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National Paediatric Critical Care Audit

Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership Ltd

This public procurement record has 2 releases in its history.

Award

05 Aug 2026 at 11:56

UK6 - Contract Award Notice
Tender

08 Apr 2026 at 15:21

UK4 - Tender Notice
Summary of the contracting process

Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership Ltd commissioned a national paediatric critical care audit for NHS-funded care in England. The service covers continuous collection and reporting on care delivery in Level 3 paediatric critical care and paediatric critical care transport, with expansion to Level 2 services and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation services. It includes benchmarking providers, identifying unwarranted clinical variation, supporting quality improvement, and supplying data for commissioning and other reporting needs. The supplier must develop methods to capture patient and carer experience, including psychological support, and service organisation issues such as staffing. It must also deliver one thematic study on an agreed aspect of care, engage clinicians, providers, patients, families, carers and support groups, and consider linking patient-level data with other national programmes. Work is delivered across England.

The procurement is complete and the contract was awarded to the University of Leeds on 15 July 2026 after an open procedure. One valid bid was received. The award value is £9,499,425.60 excluding VAT, or £11,874,282 including VAT. The core requirement was budgeted at £2,360,638.08 excluding VAT, or £2,832,765.70 including VAT, for three years, with a potential two-year extension valued at £786,880 per year excluding VAT, or £944,256 including VAT. The contract period is 1 April 2027 to 31 March 2030, extendable to 31 March 2032. Evaluation weighted quality at 95% and cost at 5%, including data quality, governance, patient involvement, provider engagement, programme delivery, risk, social value and budget allocation. The opportunity was identified as suitable for SMEs and VCSEs.

This award indicates sustained demand for specialist clinical audit and healthcare quality improvement capability in paediatric critical care. A credible future competitor would need to design and run robust national audits, collect reliable data across Level 2 and Level 3 services, transport and ECMO, and provide timely benchmarking and reporting that supports NHS commissioning and local improvement. Relevant strengths include statistical and methodological expertise, information governance, data quality analysis, data linkage, programme and risk management, and the ability to translate findings into practical improvement. Suppliers should also be able to co-produce patient and carer experience methods, provide appropriate psychological-support arrangements, engage clinicians and providers at scale, and work with charities, families and community groups. Experience delivering complex, multi-stakeholder health programmes would be important.

