Interim provider for Riverside Tier 4 General Adolescent inpatient and day service within Bristol

Please note that this advert is placed strictly as a Prior Information Notice, the primary purpose of which is to advertise a market engagement opportunity. This advert is strictly not the formal start of a procurement process – any such process, if appropriate, will be separately advertised through the Contracts Finder portal in due course.

NHS England South West hub is the commissioner of all Tier 4 provision within the region, including the Riverside Tier 4 service located on the Blackberry Hill site in Bristol. The unit currently operates as an 8 bed inpatient service admitting young people (male and female) and offers up to 10 day service placements depending on unit mix and staffing levels. This service is commissioned on behalf of all English patients. In addition the service is the nominated Access Assessing unit under the National Access Protocol for admissions into CAMHS Tier 4 specifically for young people (YP) from the Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset CCG catchment area.

The aforementioned commissioner has an urgent need to commission continuing provision of this Tier 4 service, with the current service provided by North Bristol NHS Trust due to cease on March 31st 2016.

The Commissioner has a number of options open to it in terms of re-commissioning of the service; however the short timescales involved necessitate a swift and efficient process and resolution. As part of its desire to choose the most appropriate commissioning method, the commissioner is planning to consult the market, and rapidly gather market intelligence as to the potential risks, benefits and options open to it. Interested parties should be aware that the commissioner is also currently engaged in discussions with colleagues nationally, the result of which may be that only current providers of Tier 4 CAMHS are eligible to bid for the interim service.

This market intelligence gathering will take the form of a series of short (30 minutes) meeting slots that are being offered to potential providers on morning of Monday, 17th August. During these slots, the commissioner wants to hear from interested parties on the following issues: • The potential for the commissioners to seek an interim provider for the service, for a 1 year period from 1st April 2016 to 31st March 2017 • The level of market interest in such an interim arrangement • The type(s) of organisation that would be most capable of taking on such an arrangement • The need for a competitive process to identify an interim provider • Other opportunities that the market might want to bring to the commissioner’s attention.

To formally register your interest in a meeting slot on Monday, 17th August, please reply by via In-Tend with your preferred timeslot and attendees. You may bring up to 3 attendees. Please be aware that the commissioner wants to hear the serious and authoritative views of potential providers, so attendees should be chosen with that in mind.