Modification Notice - Surrey Children's Community Health Service

Description of the circumstances which have rendered necessary the modification: NHS Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care Board (who are the lead contracting authority for itself), NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board, NNHS England South Region and Surrey County Council (the "Commissioners") wish to extend the existing contract term for the Community Children's Health Services contract held by Children and Families Health Surrey to allow for an additional 12-month extension. Such a modification is conducted under Regulation 72(1)(b) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 on grounds that additional services are required where a change of contractor (i) cannot be made for economic or technical reasons; and (ii) would cause significant inconvenience or substantial duplication of cost. The Commissioners have been undertaking a comprehensive recommissioning programme to reflect the national requirements in services in which required to support the future needs of children and young people their families and carers within the county of Surrey. During the recommissioning work, concerns have been raised by the incumbent provider as to the sustainability of the services within the financial envelope that is currently available to deliver the ranges of services covered within the contract. An Independent joint service investigation has been undertaken into the delivery of the services and the challenges being faced as recovery continues following the pandemic. The conclusion of service investigation was that whilst the quality of services remains good in the majority of areas, there are significant challenges arising from the changing needs of children and young people as a result of the pandemic coupled with a significant increase in demand for early intervention services. Furthermore, challenges with the financial envelope available for Commissioners to support service delivery and service transformation were identified as part of the joint investigation process. The outcomes of the review have therefore led the Commissioners to need to review the service model, expectations for transition and service transformation to meet the needs identified within the service investigation. To commence a procurement process at this stage, as anticipated, is likely to result in the service model not meeting service users' needs. It would be challenging to run a fair procurement process in such circumstances and it is likely that the process end up taking longer than planned. Such process would also risk procuring a service that does not function effectively or efficiently in order to meet the service user's needs. As the Commissioners work to understand the requirements and changing needs of the service for children and young people, it is possible that public consultation on the changes will be required, which would need to be completed prior to presenting an opportunity to market. Sometime needs to be allowed for this to be conducted. Commissioners are therefore seeking to agree a contract with the incumbent provider for a period up to 31st March 2025, to enable a robust offer to be made to the market reflecting the changing landscape of service needs for children and young people within Surrey. For reasons mentioned above, to run a procurement process now would therefore cause a substantial duplication of costs and a significant inconvenience to the Commissioners, suppliers and services users and likely to lead to substantially inferior service provision for children and young people in the County. Date of contract award decision: 28th June 2023 Where applicable, the name, address including NUTS code, telephone, fax number, email address and internet address of the new economic operator or operators: Surrey Healthy Children and Families LLP 18 Mole Business Park, Randalls Road, Leatherhead, KT22 7AD - UKJ2 - Home : Children and Family Health Surrey (childrenshealthsurrey.nhs.uk)