Tip of the Day - Secondments

Bids are unpredictable and time sensitive projects that require dedicated members of staff.  I have worked in bid teams that have taken people on secondments either a few days a week or full-time for a couple of months.  In my experience, this can actually be more of a hindrance than a help.

The worst option of the two is somebody seconding to a bid team for a few days a week.  The problem with this is that people don’t know whether they are coming or going due to the time demands of bids.  Sometimes you can be full on with a few bids in one go, sometimes there might not be anything on.  Unless the other team they work for can be flexible, then this arrangement is a waste of time.

The other method of having somebody seconded full-time for a few months can work but is has to be done right.  Do not put them in a position where they have to lead projects straight away, this is unfair to them and will likely mean you have to work double to provide them with the necessary support.  Instead give them administration and research jobs to begin with, then get them in to writing gradually.  This will give them an all-round experience of bids, as well as making them as useful as possible to the team.

Top Contracts Today

Shropshire County Council:

The Management of Kempsfield Residential Home and its development into Supporting Living Accommodation

Description – Shropshire Council is seeking a service provider to manage on its behalf Kempsfield, a 20 bed residential care home situated in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. It is currently owned and managed by Shropshire Council and has been in operation since the early 1980's. The home currently has 12 permanent and 1 temporary residents aged between 52 to 78 some of whom require significant support. The Home is well established within the local community and residents enjoy a range of community activities within the local vicinity and further afield through regular holidays and day trips.

Length – 10 Years

Value – Unknown

Deadline – 10^th July

Link for further info – Here

East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust:

Pathology Services

Description – East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust (EKHUFT) and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (MTW) have formed a joint venture for delivery of fully integrated pathology service, known as the Kent Pathology Partnership (KPP).
The Contracting Authority (EKHUFT host organisation) on behalf of KPP aims to have a pathology service that is integrated, maximises innovation and technology, and drives efficiencies and effectiveness. The Authority wishes to procure from a suitable, experienced and qualified provider a Pathology Managed Service. The Service Provider will provide services across two Centralised Service Laboratories (“CSL”) and associated
Essential Service Laboratories (“ESL”). This will include (but is not guaranteed to, nor be limited to) the provision of new and replacement pathology automated and non-automated, pre/post analytical equipment, supply of reagents/consumables, maintenance, upgrades, interfacing and training. The system(s) must be capable of interfacing with the associated analysers and be capable of undertaking all processes from receipt of the sample through to an integrated sample archive. It is essential that equivalent analysers are provided for the ESL's to ensure consistency of results.

Length – 7 or 10 years

Value – £56m-£80m

Deadline – 8^th July

Link for further info – Here

Milton Keynes CCG:

Community Ophthalmology

Description – MKCCG invites Milton Keynes GPs, Optometrists, providers of local NHS Ophthalmology Services and other interested parties to attend a workshop to discuss Community Ophthalmology services, which are part of the CCG’s ‘Out of Hospital’ Commissioning Intentions for 2014/15. The workshop will update parties on the recent developments in Community Ophthalmology in Milton Keynes and will set out potential opportunities for future service developments, including future Community Ophthalmology Services to be procured this year. This workshop is aimed at:

• Potential Providers of Community Ophthalmology Services

• GPs in Milton Keynes CCG catchment

• Optometrists in Milton Keynes catchment

Date: Monday 30th June 2014 Time: 12:30-14:00 Venue: MKCCG HQ, Sherwood Place, Bletchley, Milton Keynes, MK3 6RT

If you would like to attend please email Peter Pentecost on peter.pentecost@miltonkeynes.nhs.uk.

Please note that as there is limited capacity at the venue there is a maximum limit of 2 delegates from any one organisation, although all efforts will be made to accommodate any reasonable requests where possible. Those wishing to attend are encouraged to respond at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment.

Length – N/A

Value – N/A

Deadline – N/A but respond ASAP

Link for further info – Here

Tip of the Day - Bid Packs

Just a short tip today but one thing I’ve found particularly useful working across a bid (particularly large ones) is to have a bid pack.  These are simply PowerPoints that summarise all the information in to one easily accessible document.  The idea is that the bid pack is constantly evolving document that you create at the earliest stage of the process and continue through until the end. In particular, I find them particularly useful for presenting information to Executives and Directors, as well as to people you need to involve in the project without overwhelming them with information.

