Paediatric Tier 2 Continence Service in North East Hampshire

As per published PIN with call for competition 2021/S 000-032532.

The Contracting Authority is awarding the North East Hampshire Paediatric Tier 2 Continence Service to Solent NHS Trust, which will provide assurance and consistency in meeting the needs of children/young people. This will reduce the risk of these CYP remaining in continence containment products inappropriately, for example when continence could be achieved with the correct level of support. This service will also address the unmet need of these CYP/families struggling with continence challenges, and the risk of CYP remaining in

incorrectly fitting containment products, thus reducing the risk of further harm (physical, social and potential lifelong impact on emotional wellbeing and mental health).

The award also affords the opportunity to review the impact of the service on children, young people and families. Solent NHS Trust provide a similar service in various parts of wider Hampshire, and come with a high level of experience and expertise in this field. Solent NHS

Trust also provide Special School Nursing and Paediatric Therapies services to CYP in North East Hampshire; awarding this pilot to the same provider ensures that these highly complex CYP will receive an effective wraparound service and a high level of support for them and

their families.

These evaluation mechanisms are expected to provide the evidence required to inform the future commissioning and service model. Additionally, this will provide evidence of reduced healthcare utilisation and savings (particularly in secondary care, and potentially in CYP

emotional wellbeing and mental health services), and will inform future decisions regarding ongoing investment. This will allow the developed model and service specification to be fully costed, ensuring the service delivers value for money, and offering confidence that the service model is realistic and achievable, without compromising the quality of the service.

The evaluation of this pilot will be used to inform commissioning options for Paediatric Continence Services across wider Hampshire; it is also the first step towards reducing inequity of paediatric continence service provision across Hampshire.

Workforce and the wider health system as a whole is under extreme pressure, due to post-Covid recovery and restoration. The original commissioning intention to award this service early in 2020 was delayed due to staff redeployment as a result of the pandemic.

Commissioners are keen to urgently address the high risk of clinical harm and poor outcomes for these CYP resulting from the historic commissioning gap and the delay in addressing this.

These families are currently effectively in crisis, and are experiencing very challenging and distressing situations as a result.

This pilot will address these risks and provide much needed support to these families. The award will provide confidence that the commissioned service will be safe, effective, sustainable, and equitable and provide value for money.

The Pilot term is 24 months commencing 1 April 2022 - 31 March 2024.

The value of the contract (at current value) is a maximum £689,100 per annum (this includes the £ value of the Paediatric Tier 2 Continence Service, as well as £276,000 per annum as the value of the continence containment products). Activity levels may fluctuate by up to negative 20%, this is reflective of the fact that there has been no service for the last 5 year, therefore a margin has been built into the estimated activity levels. Additional information: The Contracting Authority is awarding the contract set out in this notice for 2 years as per the call for competition Prior Information Notice 2021/S 000-032532 published on the 31st December 2021, where no legitimate expressions of interest were received. Therefore, the Contracting Authority relies on Regulation 32 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 to direct award this contract.

Regulation 32 sets out;

'In the specific cases and circumstances laid down in this regulation, contracting authorities may award public contracts by a negotiated procedure without prior publication.

The negotiated procedure without prior publication may be used for public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts in any of the following cases:-

(a) where no tenders, no suitable tenders, no requests to participate or no suitable requests to participate have been submitted in response to an open procedure or a restricted procedure, provided that the initial conditions of the contract are not substantially altered and that a report is sent to the Commission where it so requests.'