Perinatal Mental Health Psychology Workforce Development - Health Education England - NHS/SoEPS/18.442

NHS South of England Procurement Services (SoEPS), acting on behalf of Health Education England (HEE - the Commissioner) are commencing a tender for the provision of a Perinatal Mental Health Psychology Workforce Development exercise.

Health Education England commissioned the development of a comprehensive framework across ten domains of expertise, which sought to explicitly outline all the skills, knowledge and abilities important for healthcare workers to have. Central to the framework was developing skills in the 'perinatal frame of mind'; a concept whereby everyone coming into contact with a woman of childbearing potential can be mindful that they may have to offer some type of intervention, dependent on their existing knowledge and expertise. This means that the framework is for use by everyone, not just those in specialist services.

HEE is currently working closely with NHS England on the development of the workforce in specialist perinatal mental healthcare, to ensure that multidisciplinary teams are skilled and competent to meet the needs of people who are cared for in both the newly developed Mother and Baby units and specialist perinatal community mental health teams, and in those units increasing their workforce because of expanded capacity.

Whilst there already exist several different training opportunities up and down the country in the field of perinatal mental health (PNMH), including some online e-Learning for Health content accessible by all, there is evidence that this training is not being accessed as comprehensively as possible. It is therefore a reasonable assumption that geographically fixed academic learning content in the field of perinatal mental health (for instance, learning opportunities that need to be accessed in a taught face to face manner) must be even more difficult to make accessible to all.

The maximum value of this contract is £300,000. This figure is inclusive of any applicable VAT.

Please access the ITT procurement documents for further information.

Bidders are invited to access the procurement documentation at https://in-tendhost.co.uk/soepscommissioning.

The deadline for submission of completed ITT submissions is 08 October 2018 at 12:00pm (midday). Late submissions will not be accepted. The e-portal system will shutdown at 12:00pm and any un-submitted bids not registered to the system at this time will not be accepted. Therefore, please submit in good time prior to the deadline date and time.

Additional information: Project title: Perinatal Mental Health Psychology Workforce Development - Health Education England, please access the ITT for all documents. Should Bidders have any queries, or are having problems using the portal, they should contact the In-tend dedicated Supplier Helpdesk by calling 0845 557 8079 Monday to Friday (9am to 5pm) or email support@in-tend.co.uk

All communications should be made via the messaging function on the In-tend E-Tendering portal. During the tender exercise the Contracting Authority requests that all communications are channelled through the e-portal system via the appointed procurement specialist on behalf of NHS South of England Procurement Services and not with the Contracting Authority itself. No Bidder, Bidder Member, or any of such Bidder's advisors, consultants or subcontractors may have ex parte communications with the Contracting Authority or any of their employees, advisors, contractors or consultants regarding the ITT, the Procurement, other than as expressly permitted in this ITT.