NENC ICB-096 Occupational Health Services and Employee Assistance Programme

This is a Direct Award being made under Schedule 5 Section 13 - Urgency of the Procurement Act 2023 and in accordance with the Procurement Regulations 2024 where

Where-

(a)the goods, services or works to be supplied under the public contract are strictly necessary for reasons of extreme and unavoidable urgency, and

(b)as a result the public contract cannot be awarded on the basis of a competitive tendering procedure.

The action therefore of the Relevant Authority has been

Award of a contract without prior publication of a call for competition for a contract to last for maximum 12 months.

NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (the Contracting Authority) have awarded a contract without prior publication of a call for competition for a contract to last for maximum 12 months under Schedule 5 Section 13 - Urgency of the Procurement Act 2023 and in accordance with the Procurement Regulations 2024 under NHS Standard Contract 2025-26.

The service is to deliver Occupational Health Services and an Employee Assistance Programme(EAP) to the employees of NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board.

The recent NHS re-organisational announcements and particularly the consolidation of NHS Commissioning Support Unit (CSU) functions and the status of North of England Commissioning Support (NECS) within it has meant that the CSU has ceased to provide the above service under its Service Level Agreement with the ICB as of 01 August 2025.

The ICB has also recently received a number of staff from the CSU as TUPE transferees and was planning a long term EAP solution to be put in place however with the uncertainty following the DHSC announcements and imminent consultation of staff required is unavoidably forced to put an interim 12 month solution in place whilst operating plans are finalised.

The ICB has a TUPE obligation to ensure that staff provisions under the OH and EAP schemes for transferees are provided on a like for like basis and for this reason has taken the decision to award an interim 12mth contract. The identified provider was able to deliver at short notice, was providing the services for the transferees and all other ICB staff via the CSU Service Level Agreement already and will be providing the service on a like for like basis for the maximum 12months period in order to maintain employee service provisions both in line with TUPE obligations specifically for those transferrees and maintaining status quo for all other ICB staff.