CSW - Coventry & Warwickshire Community COVID-19 Testing Service

The government launched the national NHS Test and Trace Service on 28th May 2020. This national service is designed to control the virus and enable people to live a safer and more normal life. The overarching guiding principles being Test; Trace; Contain; Enable.

The objective of this procurement is to ensure that swift and effective local provision of community testing is always available to support the multiagency SARS-CoV-2 outbreak response in Coventry and Warwickshire in non-health and care settings and to ensure capacity for prevalence testing (i.e. proactive testing) within specific communities/settings as required.

The service will deliver this by delivering safe, consistent, equitable, and high-quality COVID-19 testing within defined settings and populations, timely transport of samples to laboratories, and - subject to which tests are used - communicating patient identifiable and aggregated data to key partners. The service will also deliver training and support to allied workers to increase testing capacity within the local system to be able to respond to multiple local outbreaks.

A sub-regional outbreak control plan for Coventry, Warwickshire, and Solihull has been developed (with individual local implementation plans), with eight key priorities; one of these priorities is identified as 'local testing capacity'. The local outbreak plan is available here.

The local testing service will need to ensure a swift response that is accessible to the local population to support outbreak testing in non-health and care settings (which are supported through other routes), and for individuals who may not be able to access current testing sites/for whom home testing is not appropriate.

It is proposed that two service providers will be procured to deliver community testing (initially antigen testing via nose and throat swab) for outbreaks in non-health and care settings, and for individuals who cannot access testing via other means. Coventry City Council will lead the procurement and the service will operate across Coventry and Warwickshire. The service activity will be called off the contract alternating each provider as per requirement, with the highest scoring provider given first service referral.

The providers will:

Deliver testing sessions within particular venues/settings, e.g. schools and early years, workplaces, residential accommodation for homeless and vulnerable migrant communities (in outbreak scenario/as part of the proactive testing programme as required)

Deliver individual testing in people's homes were unable to access alternative testing site/where home testing is not appropriate (individuals may or may not linked with an outbreak setting)

Additional information: Please register via the Council`s e-procurement system - CSW-JETS http://www.csw-jets.co.uk/

CSW-JETS is a sub-regional e-tendering portal run by In-tend. Since February 2010, Coventry; Solihull; Warwickshire; Nuneaton and Bedworth; Rugby alongside other local district Councils have been working together as a shared procurement service. In conjunction with Solihull Community Housing, we have joined together to bring you a collaborative E-Tendering portal.

CSW-JETS enables us to advertise our opportunities across all authorities through the same system. This means that there is a single point of contact for procurement in the sub-region so you only have to register once to receive notifications for all authorities. Registering on the portal will make it easier for local suppliers to find, respond to and be alerted to tender opportunities.

Registration is free, and takes just a few minutes. When complete, you will be able to express interest in any of the Councils'/Authorities' opportunities when they are made available including this tender. In addition, we will be able to access your details whenever we have a requirement, and you may then be invited to tender or quote for work.

Once you are registered and log in to the system you will be able to locate the tender opportunity, express interest and access the documentation.

Is a Recurrent Procurement Type? : No