A quick summary of the slides I would have includes:

·         Summary information – including commissioner, contract title, value, length, commencement date, etc

·         Overall procurement timetable

·         Background information on commissioners

·         Background information on the contract – to include information on the current provision (if applicable)

·         Service model information

·         Service model diagram

·         Potential competitors

·         How your organisation is positioned to bid for this – e.g. strengths and weaknesses

·         Win themes

Tip of the Day - Policies

Now every organisation, particularly in health and social care, should have the right policies, as well as having them fully up-to-date and reviewed.  Sadly this isn't always the case and before a bid goes in you can often find yourselves desperately trying to create a policy at the last minute.

Policies and procedures should not be the responsibility of a Business Development / Bid Team but I would suggest you keep a regular eye on them.  If the organisation isn't keeping up-to-date with policies, or they just don’t exist, then this is going to impact on your ability to win bids, maybe even with getting through PQQs.

If you have any down time as a team, review what policies the organisation has (or doesn't) and flag up any potential gaps.  If you need to, find policy templates on the internet to give you something to work from should a worst case scenario occur.  Whatever happens, make sure you are prepared for there to be a missing policy and that you can deal with it in enough time.

Top Contracts Today

Top 3

NHS England London Area Team:

Prison Healthcare Services in Greenwich Prisons

Description – NHS England (London Region) wishes to commission providers of Healthcare services for three Prisons in the Greenwich area of London. The procurement is split into 2 Lots. The Lots are as follows: Lot 1 includes HMP/YOI Belmarsh and HMP Thameside. Lot 2 includes HMP/YOI Isis.

It is anticipated that the healthcare services for each site will include but not be limited to:

1. Primary Care GP and Nursing services

2. Healthcare Administration

3. Mental Heath Services

4. Sexual Health Services

5. Clinical Substance Misuse Services

6. Allied Healthcare Services e.g. Chiropody/Podiatry, Physiotherapy etc.

7. Optometry services

8. Pharmaceutical Services

9. Dental Services

10. Clinical Waste management

11. Escorts and Bedwatches management

12. Radiology Services (including radiographers, radiation protection advisor/s – where X-Rays are in place)

13. Health Promotion

14. Continuity of Care

Length – 7 Years

Value – Approx £90m across both lots

Deadline – 9^th July for PQQ responses

Link for further info – Here

NHS England Wessex Area Team:

Family Nurse Partnership Programme for Hampshire

Description – NHS England Wessex Area Team, in partnership with Hampshire County Council, invite experienced providers of child and family health services to tender for the delivery of the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) programme. The programme will be available to residents within the Hampshire County Council borders. The FNP is a licensed, evidenced based, intensive nurse-led prevention and early intervention programme. It is for vulnerable first time mothers, under the age of 20 years. The programme starts in pregnancy and continues until their child is aged two years. The programme aims to improve the short, medium and long term outcomes of mothers, children and their families

Length – 3 Years

Value – up to £1.5m

Deadline – 11^th July for ITT responses

Link for further info – Here

NHS Shared Business Services:

North West Care Homes Framework Agreement

Description – The Contracting Authorities are seeking to add Providers to the North West Framework Agreement to provide Social, Personal, and Nursing Care Services for Adults within a Residential Setting ('Care Home' services). Suitable Providers may be care homes (residential care homes and nursing homes) as well as independent hospitals, or any other provider that can meet the requirements set out in the Service Specification for Social, Personal and Nursing Care Services for Adults. This is a framework agreement process and NHS SBS will seek to identify all suitably qualified providers on behalf of the Contracting Authorities to deliver the services outlined in the Service Specification.

