The Development of Apprenticeship Standards in the NHS - Health Education England - PIN - NHS/SoEPS/20.640

NHS South of England Procurement Services (SoEPS), acting on behalf of Health Education England (HEE - the Commissioner) are putting out this notice as a PIN (Prior Information Notice) with a view to completing a Direct Award.

Please note the contracting authority intends to direct award the contract to Skills for Health for a short period of time while it determines the authority's commissioning intentions. The case for direct award can be found on the tender portal.

HEE believe that Skills for Health is the only supplier who can support the above programme requirements for one year in 2020/21, with their technical expertise and experience (since 2016) in order to maintain continuity (from 1 April 2020 until 31 March 2021) to fulfill HEE's mandate deliverables (developing new apprenticeship standards for clinical and non-clinical jobs in the NHS) and the actions of the Long Term Plan and People Plan (such as offering important opportunities for widening social participation in the NHS workforce providing and career ladders for staff to develop their skills).

It is envisaged that while the current specifications are underway in 2020, an open procurement process will be undertaken for work to be started in April 2021 onwards (2-3 years).

The contract period of one year will be a maximum value of £550,000 exclusive of VAT.

For the Specification, Contract and the case for direct award please access the portal at https://in-tendhost.co.uk/soepscommissioning

Project title: The Development of Apprenticeship Standards in the NHS - Health Education England - NHS/SoEPS/20.640

Please access the portal for all documents.

Should providers have any 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.

If any provider has concerns with the commissioning intentions outlined within the published documentation, please raise this via the Intend eTendering Portal in the first instance within 30 days of the date of this Prior Information Notice.

The closing date of this PIN is midnight on the 23rd March 2020.