The NHS secondary health care provider for children's emergency, secondary care,

The expected annual contract value for 2024/25 is £78,068,242. The lifetime value of the contract, is unknown as prices payable under the contract will be adjusted on an annual basis in line with the methodology outlined in the national NHS Payment Guidance. In addition actual payment received for 2024/25 and future years may be determined in line with actual activity delivered, where the national NHS Payment Guidance mandates the use of variable contracting arrangements. The prices which will apply to any variable arrangements will be as outlined in the NHS Payment Guidance.<br/><br/>This contract as a whole is considered to fall within the scope of direct award process A on the basis that the NHS provider delivers our primary NHS contract for children's emergency and secondary care (both physical and mental health) services. The Statutory Guidance support us to take a realistic view of whether any other providers could actually deliver the contract. Realistically there are no other providers with the established infrastructure (both staffing, estates and NHS experience) to deliver the combination of services under these contracts to the scale which our local NHS providers deliver. This contract is based on all services being delivered under them considered as a package, as any attempt to split services off to commission differently would risk destabilisation of the rest of contract and the amount of resource required to undertake this task would be disproportionate the benefits received for our population. In addition, breaking these services down would risk losing the benefits of interdependence between the services (including services commissioned from these NHS providers which fall within the scope of specialised commissioning) which enables staffing resource to be flexed to meet pressures (e.g. treat complex long waiters), supports patient experience as flows between services are more fluid and issues can be easily resolved, encourages value for money by maximising economies of scale across services (e.g. when buying goods and services, using estates) and maximises innovation by encouraging service collaboration to support the delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan and other strategic requirements. <br/><br/>The contract will be awarded for a period of 5 years. The contract will start 01/04/2024 and expire 31/03/2029.