Length – Unknown

Value – up to £240m across the whole framework

Deadline – 15^th August

Link for further info – Here

Other Contracts of Interest

South-East

Canterbury & Coastal CCG and South Kent Coast CCG – Community Anti-Coagulation Initiation and Monitoring Service – further details here

Medway CCG – MSK Physiotherapy Services – further details here

East of England

Norfolk County Council – 16+ Supported Accommodation (Linden House) – further details here

Southend CCG – Referral Management Service – further details here

East Midlands

Nene CCG and Corby CCG – Supported Accommodation AQP – further details here

Rushcliffe CCG – Carers and Self-Care Service – further details here

Leicester City Council – Welfare Assistance Partner – further details here

West Midlands

East Staffordshire CCG - Long Term Conditions & Intermediate Care Frail/Elderly (Market Testing) – further details here

Herefordshire CCG – Proposed Provision of Primary Medical Care Enhanced Schemes – further details here

Stoke-on-Trent City Council – HIV Care and Support Service – further details here

Stoke-on-Trent CCG – Individual Continuing Care Service – further details here

Solihull CGG – Mental Health Service for Children & Young People in Solihull – further details here

Yorkshire and Humber

Kirklees CCG – Phlebotomy AQP – further details here

North-West

Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council – Supported accommodation for adults with a learning disability living in their own home – further details here

Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council – Assistive Technology Service – further details here

Flyde & Wyre CCG and Blackpool CCG – Intermediate Ophthalmology Services – further details here

North East

NHS England – GP Practice (Newcastle) – further details here

Scotland

Perth and Kinross Council – Occupational Health Services – further details here

Nationwide / Other

Ministry of Justice – Provision of a Radiation Protection Audit and Advisory Service – further details here

Department of Health – Healthy Start Reimbursement Unit – further details here

Tip of the Day - The Importance of Administration

The bid process is an administration heavy one that can end up miring your time in portals, forms and box ticking.  Unfortunately this is a necessary evil in the world of bids, but one that should be dealt with appropriately and in a time-efficient manner.

If possible, have yourself an administrator for your bid team.  If you aren’t a big organisation / team, have the administrator double-up with another team.  Having this resource should in theory be able to make the best use of your team’s time and be able to concentrate on creating good bids.

Tasks I would recommend the administrator deals with includes:

·         Management of all bid portals and forwarding on of messages through this

·         Uploading, printing and packaging all finished bids

·         Arranging couriers as needed

·         Taking minutes at meetings

·         Filling in basic details on PQQs

It may be beneficial for the long-term if the administrator role is a training role.  The person you take on could eventually develop in to becoming a bid writer, with more responsibility given to them over time depending on their ability.

Top Contracts Today

Newham CCG:

Community Ophthalmology Service

Description – Newham CCG are seeking to commission a community ophthalmology service that will provide diagnoses, treatment and on-going management for a range of conditions where treatment in a non-acute setting is both clinically appropriate and in settings convenient for patients to access. We expect the provider to deliver care in an integrated way working closely with existing providers across primary care, acute and community settings. The service will deliver an initial clinical assessment and treatment services (CATS) model for all referrals received. The service will utilise skill mix to deliver pathways whilst ensuring it maintains consultant supervision in the delivery of care. Due to lower complexity and skill mix focus the expectation is this service will not attract PbR and the provider will be expected to deliver this service at a range of community prices. The service will provide “advice and guidance” as part of the contract offer either for referrals redirected back to GP and will be available to answer queries on the management of patients from primary care clinicians. The provider will be responsible for providing all necessary equipment and identify multiple access points from within Newham to support equity of access. The provider will deliver services to both adults and children

Length – 3 Years

Value – Unknown

Deadline – 16^th June to register interest

Link for further info – Here

Newham CCG:

Community ENT Service

Description – Newham CCG are seeking to commission a community ENT service that will provide diagnoses, treatment and on-going management for a range of conditions where treatment in a non-acute setting is both clinically appropriate and in settings convenient for patients to access. We expect the provider to deliver care in an integrated way working closely with existing providers across primary care, acute and community settings. The service will deliver an initial clinical assessment and treatment services (CATS) model for all ENT referrals received. The service will utilise skill mix to deliver pathways whilst ensuring it maintains consultant supervision in the delivery of care. Due to lower complexity and skill mix focus the expectation is this service will not attract PbR. It is expected the provider will deliver this service through at a range of community prices. The service will provide “advice and guidance” as part of the contract offer either for referrals’ redirected back to GP and will be available to answer queries on the management of patients from primary care clinicians. The provider will be responsible for providing all necessary equipment and identify multiple access points from within Newham to support equity of access

Length – 3 Years

Value – Unknown

Deadline – 16^th June to register interest

Link for further info – Here

Tip of the Day - Staying Relevant

To stay relevant in the industry you work in, you need to keep on top of the latest news and developments.  This should also feed in to your bid writing and enable you to insert/reference up-to-date insights, legislation and reports in to your bids.  I have had it positively commented at a bidder interview in the past as to how a bid I had written had referenced the most up-to-date guidance on that particular service.

