Hospice at Home and Palliative Care Community Service for Adults and Children and Young People

NHS Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB) is seeking to commission a Hospice at Home and Palliative Care Community Service for all ages in Buckinghamshire (predominantly Mid and South Buckinghamshire).<br/><br/>The main responsibilities include (but are not limited to): <br/><br/>

• 24/7 advice and guidance for people with palliative and end of life care needs, their families, and their carers<br/>
• Provide advanced symptom management including:<br/>o complex symptom management skills<br/>o knowledge of the deterioration and dying process<br/>o understanding of rare disorders and their pathways<br/>
• parallel planning with condition-specific teams, e.g., heart failure specialists, respiratory team, complex neurological diseases team – this is appropriate for people whose recovery is uncertain.<br/>
• support for personalised care and support conversations and advance care planning, including emergency care and treatment planning and accessing NHS continuing healthcare funding and care.<br/>
• support for end of life decision-making, including preferred place of care if important to the person.<br/>
• rapid discharge from hospital to hospice or home for care at the end of life <br/>
• specialist medical, nursing and therapy support for hospices and community palliative care teams<br/>
• specialist equipment in the home [this may be commissioned on a case-by-case basis where unique needs are identified]<br/>
• input into multidisciplinary teams (MDTs), pre- and debriefs relating to a person’s death, and other professional meetings, at hospitals, hospices and in the community.<br/>
• psychosocial support for patients and their families, and professionals [this may be via referral]<br/>
• bereavement support for people with complex needs [this may be via referral]<br/>
• education and training programmes for specialist and generalist providers delivering palliative care for the BOB ICS. <br/><br/>The ICB aims to deliver the National Ambitions for Palliative and End of Life Care and the local priority to improve access and experience of palliative and end of life services to enable people of all ages to die well. This strategic priority will be delivered across a range of services including inpatient and outpatient services, day hospices, hospice at home, community services, lymphoedema and pre and post bereavement services.<br/><br/>The service will work as part of the Integrated Care System providing cross-organisational working to ensure right care, right place, right time to support a person to die well in their preferred place of care and death. <br/><br/>The service will be instrumental in providing equitable specialist palliative care services as well as supporting education and training to non-specialist services both NHS and Non-NHS. The service will work closely with the Integrated Care Board and system partners across all sectors (Primary, Secondary, Community Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector), raising awareness of death and dying and supporting compassionate communities to grow, whilst working towards changing society’s perception of death. <br/><br/>The contract will be for an initial term of 3 year with an option to extend for any period up to a further 2 years. The Commissioner has a budget of £483,000 per annum. The total value of the contract is £1,449,000.00 for the initial 3 year contract term, with a total contract lifecycle value of 2,415,000.00 including the 2 year extension. The contract will commence on 1st October 2024.<br/><br/>This process is being carried out by NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW) on behalf of the Commissioners. Additional information: The services are healthcare services falling within Schedule 3 to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 ("the Regulations") which are not subject to the full regime of the Regulations, but are instead governed by the "Light Touch Regime" contained within Chapter 3, Section 7 of the Regulations (Regulations 74 to 77).