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Notice Information

Notice Title

National Paediatric Critical Care Audit

Notice Description

The contract will initially be delivered for NHS-funded care in England for a period of 3 years, at a maximum total budget of up to PS2,832,765.70 GBP including VAT, PS2,360,638.08 GBP excluding VAT. Bids exceeding this limit will be rejected. There is potential to extend the contract for up to two additional years at a potential value of PS944,256 per year including VAT, PS786,880 per year excluding VAT. All pricing submissions must be in regard to this 'core' value, and not inclusive of any extension costs or aspirational intent costs, i.e. Please only submit a cost schedule up to the maximum core value of PS2,832,765.70 GBP including VAT, PS2,360,638.08 GBP excluding VAT. The maximum budget 'core' value is PS2,832,765.70 GBP including VAT, PS2,360,638.08 GBP excluding VAT excludes the potential two year extension and aspirational intent as described in section 14 of Annex A - Service Specification. Please note, there is no commitment by the Authority at this stage to include any aspirational intent measures. Taking the total of this aspirational intent into account, as well as the possibility that a contract extension may be offered for an additional two years, the potential ceiling value is PS11,874,282 GBP including VAT. There is also a potential that the contract price will be subject to discretionary inflationary uplift. The role of a national clinical audit is to stimulate healthcare quality improvement through the provision of high-quality information on the organisation, delivery and outcomes of healthcare, together with tools and support to enable healthcare providers and other audiences to make best use of this information. Outcomes are benchmarked against available national guidance and standards e.g. quality standards from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and those from other established professional and patient sources. Successful national audits are those where the individuals who are engaging with and using the audit results are also in a position to improve the system, and where there is a shared understanding of what good care looks like. National clinical audits are expected to: a.Develop a robust, high-quality audit designed around key quality metrics likely to best support local and national healthcare quality improvement b.Detect, describe and help reduce unwarranted clinical variation by systematically benchmarking performance, identifying outliers, and supporting services to understand variation in outcomes, processes and experience c.Achieve, articulate and maintain close alignment with relevant NICE national guidance and quality standards throughout the audit, as appropriate d.Enable healthcare quality improvement through the provision of timely, high-quality data that compares providers of healthcare, and comprises an integrated mixture of named Trust or Health board, Integrated Care System (ICS), commissioner, multidisciplinary team (MDT), possibly consultant or clinical team level and other levels of reporting e.Engage patients, carers and the public in a meaningful way, achieving a strong patient voice which informs and contributes to the design, functioning, outputs and direction of the audit f.Consider the value and feasibility of linking data at an individual patient level to other relevant national datasets either from the outset or in the future, and plan for these linkages from the inception of the contract g.Ensure robust methodological and statistical input at all stages of the audit h.Identify from the outset the full range of audiences for the reports and other audit outputs, and plan and tailor them accordingly i.Provide audit results in a timely, accessible and meaningful manner to support healthcare quality improvement, minimising the reporting delay and providing continual access to each unit for their own data j.Utilise strong and effective project and programme management to deliver audit outputs on time and within budget k.Develop and maintain strong engagement with local clinicians, networks, commissioners, patients and their families and carers and charity and community support groups to drive improvements in services At the time of writing the specification, requirements include (but please also refer to the potential future aspirational intent section of Annex A - Service Specification): *A continuation of key existing elements of the NPCCA together with an expansion of workstreams to cover additional services and aspects of care delivery *Continued collection and reporting of information on care delivery in Level 3 PCC services and PCC transport services (continuous audit). As a guide, this will need to be broadly aligned with the current delivery and include ongoing provision of data to NHS England for commissioning purposes *Expansion of services covered, to include Level 2 PCC services and ECMO services (continuous audit). As a guide, this will need to be broadly aligned with the current delivery for Level 3 PCC services *Development and delivery of quality methods for capturing the experiences of patients and carers, including the provision of psychological support (this is to be developed by the supplier during the first year, with approval by HQIP and funder). As a guide, the methods might include but are not limited to: patient/carer surveys; organisational audit questions covering aspects of patient/carer experience; and clinical audit questions about whether delivery of care included carers as partners. The development should include co-production with carer and patient representatives (such as charities and family support groups). The supplier will be expected to investigate previously established methods of capturing carer experience as part of the development. As the development will happen during the contract, the tender response does not need to contain specifics, but bidders should provide a broad outline of their ambitions for this aspect (e.g. an expectation to deliver one or multiple methods; frequency of delivery (for each method); scale of delivery (for each method)) *Development and delivery of methods for capturing aspects of service organisation, to include staffing (this is to be developed by the supplier during the first year, either combined with or separate from the development of methods for capturing experience, with approval by HQIP and funder). As a guide, the methods might include but are not limited to: staffing survey(s); organisational I[audit(s). If an organisational audit is chosen, this can be used to cover patient and carer experience too, if deemed appropriate. There have been previous staffing surveys, either as part of the NPCCA or separately funded, and consideration should be given to whether the collection of the same dataset would prove useful and efficient. The minimum requirement is for one method to be delivered once in the three-year contract. Bidders should provide an outline of their ambitions for this aspect (e.g. an expectation to deliver one or multiple methods; frequency of delivery (for each method); scale of delivery (for each method)) *A thematic focus (one during the three-year contract) on a particular aspect of care delivery, chosen from the following topics: oadolescent access; otransport refusals; otransition to tertiary specialists; otransitions from Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to PICU (including delays); otransitions from PICU to Adult Intensive Care Unit (AICU); ovariation in length of stay; oventilator weaning practices; odischarge delays; olong-term ventilation (LTV) pathway; ovaccine preventable disease This is to be developed by the supplier during the first year, with approval by HQIP and funder. Bidders should give information on how they will approach choosing the focus area *Where relevant, data linkage with other programmes (including within NCAPOP) may be required

Lot Information

Lot 1

Renewal: Up to 24 month extension at a potential value of PS944,256 per year including VAT, PS786,880 per year excluding VAT. This proposed extension value will also include pro rata funding of any additional aspirational measures invoked in the first 3 years of the contract. For example: If an aspirational annual requirement costing PS500,000 per year is invoked in year 3, then the extension funding (if the aspirational measure is continued) will be the above figures plus the additional PS500,000 per year.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-067e3d
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/074117-2026
Current Stage
Award
All Stages
Tender, Award

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK6 - Contract Award Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Open
Procurement Method Details
Open procedure
Tender Suitability
SME, VCSE
Awardee Scale
Large

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

85 - Health and social work services

CPV Codes

85100000 - Health services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
£9,499,425 £1M-£10M
Lots Value
£9,499,425 £1M-£10M
Awards Value
£9,499,425 £1M-£10M
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
5 Aug 20263 weeks ago
Submission Deadline
8 May 2026Expired
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
15 Jul 20261 months ago
Contract Period
1 Apr 2027 - 1 Apr 2030 3-4 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Complete
Lots Status
Complete
Awards Status
Pending
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership Ltd
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
LONDON
Postcode
EC2V 6DL
Postcode Area
Central London
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLI London
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLI3 Inner London - West
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLI35 Westminster and City of London
Delivery Location
Not specified
Local Authority
City of London
Electoral Ward
Cheap
Westminster Constituency
Cities of London and Westminster

Supplier Information

Number of Suppliers
1
Supplier Name

University of Leeds

Further Information

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

View full OCDS Record for this contracting process

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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.

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