If you don’t have the time to do this yourself, either divide subject areas between your team, or assign somebody to keep on top of all of it – maybe a junior member of the team.  It is also useful to report on this regularly to the rest of the team, for instance at a weekly team meeting; this will ensure all your team are kept up-to-date with what is going on in your industry.

Although a bit of a cliché, knowledge is power and should not be underestimated.  Stay on top of developments in your industry and it will pay off in the bids you are able to produce.

Top Contracts Today

Nene and Corby CCG:

Continuing Healthcare AQP

Description – NHS Nene and NHS Corby Clinical Commissioning Groups require high quality domiciliary continuing healthcare services for appropriately assessed service users of Northamptonshire who live within or close to these geographical boundaries. We plan to implement these new contracts from September 2014.

Length – 18 Months

Value – N/A due to variable volumes

Deadline – 8^th July

Link for further info – Here

Norfolk CCGs:

Tier 3 Weight Management

Description – The aim of the Community Specialist Weight Management Service (CSWMS) is to improve the health and well-being of morbidly obese adults by supporting them to achieve and maintain a healthier weight and improve physical fitness, through making appropriate and sustainable lifestyle changes to their eating and physical activity habits.
The provision of a CSWMS is expected to:
— Support patients to make long-term lifestyle changes to manage their weight, improve their health status and their quality of life,
— Manage the access to bariatric surgery,
— Improve the screening process for those patients who are eligible for bariatric surgery.

Length – 4 Years

Value – Unknown

Deadline – 27^th June

Link for further info – Here

City & Hackney CCG:

Super Patient Participation Group

Description – This service requires the provider organisation to deliver the ‘Super Patient Participation Groups’ (Super PPGs) from 11 August 2014 until 10 July 2016 for the six consortia (Well, Rainbow and Sunshine, Klear, North Hackney and South West) based in City and Hackney. Super PPGs consist of representatives of the practice based Patient Participation Groups. The groups meet on regular basis (current specification is 3 x year) to share information and discuss current issues affecting the health and wellbeing of the local population as well as local and national services.

Length – 2 Years

Value – Unknown

Deadline – 25^th June

Link for further info – Here

Tip of the Day - Communication

Bids can be done in isolation from the rest of an organisation but the quality of what you will be able to produce will be limited.  The best bids I have been a part of have been due to having excellent relationships with key people throughout the organisation who know what they are talking about, as well as being able to reliability provide the needed information.

Executives are obviously important to be on good terms with, but the actual people you need to really build relationships with are service and team managers.  For team managers you need to build relationships with (as a minimum) HR, IT, Business Intelligence, Finance and Marketing / Comms.  This will enable you to have decent information on these crucial elements that always crop up in bids.

Particularly in health and social care, individual service managers are also very important to build relationships with.  Take the time to visit their services, explain to them how the bid process works, as well as keeping them in loop as to what is happening with new opportunities and existing bids.  It takes time to build but these relationships should make your job a lot easier when writing a bid.

Top Contracts Today

Department for Education:

Analysis of the existing mixed market in the provision of children’s social care services in England; and the potential for building capacity and diversity of provision

Description – As the title suggest

Length – 4 Months

Value – £100k-£200k

Deadline – 23^rd June

Link for further info – Here

North Kirklees CCG:

