Domiciliary Care Patch Replenishment

The Council successfully appointed 8 Patch providers to deliver Domiciliary Care to residents in 2021. The contract period was for five years with one three-year extension (5+3) thus a whole life contract of eight (8) years. However, the council now has a requirement to replenish the Central Patch, as well as create a framework of reserve providers should additional Patches need replenishment for a potential period of 5 years. Please see the attached EOI document for full details. The council is now publishing an early pin-notice, subject to Executive approval, to inform potential providers of the London borough of Bromley’s intention (subject to Executive approval) to publish a full Invitation to Tender (ITT) for: i. One Central Patch provider and ii. A reserve provider framework, of up to four (4) providers for the eventuality that the council is required to replenish any other patches during the next five years. The procurement will follow the Open Procedure of the Public Contracts Regulations (2015). This framework will complement the contracts that are currently in place. The primary aim of this procurement is to ensure that the provider that chose to opt out of the arrangements is replaced (Central Patch) whilst developing a list of up to 4 other providers that could deliver the hours in any of the other available Patches, should a termination notice be given by either the current provider or the council (the latter where there is a breach of contract). It is important to note that the need to call off the framework in the future is not guaranteed and is subject to the need. If an award of contract is granted the provider will be required to adopt the same Contract, Specification and Pricing methodology that is currently in place for the Patch providers. For the avoidance of doubt, there is currently only one Patch contract available/vacant (Central Patch). The new provider will work alongside the remaining Patch Provider, and they will continue to operate as detailed in the original 2021 tender. The new framework tender will conclude on the tender evaluation scores, and these will be presented in descending order; resulting in the Provider that scores the highest score achieving first place. The Providers that score second, third, fourth and fifth highest will be ranked accordingly. Should the need arise to replenish any Patch later or during the procurement, the providers that are ranked 2nd to 5th following the tender will be offered the vacant Patch in order of rank/position and will share the Patch with the other remaining (where applicable) providers. Where more than one Patch becomes available the same process will be applied resulting in the remaining highest ranked provider (who do not already have a Patch contract) being offered the opportunity. When seeking to express an interest in the replenishment framework, Providers must commit to preserving the contract price that they have submitted for the duration of the framework Please note each annual uplift will be applied to these submitted prices. If the need to allocate a contract for a vacant Patch place arises, Providers must demonstrate that they comply with the key contractual requirements as set out in the ITT. Assurance will be sought before a call off contract is activated. Failure to provide assurance will result in the next provider on the ranked list being offered the opportunity to deliver a service. Equally, where a Provider does not wish to deliver a service in a vacant Patch, they will reserve the right to do so, resulting in the next ranked provider being offered the opportunity. We envisage that it is possible that the providers with the lowest scores (that have still attained a position 2-5) may still have the opportunity to deliver a service, but we cannot guarantee the award of any new contracts other than the initial Central Patch awarded to the provider that ranks the highest (1st place following the tender) Minimum Requirements An Executive decision requires that all contractors/providers must have a recent/or latest CQC rating of Good at the time of bid submission. All providers that fall below a ‘Good’ rating, such as ‘Requires Improvement’ or ‘Inadequate’ are not eligible to apply and any bid submission will be discarded. Supplier Day The council intends to hold an in-person supplier day w/c 8 April 2024. Full details of the supplier day will be provided in due course.