Special Allocation Services for the North East and North Cumbria Request for Information

North of England Commissioning Support is working for and on behalf of North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (NENC ICB) to carry out market landscaping in relation to Special Allocation Scheme (SAS) services for North East and North Cumbria.

The Relevant Authority is issuing this Prior Information Notice (PIN) as a Request for Information (RFI) to engage with the market and to gather information in order to gain a better understanding of both the capacity and appetite of the market in delivering SAS services for the North East and North Cumbria.

This is a market landscape exercise only and is not a guarantee of a future provider selection process and/or contract.

It is important to note that this PIN/RFI is not a call for competition and as such you would need to express your interest in any future provider selection process opportunity should a contract notice be published on Find a Tender.

It should also be noted that this PIN/RFI invites individuals and organisations to express an interest in this RFI exercise only, and it is NOT a pre-qualification questionnaire, and is NOT part of any pre-qualification or selection process.

This PIN/RFI is intended as an awareness, communication, and information gathering exercise. An expression of interest is no indication of a commitment to participate in the RFI process nor does it infer any preferential or special status on those individuals and organisations who express an interest in the RFI exercise.

NECS is utilising an electronic tendering tool to manage this RFI exercise and communicate with potential providers. Accordingly, there will be no hard copy documents issued to potential providers and all communications with NECS, including RFI submissions, will be conducted via Atamis: health-family.force.com/s/Welcome ↗

If you have already registered on the system (e.g. to access contracts with another Health Family organisation) then there is no need to re-register.

If you have not already done so you should now register as a Supplier on the shared system.

You can register here: health-family.force.com/s/Welcome ↗

It is free to register on the portal and it can be accessed at any time of day providing you have a working internet connection. If you find that you need any advice or support in registering, please contact the Atamis helpdesk using the following details:

Phone:0800 9956035

E-mail: [email protected]

Opening times 8am - 6pm

An Atamis Supplier guide can be accessed by clicking on this link.

PLEASE NOTE: You may be asked if you wish to merge your account with an existing organisation. This is based on several criteria including the domain name of your email address, so please ensure that you do register with your official work email address.

The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (as amended) may apply to a future provider selection process including the New Fair Deal non-statutory policy setting out how pensions issues are to be dealt with when staff are compulsorily transferred from the public sector to independent providers delivering public services.

The RFI documentation will be accessible from 13 May 2024 and completed RFI responses must be submitted by 5pm on 31 May 2024.

Following review of returned RFI responses, should the Relevant Authority wish to seek further clarification to any part of the responses, further market analysis may be carried out. Providers will be made aware of these arrangements via the Atamis system.