North of England Commissioning Support (NECS) is managing this procurement process for and on behalf of NHS England — Lancashire and Greater Manchester (the Contracting Authority).

The Contracting Authority wishes to commission a Central Dental Referral Management Service (CDRMS) to cover the whole of Greater Manchester (GM) and is inviting suitably qualified providers to express their interest in tendering for this procurement.

Initially, this service is required to provide a robust CDRMS to facilitate the appropriate allocation of cases referred for specialist dental care to the most appropriate service.

The CDRMS for GM will be a component part of pathway management, to ensure that pathways are adhered to and providers manage the available pathways appropriately and in their entirety.

The requirement is for the successful service provider to manage referrals received from all primary dental care providers across the GM cluster.

All referrals for specialist care from NHS and private primary care dentists practising within the NHS GM boundaries will be directed for processing and management by the successful service provider.

The CDRMS will serve to provide 2 main functions. There will be an outward-facing service with a central hub to receive, process and (where specified) triage dental referrals for all dental specialities, ensuring referrals are received by the most appropriate clinical service providers across GM.

Data generated by the service will have several functions relating to pathways management, commissioning plans, as well as for education and development purposes. Analysis and reporting will therefore be a key component of the service.

Further to this, there will be a significant requirement to maintain a comprehensive and robust dataset of referral data that will be analysed and presented in regular reports to the Contracting Authority. This will provide intelligence about quality assurance, clinician referral behaviours, and clinical pathway outcomes, to inform future, and current, commissioning decisions.

It is the intention that there will be a fundamental shift over time, that, as the quality and appropriate direction of referrals increase, the requirement for clinical triage will reduce (in a controlled/ managed way) as this occurs the detail and range of reporting requirements will increase.

The service is to commence on 1.12.2015 for a period of 3 years with the option to extend the contract by a further 1 x 12 month and 1 x 12 month periods subject to satisfactory contractual performance and at the discretion of the Contracting Authority.

There is an opportunity within the scope of this service for a potential 50 % service expansion in contract value across a larger geographical footprint in the future, specifically the area covered by Lancashire.

The potential service expansion is not a guaranteed development, and the decision to proceed with the service expansion will be made by the Contracting Authority and negotiated with the successful provider at any point within the timeframe of the contract.

In terms of the estimated potential additional activity for Lancashire, the Contracting Authority has estimated 37 000 referrals per year (total) and an approximate budget of 250 000 GBP per year (total). These figures are approximate and are not a guarantee. The breakdown is approximately 50 % to that of Greater Manchester figures and therefore will be proportionate by specialty by proxy.

It is anticipated that the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 as amended by the Collective Redundancies and Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 (TUPE) may apply for this contract. Tenderers are advised to form their own view on whether TUPE applies, obtaining their own legal advice and carrying out due diligence.

TUPE information as provided by the incumbent service provider is included in ITT Document 10 Financial Model Template, it is the Tenderers responsibility to undertake due diligence and verify TUPE information with the incumbent service provider.

For the purpose of verifying and obtaining TUPE information the incumbent service providers contact details are provided within the ITT Schedule 3 Tender Information Section 8.2.

‘Under the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 the Contracting Authority must consider:

(a) how what is proposed to be procured might improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of the area where it exercises its functions, and

(b) how, in conducting the process of procurement, it might act with a view to securing that improvement.

Accordingly, the subject matter of the contract has been scoped to take into account the priorities of the Contracting Authority relating to economic, social and environmental well-being. These priorities are described in the Invitation to Tender and are reflected in environmental and social characteristics in the evaluation criteria for the award of the contract’.

NECS is utilising an electronic tendering system to manage this procurement and communicate with tenderers. Accordingly, there will be no hard copy documents issued to tenderers and all communications with NECS, including your tender submission, will be conducted via the portal hosted by (In-Tend), the managed service provider for the NECS electronic tendering system.

Express Interest:

To express an interest in tendering for this service, and (if you have not already done so) please register on the electronic tendering portal, which can be found at https://in-tendhost.co.uk/necs

Once registered, you will be able to view details of the tender opportunity by selecting the “Tenders” tab, and then selecting “Current”, scroll down through the tender lists until you come to “Central Dental Referral Management Service. To view further information on this specific tender opportunity, click the button marked “View Details”. From this area, you will be able to express your interest in this tender opportunity by selecting the button marked “Express Interest”.

Please note that it is free to register on the portal, which can be accessed at any time of day as long as you have a working internet connection.

If you require further assistance, a help guide can be found on the portal by clicking on the tab marked “Guidance for Suppliers”.

Alternatively, (should tenderers have any queries) a dedicated helpdesk is available and can be contacted on +44 8442728810 Monday to Friday 8:30 to 17:00 or email: support@in-tend.co.uk

Please note the deadline for submission of all tender returns is 12:00 on 26.5.2015.