Integrated community equipment services

The Council was notified at the end of June 2025 of a possible event occurring on or before 31 July 2025, which, if it were to happen as notified, would cause serious and significant disruption to the delivery of a critical service (the Imminent Event). The impact of any disruption to that service caused by the Imminent Event would be severe, and would result in significant risk to the health and wellbeing of service users, including a potential risk of death. The services are critical to the delivery of health and social care services across Buckinghamshire and the Council has a statutory obligation to ensure that they are delivered effectively and continuously, to a high standard, to service users.

The Council therefore began making preparations for alternative arrangements to ensure continuity of service after 31 July 2025, and continued those preparations as the likelihood of the Imminent Event occurring increased.

As the Imminent Event is still expected to occur as notified, the Council considers that a direct award is justified in all the circumstances on the basis of extreme and unavoidable urgency. The situation giving rise to the need for a direct award was not foreseeable or attributable in any way to the Council, and there was not sufficient time for a competitive tendering procedure to be conducted prior to 31 July 2025 given the complexity and scale of the services required.