NHS England South - PIN for inpatient mental health services for children aged 12 & under

NHS England - South request Expressions of Interest from providers able to provide inpatient mental health services for children aged 12 years and under, in the South of England.

Please see the attached document for further information.

The aim of the service is to deliver family centred specialist inpatient, day patient and outpatient/outreach mental health care and treatment to children aged 12 and under (and their families) who are suffering from severe and /or complex mental health conditions that cannot be adequately treated by community based services.

The service will provide safe and effective care across the different stages of the following care pathway:

• Referral • Assessment • Admission • Treatment/ Care Programme Approach (CPA) process • Discharge planning and discharge • Transition to appropriate after care (usually Tier3 CAMHS services)

There are currently no services in the South for children under the age of 13 requiring specialist mental health inpatient services; children aged 12 years of age and under are admitted out of region or to a Child and Adolescent bed.

NHS England South's commissioning intention is to commission 12 Children's Services beds for the South region. At present there is no one location identified, or decision as to whether this would be best served by two smaller units or one 12 bedded unit.

Partnership approaches are encouraged, whereby paediatric and mental health services work together to achieve an appropriate clinical model that achieves the best outcomes for the children admitted.

Market engagement will help to inform the contracting strategy, but at present the contract value is estimated to be between £2.5m and £3m per annum, and the contract term is anticipated to be 3 years with an option to extend for a further 2 years.

Potential providers will then be invited to meet with commissioners to discuss the contracting strategy. This is provisionally scheduled for 27th September 2018, but further information will be provided to those expressing an interest, following the closure of this notice.

This PIN as a call for competition is initially published as a notice for expressions of interest. The Commissioner may then choose to proceed directly to a procurement process with parties who have responded to the notice and there shall be no further notice published. Any competitive process will be based on the Open procedure, subject to the qualification in this notice.

This process is being carried out by NHS South, Central & West Commissioning Support Unit (SCWCSU) on behalf of the Commissioner

Publication of this notice does not commit NHS England to a future procurement. NHS England will not be liable for costs incurred by any interested party in participating in this exercise.

Additional information: To express an interest in this procurement, please register on the In-Tend portal and submit a completed Market Engagement Questionnaire by 12pm on 7th September 2018. Providers who do not submit a completed questionnaire will not be deemed to have fully submitted their interest.

Interested providers will be able to view the opportunity via the 'current tenders' list on In-Tend: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/scwcsu/aspx/Home

In order to return the questionnaire, you will need to 'express an interest' and register on the system and then upload the completed questionnaire to the placeholder provided.

The services are healthcare services falling within Schedule 3 to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 ("the Regulations") which are not subject to the full regime of the Regulations, but instead governed by the "Light Touch Regime" contained within Chapter 3, Section 7 of the Regulations (Regulations 74 to 77).

Any tendering process will be conducted in accordance with the requirements and flexibilities provided by Articles 74 to 76 of the Directive, and Regulations 74 to 76 of the Regulations. The Authority will run a transparent process, treating all Bidders equally. For the avoidance of doubt, the Authority will not be bound by the Regulations or the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union or any other regulations or legislation except for the specific parts or circumstances that apply to the procurement of these Services.

Neither the inclusion of a Bidder selection stage, nor the use of any language or terms found in the Directive or Regulations, nor the description of the procedure voluntarily adopted by the Authority ("Open", "Restricted", "Competitive Procedure with Negotiation", "Competitive Dialogue" or any other description), nor any other indication, shall be taken to mean that the Authority intends to hold itself bound by the Directive or Regulations, save by the provisions applicable to services coming within the scope of Annex XIV of the Directive / Schedule 3 of the Regulations.