Health and Adult Social Care - Speaking up Helpline and Information

The Department of Health (DH) helps people live better for longer. We lead, shape and fund health and care in England, making sure people have the support, care and treatment they need, with compassion, respect and the dignity they deserve. An organisation is sought to provide a Speaking Up package of services for people who work in the NHS and Adult Social Care sector and for providers of NHS services and Adult Social Care services. The objective of the guidance and signposting helpline is to support people who wish to speak up about matters that affect the delivery of care, particularly patient safety.

The DH require the Speaking Up helpline to provide: 1. a telephone helpline; 2. a website; 3. guidance and 'signposting' - available during and outside 'open hours'; 4. escalation procedures where issues such as potential safeguarding situations need to be acted upon; 5. user feedback; 6. performance data for regular reporting of management information; and 7. awareness raising / promotion activity.

The target customer base for the helpline service is:

1. NHS workers (including trainees, agency staff, and those that work outside of normal working hours); 2. Staff employed in the adult social care sector (including trainees, agency staff, and those that work outside of normal working hours); 3. NHS and social care employing organisations; 4. Contractors for the NHS and social care sector.

The DH the organisation to provide:

1. 'Intelligent guidance' for people who wish to speak up from the Health and Adult Social Care sectors, including 'signposting' to appropriate material, to support them in 'speaking up'; 2. Access to guidance on "Speaking Up" (including whistleblowing) for organisations within the NHS and social care environment; and 3. Promote the helpline to those that may wish to use it.

This procurement is being undertaken by the DH for use by a wide range of people that work in the NHS and Health and Social Care. Within the NHS these may include but are not limited to DH Arm's Length Bodies (ALBs), Special Health Authorities (SHAs), non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs), all NHS bodies including but not limited to health service bodies as defined in section 9 of the NHS Act 2006 (as updated and amended), NHS Foundation Trusts, providers of NHS funded care, any government department, agency or other statutory body and any successor bodies to these entities. The Authority may be required to novate the contract to any of the bodies identified in this notice post award.

Prior Information Notice (PIN) Official title : UK-Leeds: Helpdesk and support services Notice number in the OJ S : 2016/S 242-442278 has also been issued on 13/12/2016 in support of this procurement.

Full details about how to obtain and submit tender documents are provided in Section 5 'Additional Text' of this document.

Additional information: This procurement exercise will be conducted via the DH's e Tendering portal called the Business Management System (BMS). Applicants wishing to be considered for the Health and Adult Social Care Speaking up Helpline and Information tender (ITT 60371) MUST register their details and download and complete the Invitation to Tender (ITT) documents and submit their response via BMS.

The following link will take you to the guidance documentation for using the BMS and will allow you to register and download instructions on how to respond.

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health/about/procurement

If you require assistance, please contact the Supplier Helpdesk on +44 1132545777 or [email protected] This helpdesk is available 10:00 to 16:00, Monday to Friday excluding Bank Holidays.

Registration is a simple one-step process; suppliers must register as a company/organisation; then each employee who may undertake a tendering exercise must then register as an individual. Once this stage is completed, it is then possible to register an expression of interest for this tender. Note: Standard BMS functionality will only acknowledge one recipient per supplier for each individual tender. If you require the tender to be seen by multiple users we suggest using a centralised e-mail address ([email protected]).

Log on instructions are as follows:

Stage 1 - Registration (New suppliers):

Those who have not previously contracted with DH will first need to ensure that their company details are registered in the system:

a) Go to the link above;

b) Click on 'New Supplier';

c) Complete and send the details in the automated e-mail that appears;

d) Within 3 working days, you will receive an e-mail with your login information; a unique username and password.

Note: Standard BMS functionality requires the registered e-mail address to function as individual's username.

Stage 2 - Post Registration (those already registered):

Once registered, candidates must express interest as follows:

a) Go to the link above;

b) Select 'Login into e-Tendering System';

c) Select sourcing home page and enter Invitation to Tender (ITT) number (ITT 60371 'Health and Adult Social Care - Speaking up Helpline and Information') (above) in search field provided.