Market Briefing Event: Mandatory Dental Services for NHS England & NHS Improvement South East (Hampshire & Isle of Wight)

This notice is placed in order to facilitate early engagement with potential providers, and relates only to a pre-procurement market briefing.

NHS England and NHS Improvement - South East (NHSE/I) are seeking to commission Mandatory Dental Services (MDS) in the Hampshire & Isle of Wight area, and will be holding a procurement process to award new contracts for service commencement from August 2022.

Prospective bidders are warmly invited to a pre-procurement market briefing event held virtually through Microsoft Teams on the following date:

5.30pm - 7.30pm Tuesday 8th March 2022 by MS Teams

The event has been arranged to take place to avoid any clash with clinical sessions and will be hosted online.

The aims for MDS provision are to:

• contribute to improving oral and general health; • reduce inequalities in health and access to dental care by providing extra support to groups of vulnerable adults and children. This includes, but is not limited to, children under 5 years old, residents of care homes, patients weighing up to 300kg (47 stones) and other vulnerable groups; • provide access to NHS dental services to ensure equity and consistency of provision; • provide bookable appointments outside of core hours; • deliver appropriate, efficient and cost-effective services within the service provision framework of the NHS (General Dental Services/Personal Dental Services) Regulations 2005 and any subsequent revisions; • provide high quality dental services; • provide access within contracted hours to unassociated patients identified as having an urgent dental need via NHS 111, NHS Dental Helpline, out of hours services and self-referral; • refer patients to other NHS services as appropriate in line with the relevant local protocols and guidance; • establish a positive working relationship between the Commissioner and Provider to facilitate and maximise high quality service delivery; • develop services in line with the evolving strategic approach to primary care dental provision and align with the priorities of the NHS Long Term Plan - www.longtermplan.nhs.uk; • promote overall health in line with Making Every Contact Count.

The procurement(s) are anticipated to commence from late March 2022, inviting tenders to deliver services for specific lotted areas, with phased contract commencement anticipated in the period from August 2022 to March 2023. NHSE/I anticipates contracting for services under a PDS agreement.

To allow potential providers to reflect on the proposed services, the Commissioner has provided early indicative information as part of this notice, as well as a market sounding questionnaire for potential providers to respond to, prior to the market briefing event.

Additional information: At the briefing, we will share further detail of the commissioner's objectives, the proposed specification for the service and pricing strategy. We will also provide details of the e-Procurement system (being used to procure these services) and how the procurement and selection process will operate.

To access the information suite and express an interest, interested providers should follow the link provided to the In-Tend e-procurement system. Please note that you will need to be registered on In-Tend and select the option to 'express an interest', followed by completing and returning the Market Sounding Questionnaire & Market Briefing Event Registration form:

https://in-tendhost.co.uk/scwcsu/aspx/ProjectManage/1516

In order to attend the Market Briefing Event, please ensure that you submit the questionnaire by no later than 12 Noon on Friday 4th March 2022, including your contact details as requested. Details on how to access the briefing will be provided to all responses received prior to this closing date.

The briefing event is open to all providers who may want to deliver NHS mandatory dental services in the future. In order to establish fair representation, availability for this event is limited to a maximum of two individuals per organisation.

Please note that you must return the Market Sounding Questionnaire & Market Briefing Event Registration form in order to attend the event. Questionnaires should be submitted using the In-Tend correspondence function, under the project Market Briefing Event: Mandatory Dental Services for NHS England South East (Hampshire & Isle of Wight).

Providers are reminded that the information documents provided in In-Tend are indicative draft versions only and subject to change. Providers should not rely upon these documents when submitting any future bids, instead referring to the tender documentation released with the relevant tender opportunity.

This process is being carried out by NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW) on behalf of the Commissioners.

This notice is an information gathering exercise rather than a call for competition in its own right, and therefore publication or response does not commit the Commissioner or respondents to a future procurement, nor provide any process exemptions or preferential treatment to any parties expressing an interest. Commissioners are looking to establish what interest there might be in providing such a service from suitably qualified, capable and competent organisations.

The Commissioner will not be liable for costs incurred by any interested party in participating in this exercise. Interested parties should note that a response to this notice does not guarantee an automatic invitation to any subsequent formal procurement, which the commissioners will consider in due course.

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