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
£800,560 £500K-£1M

Notice Dates

Publication Date
28 Nov 20241 years ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
18 Sep 20241 years ago
Contract Period
Not specified - Not specified
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Complete
Lots Status
Cancelled
Awards Status
Active
Contracts Status
Active

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
NHS SUFFOLK AND NORTH EAST ESSEX ICB
Contact Name
Jane Garnett
Contact Email
jane.garnett@snee.nhs.uk
Contact Phone
+44 1473770000

Buyer Location

Locality
COLCHESTER
Postcode
CO4 9QR
Post Town
Colchester
Country
England

Major Region (ITL 1)
TLH East (England)
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLH3 Essex
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLH34 Essex Haven Gateway
Delivery Location
TLH34 Essex Haven Gateway

Local Authority
Colchester
Electoral Ward
Highwoods
Westminster Constituency
Colchester

Supplier Information

Number of Suppliers
1
Supplier Name

GP PRIMARY CHOICE (GPPC

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

View full OCDS Record for this contracting process

Download

The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts.

{
    "tag": [
        "compiled"
    ],
    "id": "ocds-h6vhtk-04a6c6-2024-11-28T12:17:41Z",
    "date": "2024-11-28T12:17:41Z",
    "ocid": "ocds-h6vhtk-04a6c6",
    "initiationType": "tender",
    "tender": {
        "id": "ocds-h6vhtk-04a6c6",
        "legalBasis": {
            "id": "32014L0024",
            "scheme": "CELEX"
        },
        "title": "North East Essex GP Support Service",
        "status": "complete",
        "classification": {
            "scheme": "CPV",
            "id": "79500000",
            "description": "Office-support services"
        },
        "mainProcurementCategory": "services",
        "description": "This is an Award notice to outline NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board's (\"the ICB\") award of a contract for the provision of a GP Support Service to General Practice across North East Essex. This service will be for north east Essex based GP practices, who face a range of significant challenges in the day to day delivery of primary medical care. This service will reactively support invited practices, via quality improvement methodologies, to build their capability and resilience. Support is also available to practices wishing to proactively achieve quality improvement. There will be a focus on collaborative working with other local support providers, to achieve a co-ordinated approach that optimises resources.",
        "lots": [
            {
                "id": "1",
                "description": "Nationally and locally, primary medical care is seeing growth in the challenges faced by GP Practice teams to respond to growing patient populations, growing older populations, and increasing demand for services to meet population health needs, whilst mitigating the impact of infrastructure constraints (like those of workforce and estates). This can pose challenge to the effective delivery of quality and safe primary medical care services. The national Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to General Practice alongside the SNEE Primary Care Strategy, provide a strategic vision and accompanying delivery plan to improve patient access to primary medical care, address the gap between demand and capacity, and increase workforce well-being, via various initiatives. Included in the Delivery plan is a requirement for ICBs to provide support offers to GP practices who are facing challenges in operationally delivering a sustainable and safe level of primary medical care services. To this end, the NE Essex GP Support Service is being retained to deliver bespoke support offers to General Practice, spanning both reactive and proactive approaches to respond to realised and emerging challenges. A NE Essex Quality, Sustainability and Innovation (QSI) Group of local stakeholders, through an MDT style approach will oversee delivery of support services to GP Practices and support a co-ordinated approach between the current providers. Identified practices will be referred to the contract holder for full assessment, followed by development of a bespoke, co-produced support/improvement plan. The provider will work in partnership with other support providers such as the ICB's training hub to provide a co-ordinated support approach, to optimise resources and patient outcomes. This service will provide operational, rather than clinical support, and will be expected to signpost to other complementary services as appropriate. In addition to action planning, the service will provide subject matter expertise in the local primary medical care environment, introduction to quality improvement methodologies, supporting timely, face to face analysis and problem-solving support, providing advice and guidance on best practice, operational techniques, access to tools and resources and the sharing of insights and lessons. The support will be hands-off, in a trusted, confidential environment, encouraging independence and sustainability, once the support