Supporting You Worcestershire High Intensity User (HIU) service

Location

The County of Worcestershire, UK

Description

This is a Transparency Notice pursuant to the Procurement Act 2023 (Act) to notify the market of a direct award of a contract for the Supporting You Worcestershire High Intensity User (HIU) service for a period of 12 months. The aforementioned contract is a 'below-threshold contract' as defined in section 5 of the Act. The total contract value is £125,000.00 for the period of 12 months.

Total Quantity or Scope

This is a short-term award of a 12-month contract to the current provider of the Worcestershire High Intensity User (HIU) service, British Red Cross (BRC). BRC was commissioned in response to the national HIU programme requirements to carry out a 2-year pilot from 2023-2025, which has demonstrated positive outcomes for clients in Worcestershire. HIU service requirements are: • Full time, dedicated HIU roles and programme. • Delivering assertive outreach into people's homes. • Ensuring an offer to adults, over the age of 18. • A focus on A&E attendances and non-elective admissions. • A holistic, non-medical, non-policing approach. • A personalised, coaching approach. • Engagement across the health and social care system and beyond. • Effective partnership with and "step down" to primary care, neighbourhood services, and community assets. Following evaluation, NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB may consider procuring a longer-term service. The nature of the service means that the Provider Selection Regime regulations do not necessarily apply to this procurement. Rather it is covered by the Procurement Act 2023, and therefore, should a future procurement process take place, it is likely to be a full competitive tender exercise pursuant to the above Act, in order to secure a long-term contract. If this is to take place, the timescale is approximately 12 months from the time of the publication of this Notice in order to take the above steps, meaning that a break in service provision was inevitable unless these steps were taken to avoid it. To ensure continuity of service, it was necessary to direct award to BRC for a further 12 months (from May 2025 to May 2026) to allow the commissioning authority to formulate it's position with regards to the future competitive tendering exercise.

Award Detail

Award Criteria

CPV Codes

• 85100000 - Health services

Legal Justification

For the avoidance of doubt, as stated at Section II.1.4 above, this is a Transparency Notice pursuant to the Procurement Act 2023 (Act) to notify the market of a direct award of a contract for the Supporting You Worcestershire High Intensity Use (HIU) service for a period of 12 months. The aforementioned contract is a 'below-threshold contract' as defined in section 5 of the Act. The total contract value is £125,000 for the period of 12 months.

Other Information

** PREVIEW NOTICE, please check Find a Tender for full details. ** The ICB provides the following reasons for the award of the contact. As a current provider, the awardee is the only provider who could guarantee continuity of service in the short term, and who has established means of satisfying the national requirements of a HIU service in Worcestershire. HIU service requirements are: • Full time, dedicated HIU roles and programme. • Delivering assertive outreach into people's homes. • Ensuring an offer to adults, over the age of 18. • A focus on A&E attendances and non-elective admissions. • A holistic, non-medical, non-policing approach. • A personalised, coaching approach. • Engagement across the health and social care system and beyond. • Effective partnership with and "step down" to primary care, neighbourhood services, and community assets. The non-clinical and individualised nature of the service means continuity of support is especially important. The client group worked with have a wide range of support needs that have led them to seek urgent and emergency care when more appropriate support is available elsewhere. This includes socio-economic pressures, housing, domestic abuse, learning disabilities, drug and alcohol, legal or mental health issues. In addition, with established links to the health and social care system and beyond to the local authority, criminal justice, and other agencies, BRC could continue to provide holistic support while any procurement exercise takes place. This option will cause the minimum of disruption to clients and the health and social care system.