The Provision of an Advice on Prescription Service on behalf of NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group

NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (the CCG) are inviting suitably qualified and experienced Providers to submit tenders for The Provision of an Advice on Prescription Service.

The Service was launched throughout Liverpool in April 2014 by the CCG in partnership with the Citizens Advice Bureau (CABx) (South, North and East Liverpool CABx).

The Service will aim to increase community resilience by supporting those individuals vulnerable to mental ill-health to develop practical strategies in the face of hardship and deprivation and the Service enables all Liverpool CCG GPs to refer patients they believe are facing 'double jeopardy', in terms of ill health and poverty, for assistance from CABx advisors on a range of issues including; housing, homelessness, job losses, complex debt issues and benefits advice.

The service has proven to have significant impact on helping improve the lives of people who access it.

The objectives of the Services are to:

• improvement in mental health and well-being of clients • Improved identification by primary care staff of those at risk of poverty and social exclusion • Increased problem solving/money management skills to reduce risk of future crisis • reduced hardship and crisis • reduced reliance on health care services • reduced amount of GP consultancy time spend on welfare issues • Increased use of non-clinical support • More appropriate use of clinical/psychological support

In addition to the wider service, the CCG has entered into partnership arrangement with Macmillan Cancer Support for a two year pilot scheme to extend the service to cancer patients who are vulnerable to mental ill health. The CCG wish to commission this pilot scheme in conjunction with the wider an Advice on Prescription Service and the service specification in respect of this service is included in the tender documents. The pilot scheme will be reviewed at the end of the first contract year and may be subject to further investment dependant on the finding. There is no guarantee that the service will continue beyond the end of the two year pilot and the recommended bidder will be responsible for the set up costs and any exits costs in relation to the pilot scheme if it is not extended beyond the 2 years.

If the service is to be continued the contract will be extended for a further 3 years to correspond with the end date of the wider service contract.

The expected date for contract commencement is 1st April 2016 and it is for a duration of 5 years.

Please note this tender opportunity has been advertised on OJEU. To access the tender documents please follow the link provided: https://nhssbs.eu-supply.com/login.asp?B=NHSSBS

Additional information: Bidders wishing to express an interest in participating in the procurement process should register their interest on the EU Supply Website to access the documentation.

To register on EU Supply please log on to the following website: https://nhssbs.eu-supply.com and look for tender reference number 21635

The tender process will be conducted as a one stage open procedure.

The Tender documentation will be available to download from Friday 4th September 2015 and should be completed and submitted by the closing date of 5th October 2015 at 5pm.

For support registering on EU Supply and downloading the Documentation please contact the e-Tendering help desk on 0800 840 2050 or [email protected].

Please note this Contract Finder Advert is in connection to the PIN notice which was advertised on the 2nd June 2015, titled Provision of an Advice on Prescription Service.