is withdrawn. This is a voluntary ex ante transparency notice and is intended to provide notice of the ICB's intention to award a 2-year contract (from 1st April 2025 - 31st March 2027), with a potential extension of 2 additional years. The maximum contract value is PS800,560 (exc. VAT) and this will be subject to inflationary rises in line with NHS Guidance. Following an extended pilot period, tested in response to identified needs within Primary medical Care, the ICB is seeking to establish this service for a longer period. The pilot undertaken within Primary medical Care, has undergone a full evaluation at the end of the pilot period, reviewing outcomes against need, to determine future commissioning requirements. The initial outcome of the evaluation identified the need to secure ongoing provision of this service in response to General Practice needs. GPPC, who have delivered the service during the extended pilot period, are an embedded organisation within the North East Essex Alliance, with established working relationships, interdependencies and links with Primary medical Care, as well as knowledge obtained about the needs within the practices and an understanding of the local demographics, which supports improvement plan development. GPPC is also locally based and is able to respond to referrals, with the preferred face to face support, within hours when urgent cases present. This places them in a unique position to deliver this service in a way that will support the ongoing realisation of the maximum benefits possible. The ICB will award the contract utilising the NHS terms and conditions of goods and non-clinical services. Additional information: Contract review provision: Please note that the services and associated specification and prices commissioned within this contract may be subject to review and change, any changes will be through a variation to the contract in accordance with Regulation 72 (1) (a) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. Additionally, the contract may also be amended in terms of the original services supplied, where, following assessment it is identified that it is logical for additional services to be delivered in conjunction with this contract and by the provider, both in terms of actual service delivery and to avoid duplication of costs.",
                "awardCriteria": {
                    "criteria": [
                        {
                            "type": "price"
                        }
                    ]
                },
                "hasOptions": true,
                "options": {
                    "description": "2 years with a potential extension of 2 years"
                },
                "status": "cancelled"
            }
        ],
        "items": [
            {
                "id": "1",
                "deliveryAddresses": [
                    {
                        "region": "UKH34"
                    },
                    {
                        "region": "UKH34"
                    }
                ],
                "deliveryLocation": {
                    "description": "Based within North East Essex - Tendring and Colchester district areas"
                },
                "relatedLot": "1"
            }
        ],
        "procurementMethod": "limited",
        "procurementMethodDetails": "Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition",
        "procurementMethodRationaleClassifications": [
            {
                "scheme": "TED_PT_AWARD_CONTRACT_WITHOUT_CALL",
                "id": "D_TECHNICAL",
                "description": "The works, supplies or services can be provided only by a particular economic operator due to absence of competition for technical reasons"
            }
        ],
        "procurementMethodRationale": "The incumbent provider (GP Primary Choice Ltd) has successfully delivered this service for the past 2 years and has the knowledge, expertise, experience and interdependencies from close working partnerships with General Practice partners that has taken time to develop. This service retains in depth knowledge of the Practices it serves and embedded and trusted relationships with multiple partners, particularly in General Practice teams such as Practice Managers and Practice partners. Introducing a new provider would risk turbulence and disrupting vital links, which would impact the effectiveness of the support offer, putting general practice recovery and quality patient access and care at risk of untimely recovery. Relationship and trust building has been a key requirement of this service throughout the course of the extended pilot. GPPC has worked to develop relationships which support and enable access to key Practice information that assists in the identification and delivery of key quality improvement opportunities within Practices for the benefit of both the Practice and the population. It is believed that introducing a different organisation with different branding, to deliver this service would significantly impact the ability to quickly and effectively engage with General Practice, due to the need to establish trust with individuals. The service has experienced and trained staff in place that have worked locally within General Practice and developed that trust with General Practice teams which can flex to the individual needs of the Practices to provide face to face bespoke improvement support throughout the referral packages. The ICB deems that changing providers at a time where General Practice is under increasing pressure and facing ever increasing challenges, would have an adverse impact on achievable outcomes for both the practices being supported and for their populations. The ICB is therefore seeking to re-commission the current provider to continue its service delivery to provide stability in a fragile environment."
