Domiciliary Care Patch Replenishment ITT

The Council successfully appointed 8 Patch providers to deliver Domiciliary Care to residents in 2021. The contract period was for five years with one three-year extension (5+3) thus a whole life contract of eight (8) years. However, the council now has a requirement to replenish the Central Patch, as well as create a framework of reserve providers should additional Patches need replenishment for a potential period of 5 years.

The council is now publishing an Invitation to Tender (ITT) for:

i. One Central Patch provider and ii. A reserve provider framework, of up to four (4) providers for the eventuality that the council is required to replenish any other patches during the next five years.

The procurement will follow the Light Touch Regime of the Public Contracts Regulations (2015). Please note that providers are required to have a CQC rating of good or above at the time of tendering. Additionally, the Council requires that all Tenderers have a current annual turnover of at least £3,000,000 (twice the anticipated Central Patch annual contract value) directly related to the provision of domiciliary care services.

This framework will complement the contracts that are currently in place. The primary aim of this procurement is to ensure that the provider that chose to opt out of the arrangements is replaced (Central Patch) whilst developing a list of up to 4 other providers that could deliver the hours in any of the other available Patches, should a termination notice be given by either the current provider or the council (the latter where there is a breach of contract). It is important to note that the need to call off the framework in the future is not guaranteed and is subject to the need. If an award of contract is granted the provider will be required to adopt the same Contract, Specification and Pricing methodology that is currently in place for the Patch providers.

For the avoidance of doubt, there is currently only one Patch contract available/vacant (Central Patch). The new provider will work alongside the remaining Patch Provider, and they will continue to operate as detailed in the original 2021 tender. The new framework tender will conclude on the tender evaluation scores, and these will be presented in descending order; resulting in the Provider that scores the highest score achieving first place. The Providers that score second, third, fourth and fifth highest will be ranked accordingly. Should the need arise to replenish any Patch later or during the procurement, the providers that are ranked 2nd to 5th following the tender will be offered the vacant Patch in order of rank/position and will share the Patch with the other remaining (where applicable) providers. Where more than one Patch becomes available the same process will be applied resulting in the remaining highest ranked provider (who do not already have a Patch contract) being offered the opportunity.