Request for Information - Lead Employer Arrangement for Speciality Programme, Dental & GP Trainees - Health Education England - North West

HEE would like to invite potential service providers to respond to the Request for Further Information (RFI) for the provision of Lead Employer arrangements for Doctors in Training in the area covered by Health Education England North West (HEE NW) as set out in the draft service specification. One of the responsibilities of HEE NW is the organisation, management and quality assurance of postgraduate training to doctors and dentists in regulatory (General Medical Council or General Dental Council) approved training posts across the North West. HEE NW is responsible for approximately 7,150 medical and dental trainees as detailed below:

• Foundation Programme (FP) - this is a two year medical programme which currently has approximately 1740 trainees. Trainees are predominantly based in one trust within the region for their two year period with usually one placement in a community setting (e.g. GP practice or mental health trust). These doctors are employed by Trusts.

• General Practice (GP) - this is a three year programme which currently has approximately 1375 trainees. Trainees usually spend approximately 50% of their time in a general practice placement (there are currently over 500 approved training practices) and 50% of their time in an acute or mental health hospital placement; each placement usually lasts six months.

• Specialty Training - There are 62 specialties which are grouped into 14 Schools which currently have approximately 3850 trainees in total. The specialty programmes range from two to eight years; during the training programme trainees rotate to several of the 37 acute or mental health trusts/hospices across the North West (plus Local Authorities and Public Health England in the case of Public Health trainees). The frequency of the rotation is determined by the specific needs of that specialty and determined by clinicians with expertise in that specialty who undertake a Training Programme Director role on behalf of HEE NW.

• Dentistry - There are a variety of dental programmes which range between 1 and 5 years which currently include approximately 260 trainees. Depending on the training programme placements range between dental practices, local trusts and primary care dental services organisations. Foundation Dentists are employed directly by individual practices. Health Education England wish to use this early market engagement to seek views about its strategy to commission the service, details of which are available at https://in-tendhost.co.uk/soepscommissioning/aspx/Home Please note this is not the beginning of a Tender exercise and a future Contract notice will be issued following this RFI.

Additional information: Potential Bidders are invited to access the procurement documentation at https://in-tendhost.co.uk/soepscommissioning. The deadline for submission of information relating to this RFI is the 23rd April 2018 at 12:00pm (midday). Should Bidders have any queries, or are having problems using the portal, they should contact the In-tend dedicated Supplier Helpdesk by calling 0845 557 8079 Monday to Friday (9am to 6pm) or email [email protected]. All communications relating to this RFI should be made via the messaging function on the In-tend E-Tendering portal via the appointed procurement specialist on behalf of NHS South of England Procurement Services and not with the Health Education England itself.