    },
    "awards": [
        {
            "id": "032267-2024-1",
            "relatedLots": [
                "1"
            ],
            "title": "North East Essex GP Support Service",
            "status": "active",
            "suppliers": [
                {
                    "id": "GB-COH-14700240",
                    "name": "GP Primary Choice (GPPC)"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "id": "038434-2024-1",
            "relatedLots": [
                "1"
            ],
            "title": "North East Essex GP Support Service",
            "status": "active",
            "suppliers": [
                {
                    "id": "GB-COH-14700240",
                    "name": "GP Primary Choice (GPPC)"
                }
            ]
        }
    ],
    "parties": [
        {
            "id": "GB-NHS-QJG",
            "name": "NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB",
            "identifier": {
                "legalName": "NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB",
                "id": "QJG",
                "scheme": "GB-NHS"
            },
            "address": {
                "streetAddress": "Aspen House, Stephenson Road",
                "locality": "COLCHESTER",
                "region": "UKH34",
                "postalCode": "CO49QR",
                "countryName": "United Kingdom"
            },
            "contactPoint": {
                "name": "Jane Garnett",
                "email": "jane.garnett@snee.nhs.uk",
                "telephone": "+44 1473770000"
            },
            "roles": [
                "buyer"
            ],
            "details": {
                "url": "https://suffolkandnortheastessex.icb.nhs.uk/",
                "classifications": [
                    {
                        "scheme": "TED_CA_TYPE",
                        "id": "BODY_PUBLIC",
                        "description": "Body governed by public law"
                    },
                    {
                        "scheme": "COFOG",
                        "id": "07",
                        "description": "Health"
                    }
                ]
            }
        },
        {
            "id": "GB-COH-14700240",
            "name": "GP Primary Choice (GPPC)",
            "identifier": {
                "legalName": "GP Primary Choice (GPPC)",
                "id": "14700240",
                "scheme": "GB-COH"
            },
            "address": {
                "streetAddress": "Unit 27 Colchester Business Centre, 1 George Williams Way",
                "locality": "Colchester",
                "region": "UKH34",
                "postalCode": "CO1 2JS",
                "countryName": "United Kingdom"
            },
            "roles": [
                "supplier"
            ],
            "details": {
                "scale": "sme"
            }
        },
        {
            "id": "GB-FTS-2645",
            "name": "High Court of Justice of England and Wales",
            "identifier": {
                "legalName": "High Court of Justice of England and Wales"
            },
            "address": {
                "streetAddress": "Strand",
                "locality": "London",
                "postalCode": "WC2A 2LL",
                "countryName": "United Kingdom"
            },
            "roles": [
                "reviewBody"
            ]
        }
    ],
    "buyer": {
        "id": "GB-NHS-QJG",
        "name": "NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB"
    },
    "contracts": [
        {
            "id": "032267-2024-1",
            "awardID": "032267-2024-1",
            "title": "North East Essex GP Support Service",
            "status": "active",
            "value": {
                "amount": 800560,
                "currency": "GBP"
            },
            "dateSigned": "2024-09-19T00:00:00+01:00"
        },
        {
            "id": "038434-2024-1",
            "awardID": "038434-2024-1",
            "title": "North East Essex GP Support Service",
            "status": "active",
            "value": {
                "amount": 800560,
                "currency": "GBP"
            },
            "dateSigned": "2024-11-27T00:00:00Z"
        }
    ],
    "language": "en",
    "bids": {
        "statistics": [
            {
                "id": "1",
                "measure": "bids",
                "relatedLot": "1",
                "value": 1
            }
        ]
    }
}