PRJ866 - Dental Services for Heathrow Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs)

NHS England (London) would like to invite interested bidders to express an interest in providing Dental Services at Heathrow IRCs (IRC Colnbrook and IRC Harmondsworth). NHS England London is responsible for commissioning dental services (alongside a range of other primary care, public health and mental health services) within prisons. This is an urgent requirement for a new service to commence on 01 October 2019, The Heathrow IRCs are large immigration removal centres located to the north of Heathrow Airport operating across two sites, Colnbrook and Harmondsworth. NHS England took on commissioning responsibility for healthcare within the IRCs in 2013 following the changes introduced in the 2012 Act. The main healthcare service at the IRCs is provided by Central North West London NHS Foundation Trust. Custodial provision is commissioned by the Home Office and operationally delivered by Mitie Care and Custody.

The Heathrow IRCs are the largest in the country. IRC Harmondsworth has an operational capacity of approximately 732 male detainees. IRC Colnbrook has an operational capacity of approximately 312 male detainees and 27 female detainees within the Sahara Unit (the Sahara Unit is meant to act as only a short-term location for female detainees, 5-7 days, with women needing to be detained longer being transferred to IRC Yarlswood). Between the two Heathrow IRCs there are typically c.1000 receptions each month and a similar number of discharges - in effect the whole population of the IRC completely changes 10-12 times each year. By comparison HMP Pentonville a local prison with maximum occupancy of 1310 (and a high number of remand prisoners and therefore a high turnover) completely changes its population four times a year. More recently both IRCs have been populated well below their occupational capacity as changes to immigration policy have reduced the number of people in detention. The rate of turnover within the IRC has remained consistent however with an average length of stay within the IRC of between 20 and 28 days. However, a significant minority of detainees stay for much longer periods within detention. The current service provider will reach the end of their current contract term on 30/09/2019 and has decided not to take up a possible extension. NHS England (London) is therefore seeking to appoint a provider for an interim service to start on 01/10/2019 ahead of a large-scale procurement of dental services with a new long term contract planned to start on 01 April 2021. The interim service will provide the full IRC dental specification for eighteen (18) months from the 01 October 2019 until 31 March 2021. There is a possible extension being proposed of six (6) months (a possible extension until 30 September 2021). The tender can be accessed at the following link: https://procontract.due-north.com/Advert?advertId=d24f4847-87b7-e911-80f8-005056b64545

Additional information: The maximum contract value is £175,000 per annum. In 2018/19 1239 detainees were booked into 1469 appointments across each site, of these 820 detainees attended (DNA rate of 33.8%) 894 appointments (DNA rate of 39.1%). The high rates of DNAs relate to the high overall rate of population turnover within the IRCs and the nature of the IRC regime described above but also a period during which the outgoing dental service was not staffed to full capacity and so patient appointments were delayed or cancelled. The aim of this service specification is to provide a consistent, high quality Immigration Removal Centre dental service which will provide appropriate dental care (predominantly urgent care) and inform the detainees on future preventative oral health care. • To provide access for detainees to a high quality, dental service within each of the centres • To achieve the best oral outcomes for all detainees accessing the service in the time in the centre • Provide non-discriminatory access to NHS Dental Services for detainees • To raise the awareness of good oral health throughout the Immigration Removal Centre, amongst detainees and staff employed to work in Immigration Removal Centre. • Providing a preventative dental service • To provide data for performance monitoring, evaluation and research The successful bidder will be paid on a sessional basis through Compass. Bidders are invited to submit proposals as to sessional prices, planned number of sessions and indicative banding profile of activity as part of their tender response which meet the likely needs of the IRCs' population as part of their financial response. The outgoing provider currently provides 3 sessions a week (two at IRC Harmondsworth and one at IRC Colnbrook) but bidders should consider the specification and assess whether this is sufficient. There is no set financial envelope for this tender. Bidders are required to meet the following criteria to be appointed to this contract: • Have the capability to successfully receive TUPE staff transfers • Have experience of managing the transfer of staff with NHS Pension entitlements • Have the capability of mobilising the Contract within 1 (one) month • Have dentists available with Counter Terrorism Clearance Site visits to the current dental facilities within the IRCs will be available on the 12th August 2018. Bidders will be evaluated: Price - 30% Quality - 70% All completed bids must be submitted via the tender portal by 12.00 on 19 August 2019. Interested Bidders must access the ITT documentation via the link provided and submit a ITT response via the online questionnaires on the e-Tendering portal 'ProContract' before the submission deadline. See the procurement documentation for more details. The services in the scope of this procurement are healthcare services below the relevant OJEU threshold