Primary Care-led Urgent Care Centre

Description – NHS North Kirklees Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) are looking to commission an innovative new primary care led urgent care offer for their local population. NHS North Kirklees CCG has ambitions to ensure a vibrant emergency and urgent care environment at Dewsbury and District Hospital by strengthening services through the integration of 24/7 primary care provision. The service will be fully integrated with the emergency department at Dewsbury and District Hospital and the specification aims to encourage innovation and flexibility in delivering a ‘flag ship’ service that will be open to adults and children. It is envisaged that the service will be part of an integrated offer of emergency, urgent, ambulatory and primary care delivered from the site. The service will be delivered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week within the emergency department of Dewsbury and District Hospital, and will function as an integrated part of the urgent care pathway, that includes emergency and ambulatory emergency care provided by a range of other providers. Patients who perceive they have an urgent care need will be seen, assessed, diagnosed, treated (or referred for specialist treatment) by a suitably qualified clinician. The service will provide a range of basic diagnostic tests including blood tests, ECG, and plain x ray – available 24 hours a day. Access to ultrasound and CT scanning will be via urgent and routine referrals as clinically appropriate to diagnostic services at MYHT. The service will include the provision of direct care and support to generically develop clinical practice and the urgent care workforce.

Length – 3 Years

Value – Up to £4.5m

Deadline – 2^nd July for PQQ

Link for further info – Here

Hertfordshire County Council:

Integrated Sexual Health Services

Description – The specification of services to be commissioned will include Level 1 to 3 services. Level 1 services include Public Health services commissioned from primary care GPs and pharmacists (but not the core GP contract) and condom distribution (C-card). Primary care contracts will continue to be managed by the Council, with support from the provider. For level 2, a range of community clinics is proposed, with all services providing all contraceptive services, Chlamydia screening and some other infection testing (GUM services). They must be young people focussed. The more specialist centres, or level 3 services, will provide a full range of testing and treatment services; and services for specific groups with higher sexual health needs including men who have sex with men. Level 2 and 3 services will be the core provision provided by the integrated service.

Length – 5 Years + 3

Value – £6m-£7.8m

Deadline – 30^th June

Link for further info – Here

Tip of the Day - Clarifications

One of the more tactical elements of a bid is figuring out what (if any) clarification questions to ask commissioners.  Sometimes this can be a minefield as the questions and answers are made available to all bidders, sometimes necessity means you need to get an answer or you cannot continue with the bid.

When initially reviewing bid documents, it is always worth while noting down those areas you are unsure of or that have not been given enough detail by commissioners (or information missing altogether).  Rate all of your queries as:

·         Critical – have to be answered to continue with the bid

·         Important – need to be answered to get your model right but you could continue without the answer if needs be

·         Nice to know – would be good to be answered but unlikely to have a significant impact on your bid

For the important and nice to know questions, these are where you need to be tactical.  The questions is, what do you want your competitors to know as well?  It may be that a competitor getting the answer is more useful to them than it is to you.  Sometimes you find organisations playing a game of chicken, hoping another organisations asks the question.

Organisations I have worked for have swung from the extreme of only answering critical clarifications to asking everything under the sun.  I wouldn’t say either approach has been more successful than the other, but I would say that make sure you choose what you ask carefully.

Top Contracts Today

Swindon CCG:

Diabetes Care Improvement Programme

Description – NHS Swindon CCG wishes to invite expressions of interest for the provision of a Diabetes Care Improvement Programme for up to 26 GP Practices, serving the population of Swindon and Shrivenham. The service provider will be expected to deliver the following outcomes:

• Develop a structured model/approach to the management of people with diabetes in general practice to improve secondary prevention outcomes including reduction in blood pressure, HbA1c and improved cholesterol management;

• Ensure that the programme integrates with and supports the overall Swindon and Shrivenham wide programme of diabetes care, engaging with stakeholders in community, intermediate and specialist services to deliver and support aspects of the programme;

• Ensure that all practice staff are able to identify pre-diabetes, managing diabetes patient centred plans and reviews, educating patients about self-management and any other aspects of diabetes care; • Identify areas of expertise as well as gaps in knowledge and training needs amongst General Practice staff.

Length – 1 Year

Value – £80k-£113k

Deadline – 2^nd July

Link for further info – Here

Sussex CCGs:

Patient Transport and Patient Transport Bureau Services

Description – The CCGs wish to engage with prospective providers about their intentions to commission Patient Transport and Patient Transport Bureau Services Commissioners will value the views of potential providers at this stage to help them shape their approach to commissioning the service. Potential providers are asked to review the information provided (specification) and to submit a completed Request for Information (RFI) response. The commissioners wish to engage with providers and intend to arrange an engagement event to take place in late June or early July.

