Dorset School Aged Immunisation Service - Market Briefing Event

The NHS England South West are planning for the re-commissioning of School Aged Immunisation Services in Dorset. This notice is placed as a Prior Information Notice in order to facilitate a virtual market briefing event. NHS England South West invites suitably qualified and experienced providers to express their interest in attending a virtual market briefing event which is currently expected to be held on Tuesday 2nd June at 10:30am. This is intended to build on the market engagement that took place during November and December 2025. The event will include the commissioning vision, an overview of the services, the procurement process, and an opportunity for Q&A. The NHS School Aged Immunisation (SAI) programmes cover vaccinations to all children and young people of school age, whether they attend state school, independent school, complex needs schools or alternative settings. Children and young people that are educated at home can attend community clinics or their local school to receive the vaccines. NHS England Public Health Commissioning Teams are responsible for the commissioning of local SAI services under the Section 7a mandate in line with the national programme requirements and a national service specification. NHS England is recommissioning the SAI Programme in Dorset, as a single lot. The current contract with the incumbent provider ends on the 31st July 2027, and the new contract will commence on 1st August 2027, with a 4 year initial term and an option to extend for up to further 3 years. The block contract value is anticipated to be approximately £4,574,822.98 for the initial 4 year contract term. The financial model will include a block and variable element. The variable payment will be made for additional activity delivered over and above the agreed activity plan set for block and at an enhanced tariff for routine immunisations and at a marginal tariff for seasonal influenza. The contract will also include and Access & Inequalities fund which is a block value based on the proportion of the eligible population living in the 20% most deprived postcodes. This will be a ring-fenced / identified pot aimed at supporting those additional interventions needed to improve uptake in those least likely to accept vaccination via the core offer. For further information see the Schedule 2G. Immunisation is one of the most successful and cost- effective health protection interventions. High immunisation rates are key to preventing the spread of infectious disease, complications and possible early death among individuals and to protecting the population's health. Vaccinations are provided, on behalf of the NHS, in line with the National Childhood Immunisation Programme which aims to prevent school aged children from developing vaccine preventable childhood diseases that are associated with significant mortality and morbidity The programmes currently in scope are: • Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccinations (Year 8) • Diphtheria, Tetanus and Poliomyelitis (Td/IPV) booster (Year 8) • Meningococcal ACWY (MenACWY) conjugate vaccine (Year 9) • School-aged children's Seasonal influenza (flu) vaccinations (Reception - Year 11) • Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) catch up vaccinations (Reception - Year 11). This scope may be extended in future to include additional programmes as advised/recommended by the Joint Committee of Vaccinations and Immunisations and/or at the request of the Commissioner. TUPE will apply. The Commissioner will be using the NHS Standard Contract; likely the 'shorter-form'. The latest version is available at the following link and made up of three parts: https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/shorter-form-nhs-standard-contract-2025-26-particulars-service-conditions-general-conditions/ Indicative timeline: A timetable for the key dates of the procurement process is given below. Providers should be aware that the dates are subject to change. Briefing event: 2nd June 2026 Tender publication: Late June 2026 Tender Closes: August 2026 Bidder presentations: September - October 2026 Contract Award: December 2026 Service commencement: 1st August 2027 To allow potential providers to reflect on the proposed services, the Commissioner has provided early indicative information as part of this notice (located within the Atamis e-procurement portal) which includes: 1. National service specification 2. Schedule 2G Please note all the above documents are in draft form and yet to be finalised. If you are interested in attending the virtual market briefing event, please express an interest via Atamis. Please send a message via the portal with the names of the personnel who are likely to attend the market briefing event. Further details in relation to registering on Atamis can be found at the end of this notice. This exercise is being carried out by NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW) on behalf of the Commissioner.