NHS England Community Dental Service for Essex – Bidder Engagement Event

NHS Arden & GEM CSU, on behalf of NHS England Midlands & East (East) would like to notify you of a bidder engagement event to inform interested Providers of the intention to tender Community Dental Services for Essex.

The Purpose of Community Dental Services is to ensure that vulnerable people of all ages have access to appropriate dental care. The Provider will be required to:

• Provide dental services with a community and preventive focus within a budget, with clear and monitored pathways, for a minority of people of any age whose oral care needs (that may be on-going or part of a single treatment plan) cannot be met through other local NHS primary care dental contracts due to their other special needs (medical, physical or behavioural). Barriers to services for these groups will be addressed by providing specialised skills, facilities and/or flexibility to meet the individual patient’s requirements beyond the capacity of general dental services. • Deliver cost effective, evidence based oral health improvement programmes integrated with wider work commissioned directly by local authorities. • Undertake epidemiological field work to collect data for Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock to the national standard. • Offer dental services through sedation and general anaesthesia to the defined patient group. • Provide a comprehensive domiciliary service for patients that are house-bound.

The successful Provider will be required to deliver a proactive service within the local dental network that has clear priorities and result in reduced inequalities in access to preventive advice and dental care for patients who have a physical, sensory, intellectual, mental, medical, emotional or social impairment or disability that make either part or all of their care beyond the capability of other primary care dental service (this will include the establishment of a small bariatric service). The service will also provide oral health promotion programmes as agreed with the local authorities and provide a dental epidemiological service.

The Bidder Engagement event will; • Give an overview of Community Dental Service to be provided • Explain the procurement process and the anticipated timelines.

The event will take place on the evening of: Thursday 8 October 2015 at 5.00pm – 7.00pm at Swift House, Hedgerows Business Park, Chelmsford, Essex CM2 5PF.

To reserve your place please complete the attached Expression of Interest template and send to [email protected].

The ITT will be published on 16 October 2015 through the Arden & GEM Procurement Portal http://ardengemcsu.bravosolution.co.uk. You can view the details of the opportunity through Contracts Finder Website.

Please register your interest in attending this event by 5.00pm Friday 2 October 2015.

Places are strictly limited therefore reservations are limited to no more than 2 persons per organisation.

Additional information: An expression of interest in this market event will not automatically entitle involvement in any future procurement exercise. Any procurement conducted as a result of this event will be advertised separately and all organisations wanting to participate will need to respond to the procurement advertisement as and when it is published.

Bidders may bid as a single organisation, a Partnership or a Consortium. If you participating as any of the above, the Bidder will need to ensure that agreements between proposed the organisations are firmly in place and roles and responsibilities are clearly defined. You will be asked to provide this information in the ITT questionnaire.