Length – Unknown

Value – Unknown

Deadline – 16^th June got RFI

Link for further info – Here

Tip of the Day - Bid Interviews

One of my least favourite parts of the whole bid process is the interview at the end.  They aren’t always part of the process but often they are and they come a few weeks after the ITT.  Sometimes it will include a presentation, set clarification questions and / or a question & answer session.

Preparing for them can be a bit of a minefield. The commissioners may:

·         Provide you with the topic / questions during the ITT stage

·         Provide you with the topic / questions in the week leading up to the interview

·         Only give you a theme to construct a presentation around

With so many variables it is hard to have a standard process to deal with them, but it isn’t the worst idea in the world to have a few things that you always do to be prepared.  My suggestions would be:

·         Get your interview team sorted out asap

·         Do a PowerPoint summary of your bid – this will give a good base to start from when you know the presentation topic

·         Book in preparation sessions – at least two, one in the day or two before the interview

·         Prepare a suite of documents that the interview team have to read to be prepared

Top Contracts Today

Top 3

  

Greater East Midlands CSU:

Integrated Prison Healthcare for HMP's and YOIs

Description - NHS England Health and Justice is responsible for commissioning offender healthcare services for:

HMP Highpoint;

HMP Warren Hill;

HMP Hollesley Bay;

HMP Littlehey;

HMP Whitemoor;

HMP The Mount;

HMP / YOI Chelmsford.

We are seeking to commission a safe, high quality healthcare service for offenders held in a secure setting that is equivalent to that available in the wider community. The delivery of that care must reflect the existing and likely future health need and the uniqueness of the environment in which it will be delivered. The provider must show an innovative approach to both delivery and partnership working.

NHS England is offering four separate lots as follows:

Lot 1 Blue:

Suffolk - Highpoint, Warren Hill, Hollesley Bay

Lot 2 Red:

Cambridgeshire

Littlehey, Whitemoor

Lot 3 Green:

Hertfordshire

The Mount

Lot 4 Yellow:

Essex

Chelmsford

Length – unknown

Value – £16m-£25m

Deadline – 23^rd June

Link for further info – Here

Nottingham City CCG:

Out of Hours Call Handling for Neighbourhood Teams

Description - Nottingham City CCG invites offers from suitably qualified organisations for the Provision and Management of the CCG Out of Hours Call Handling service for Neighbourhood Teams – District Nursing. This contract relates to calls from patients telephoning a dedicated number in order to contact the District Nursing service in the out of hours period. The service provider will be responsible for the management of all calls from Patients to the evening & night nursing service during the out of hours period requiring prompt and reliable access to a service that will answer their calls and pass messages to the evening & night nursing service. The service is available to citizens who are registered with one of the following Clinical Commissioning Groups: NHS Nottingham City NHS Nottingham North and East NHS Nottingham West NHS Rushcliffe

Length – 18 months

Value – Unknown

Deadline – 18^th June

Link for further info – Here

Durham County Council:

Wellbeing for Life Services

Description – The primary objective of the Contract to improve health and wellbeing through greater focus on integration, improving quality and efficiency, addressing the wider determinants of health and focusing on prevention and early intervention. Positive mental health is a core component. Many of the current solutions focus on single issues, e.g. weight management, food and health and so on. The Wellbeing approach will go beyond looking at single-issue healthy lifestyle services and a focus on illness, and instead aims to take a whole-person and community approach to improving health (Liverpool PHO, 2010).
The Wellbeing service will use a ‘strengths based' approach that acknowledges and builds upon the strengths, skills and capacities of people to live healthy lives alongside the assets within the local community (Liverpool PHO 2010). This approach does not disavow the importance of structural health inequalities or income inequality

Length – 3 Years

Value – unknown

Deadline – 7^th July

Link for further info – Here

Other Contracts of Interest

Croydon CCG – Young People’s Continuing Healthcare – further details here

Lincolnshire County Council – Leaving Care Services – further details here

Great Yarmouth and Waveney CCG – Continuing Healthcare (CHC) Residential Nursing Care – further details here

London Borough of Brent – Domestic Violence Advocacy, Family Support and MARAC coordination – further details here

North East Procurement Service – Rehabilitation hospital services – further details here