EARLY SUPPLIER INVOLVEMENT FOR PROVISION OF ENHANCED LLR COMMUNITY PHARMACY SERVICE FOR THE SUPPLY OF ON-DEMAND PALLIATIVE CARE AND OTHER SPECIALIST MEDICATION FOR THE LEICESTER, LEICESTERSHIRE AND RUTLAND INTEGRATED CARE BOARD (LLR ICB)

NHS Midlands & Lancashire (ML) on behalf of the Commissioner, NHS Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (LLR ICB), would like to invite providers to attend an 'Early Supplier Involvement' session which will inform the market of the Commissioner's intentions to set up a pilot for a new service model pertaining to palliative and end of life medication in the community.

There are currently 19 community pharmacies contracted to ensure access to and supply of urgent end of life medication through stocking a range of end of life and other specialist medication. After reviewing the current service, the Commissioner would like to strengthen the service model, with the potential of a single provider model with a revised service specification and enhancements to current provision, for example, holding agreed levels of stock delivery to service users in cases marked as urgent and supporting a delivery function for those requiring urgent end of life medication.

The Commissioner would like to meet virtually with any interested and capable provider(s) to discuss potential service delivery models for the pilot.

The Commissioners would value providers' expert insights and feedback. The information provided and discussed, unless classified as confidential, may be used in the rationale for the final service model. The Commissioner is not bound to take on board providers' information that will result in the delivery of this service.

The Early Supplier Involvement will take place from 1:00pm to 2.30pm via Microsoft Teams on (REVISED TO) Friday 19th of April 2024.

The intention for the Early Supplier Involvement is to discuss: • how the new service model can be most effectively delivered; • any challenges and/or lessons learned providers may be able to share; • an opportunity to ask questions and/or raise any other areas providers may see as relevant.

The Commissioner will take suitable notes during the event to inform the commissioning of these decisions and will circulate the presentation slides, collate a Q&A document based on questions raised during the event with the providers. Providers will also have 48 hours after the event to send any additional questions they may have, and these will be recorded and shared afterwards.

If you are interested in attending the virtual event, please register by emailing [email protected] and provide the following details by no later than 9th of April 2024:  Name of delegates  Job title of delegates  Organisation details, including address  Delegate email address and telephone number.

Please note that registration at this event does not count as registration for the full procurement process, which will be separately advertised via the Finder a Tender website. We are aiming for this to be issued around the end of April/May 2024. Interested providers will need to respond to this when advertised, whether they attend the Early Supplier Involvement meeting or not, or any subsequent market engagement event the Commissioner may decide to run.

Aims and objectives of the service:

- Achieving a robust and consistent supply of these urgently required medicines is important to the success of community services. This service will allow for the timely supply of an agreed list of end-of-life (EoL) medications and other urgent community treatments.

- Improving access to End-of-Life medication is also expected to reduce pressure on primary and secondary care providers and support admission avoidance. If medication needs can be met in a timely manner, more patients will be able to stay at home. As a further system and workforce benefit, improving the processes for supply and delivery of anticipatory medications will improve productivity and morale in community nursing, community palliative care services and primary care by providing a clear and standardised pathways to obtaining these medications.

- Beyond the palliative care setting, there is evidence for a 'home first' approach to supporting service users with frailty, dementia or other significant co-morbidities who experience a deterioration in health (to prevent hospital-related harms and improve patient experience) In the event of acute deterioration caused by common issues such as infection, dehydration, faecal impaction, urinary retention or acute behavioural symptoms in dementia (BPSD), prompt access to medication is needed to allow the patient to remain at home or in their care home.

Any contract issued as a result of this Early Engagement and subsequent procurement process will be issued as a pilot contract. The current contracting arrangements are due to expire on the 31st of August 2024. The pilot contract is anticipated to start on the 1st of September 2025 and is likely to be for 12 months with the possibility of extension for up to another 6 months, and the indicative contract value will be circa £150k for the lifecycle of the contract (including extensions) - please note that this information is indicative only, and all these factors may change up to the point of the formal procurement process and should not be relied upon as exact data at this stage.

After this Early Supplier Involvement event, the service will be then commissioned via a competitive process conducted in line with the Provider Selection Regime for Healthcare Services 2023 and will be advertised to all providers which is proportionate to the value and complexity of the service and contract. The Provider Selection Regime applies under common procurement vocabulary (CPV) 85149000-5, as this service is not covered under the community pharmacy services that are arranged under the National Health Service (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2013 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/349/contents).

A further advertisement will be published notifying providers of the live contract opportunity when the Procurement Opportunity is published.

The advert will be placed on Find a Tender Website and on MLCSUs' e-Tendering procurement portal, Atamis, which will also be utilised for the tender. Therefore, we recommend that you register with both of these websites in the meantime at: https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome https://www.gov.uk/find-tender

Please note you won't see the procurement opportunity on the portal until it is opened for bidding (anticipated for April/May 2024).

To register on Atamis If you have not accessed the portal before you will need to click Register from the landing page and complete the required form. 1) Register on the portal webpage https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome (registration and use of the website is free of charge).

Provider Selection Regime The ICB are aware of their transparency obligations under The Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. Please note for those providers expressing interest for these services, this does not guarantee that they will not be required to register for any future provider selection process, and they should not rely on their response to this Expressions of Interest notice as confirmation that the ICB will proceed further. Furthermore, although the ICB is conducting this market engagement exercise, it is under no obligation to take up any suggestions from providers.

All details provided by the ICB are in draft format, the ICB reserves the right to change/amend any aspect of the requirement prior to any potential future procurement exercise.

This notice is issued subject to Provider Selection Regime regulations. Please note that any subsequent contract emanating from this notice will be subject to the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. For the avoidance of doubt, the provisions of the Public Contract Regulations 2015 will not apply to any future award.