Provision of Electronic Practice Document Tool (EPAD)

The University of Southampton's Strategy includes delivering excellence and an exemplary student experience in a sustainable environment. Our primary commitment is to support the delivery of that experience with the highest possible level of quality.

The Nursing & Midwifery Council ('NMC') published its new Education Standards for Student Supervision and Assessment in October 2018, and the School of Health Sciences' at the University of Southampton ('HS') nursing programmes were revalidated and approved against these new standards in February 2019. These programmes and standards will be fully implemented by HS in September 2019 and those students will need to be assessed against the new standards in January 2020.

It has been agreed between health care and education providers across the Health Education England South ('HEES') Region that all students will be assessed using the same documentation, the basis for which will be the Practice Assessment Documents ('PAD') produced originally by the Health Education England Pan London project and adapted for regional use by the HEES PAD Project. The HEES PAD was submitted for scrutiny and approved as part of the NMC/University conjoint validation in February 2019.

Thus, from September 2019 the only students who may be assessed against the old standards will be those students who will not transfer on to the new programmes, i.e. final year single field, third and final year dual field students and second year PGDip students. These students will continue to use the existing platform. From January 2020, the students to be assessed against the new framework therefore make up approximately two thirds of the school's pre-registration population, approximately 800 students.

All nursing students currently use an electronic platform to complete assessment of professional practice. Assessors and supervisors also use the same system to provide feedback, commentary and grading.

However, the development roadmap for the existing platform does not meet HS timescales and thus it will no longer be fit for purpose for students on the new programmes, in that it is aligned with the outgoing curriculum and standards. It will therefore not be able to support the new NMC Standards for supervision and assessment or the requirements of the HEES PAD.

The right solution will support the University to deliver an excellent student experience and ensure compliance with the new education standards.

Thus the objective of HS is to have in place a system from January 2020 that will meet the needs of the new NMC standards and that will replicate electronically and interactively, the HEES PAD. This must feature in full the variety/type of data formats outlined within the HEES PAD and also all HS enhancements, which are:- • Clinical Skills Passport • Record of Exposure to fields of nursing other than the field the student is studying, e.g. a child nursing student's record of their experiences of mental health nursing.

Additional information: The University is utilising an electronic tendering tool, In-Tend (https://intendhost.co.uk/ universityofsouthampton) to manage this procurement and to communicate with Tenderers (as appropriate). All documentation in relation to this tender can be downloaded from In-Tend.

Tenderers are advised that there will be no hard copy documents issued and all communications with the University, including the submission of Invitation to Tender responses will be conducted via In-Tend. Regular monitoring of the portal is the responsibility of the Tenderer.

If you are not already registered as a supplier with the University of Southampton, you will need to register in In-Tend in order to access the procurement documentation. Once you have logged in as a supplier: click on 'Tenders'; locate the relevant project; and click 'View Details'. Once you are in the project screen, you will be able to register your organisation against the project and access all documentation by clicking 'Express Interest'.

Tenderers are advised that formal expressions of interest in the project must be by way of completion and return of the relevant documents via In-Tend.

Further instructions for the submission of responses are below: To submit your return: 1. Log in 2. Click 'Tenders' 3. Locate the relevant project 4. View details 5. Click on the tab relating to the relevant project stage (e.g. 'Invitation to Tender') 6. Click on the 'Attach Documents' button and upload your return. 7. Check ALL your response documents are uploaded and displayed in the 'My Tender Return' panel. The system will only permit your organisation to make one return. 8. Click the red 'Submit Return' button.

Please note, to preserve the integrity of the procurement, all communications with the University must be made via the correspondence function within In-Tend.

Publication of Award Details: In accordance with Regulation 50, paragraph (2) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and subject to Article 5 and Annex 5, Part D (13) of Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (if applicable), the University intends to publish the value of any resulting contract at the award stage, and reserves the right to do so. By submitting a response, Tenderers are consenting to publication of this information unless otherwise agreed in advance with the University.

Costs and Expenses: Tenderers are solely responsible for their costs and expenses incurred in connection with the preparation and submission of responses and participation in this and all future stages of this procurement. Under no circumstances will the University be liable for any costs or expenses borne by Tenderers or any of their supply chain, partners or advisers in this procurement process.

The University is not liable for any costs in th