Market Engagement - Smoking Cessation Service Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire County Council's smoking cessation contract is due to expire in summer 2025. The Council requires on-going services and are intending to re-commission a smoking cessation service. It is important to ensure that a newly commissioned service meets current and future needs by building upon evidence, national guidance, Oxfordshire's Smoke Free Strategy and local insight, whilst also developing and delivering new and innovative ways of working with our priority communities for successful quits. In addition, the Government made a commitment to double local authority funding for smoking cessation in 2023; therefore Oxfordshire County Council are utilising the opportunity to extend and expand their smoking cessation service using funding from the Stopping the Start; Smokefree 2030, Section 31 Grant. The new budget for this service is expected to be between £1.1m and £1.3m per annum. We would therefore welcome views from providers that are keen to build upon our great work in this area.

The Council is inviting prospective tenderers to complete a questionnaire to provide insight to support the development of the service requirements. The aim of this exercise is to understand the provider market, current and emerging practice, as well as the likely level of interest in the procurement activity the Council is due to carry out. We would appreciate an opportunity to develop relationships with you as providers and gain insights into how organisations and the Council could approach provision of a smoking cessation service for Oxfordshire. This will help the Council to develop a service model that is both sustainable and leverages the markets capabilities and capacities. Feedback from this market research will be provided via an online session in August.

The Invitation to Tender for these services is anticipated to be published in November 2024.The intended contract period will be 48 months (4 years) beginning on 1 July 2025, with an option for the Council to extend the contract period by a further 24 months (2 years).

The questionnaire is accessible via the South East Business Portal ( https://sebp.due-north.com/ ). The project reference within the portal is DN727397. Prospective providers can register their interest in this future tender opportunity and download the questionnaire using the link and reference above.

The market engagement is due to close for responses on Monday 1 July 2024 at 12:00 (Midday).