Dynamic Support Register Keyworker Service

Hereafter all references to the Authority incorporates: NHS Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB), NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB and NHS Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB.

The Authority has awarded a contract for the Provision of a Pan Essex Dynamic Support Register Keyworker (non-clinical) Service (the Service) to HCRG Care Services Ltd, using an open procedure under the Public Contract Regulations 2015.

The Contract will be for a term of 36 months from 1st April 2025 until 31st March 2028. The Authority provided for a potential extension of up to 24 months until 31st March 2030 to future proof this contract, but this is in no way guaranteed, and activation of such extension will be at the sole discretion of the Authority based on fundamental principles laid out in the Tender Documents, as well as the performance of the provider and results of any service evaluations undertaken.

The Contract to be entered into by the Authority and the HCRG Care Services Ltd will be based on the NHS Terms and Conditions for the Provision of Services 2024/25 (version dated August 2022) and all subsequent variations thereof.

The aggregate value of the contract over the term (including extensions) as advertised in Find a Tender Service is £4,715,395 excluding VAT. The Contract Value for the three-year term, which acted as an affordability envelope for the purposes of bidding, is £2,829,147.

The Authority undertook an open tender to identify a suitably qualified and experienced and technically and professionally capable provider to deliver the Service for Children & Young People (CYP) with learning disabilities and/or autism (LD/A) up to the age of 25, within Southend, Essex & Thurrock (SET). Locally, SET have too many CYP with LD/A admitted to Tier 4 hospital settings according to national targets. Embedding the DSR Keyworker Service aims to reduce these admissions for those up to the age of 25 where avoidable and help to maintain and support the CYP's placement within the community.

The Authority has appointed a single Preferred Bidder to manage all aspects of the Service. As such, a Lotting Strategy was deemed inappropriate and not used, as it risked creation of unnecessary fragmentation and complexity. Accordingly, the service has been offered as a single contract awarded to a single Preferred Bidder (HCRG Care Services Ltd).

Additional information: The team that facilitated this procurement was the LD/Autism Health Equalities Team (LD/A HET), hosted by Essex County Council, which works across the Transforming Care Partnership between the three Integrated Care Boards (ICB), which are named as Contracting Authorities in the Contract Notice, and the three Local Authorities. These are Essex County Council (ECC), Southend-on-Sea Unitary Authority and Thurrock Unitary Authority. The programme is delivered by all partners within the TCP, but the Service Development Funding (SDF) for this Service comes from NHSE directly to the ICB's. The partnership and funding flows are thereafter governed / mechanised under a Section 75 Agreement between partners, meaning the funding sits within ECC budgets purely as it hosts the LD/A HET team, to enable the team to deliver the programme of work. The Authority took the decision to name the ICBs in the Contract Notice as the Commissioners, as the proposed Contract will be managed by ICB Contract Manager(s) and Commissioners. However, the successful bidder is required to invoice ECC to enable the necessary payment mechanisms to be implemented because of where the funding is sitting/managed. The Local Authorities are not proposed to be party to the Contract.

The Services within this procurement fall within Section 7 of the Public Contract Regulations 2015 (the "Regulations"). Neither the inclusion of the Bidder at Qualification Stage nor the use of the terms Process Overview, Selection Questionnaire, or Invitation to Tender nor any other indication shall be taken to mean that the Authority intends to hold themselves bound by any of the Regulations save those applicable to Public Contracts for social and other specific services listed in Schedule 3 of the Regulations (the "Light Touch" Regime).

The Authority may wish to expand the Dynamic Support Register Keyworker Services during the lifetime of the contract ("Contract modification(s)"). To this end, Bidders were made aware that after the award of contract, there was a possibility that the successful Bidder may be offered a variation(s) to the contract in accordance with Regulation 72 (1) (a) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended The Public Procurement (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020), details of which were contained in the Contract Notice and procurement documents.