NHS England (Midlands) - Staffordshire Prisons Healthcare and Integrated Offender Health Services

Provision of an Integrated Healthcare Service in Staffordshire Prisons and Non-custodial Integrated Offender Health Service in the West Midlands.

Lot 1 - HMP Stafford, HMP & YOI Drake Hall, HMP & YOI Swinfen Hall, HMP Werrington YOI and HMP Dovegate

Lot 2 - HMP Oakwood, HMP Featherstone and HMP & YOI Brinsford

Lot 3 - Birmingham & Solihull Non-Custodial Integrated Offender Health Service

Lot 4 - The Black Country Non-Custodial Integrated Offender Health Service

Lot 5 - Staffordshire & Stoke on Trent Non-Custodial Integrated Offender Health Service

Additional information: As you will be aware, the contract values published in the ITT were based on 2022/23 contract prices and, for lots 1 and 2 included 1.7% inflation, which at the time was the net inflationary factor agreed for NHS services. Subsequent to the Commissioner publishing the ITT and receiving bids, the NHS inflationary factors were amended twice, resulting in an overall net uplift of 4.1%.

This period has seen unexpectedly high levels of inflation, due to market circumstances which were not foreseen by either the Commissioner or the bidders involved in this tender. The Commissioner understands that due to these high inflation levels, it will no longer be possible for some or all of its bidders to provide the services at the price bid in response to the original ITT.

The Commissioner has considered this issue regionally and has taken the decision to adjust the financial envelope across all contracts in order to reflect both the net increase in 2022/23 NHS inflation announced following the publication of the ITT, and the anticipated net inflationary uplift for 2023/24. This will have the effect that the contract value for each of the contracts awarded will be multiplied by 1.041.

This decision has been taken in consideration of how and when the financial envelope for this procurement was calculated and the timing of the tender in relation to the unforeseen inflationary pressures. As such it is particular to this procurement only, and does not have any implications or set any precedent for any current or future NHSE procurements.

In order to ensure equality and fairness for all bidders in this process, the Commissioner re-ran its evaluation process of each bidder's financial and overall scores using the proposed assumption that 4.1% inflation would be added to the bid price (not mobilisation costs). This process confirmed that the outcome of the competitive procurement process remains unchanged, and the same bidders have been successful on the basis of the adjusted figures.

To ensure consistency and transparency throughout the procurement, the Commissioner will be informing all bidders of the decision that has been made to increase the financial envelope for these contracts, prior to the commencement of the 10-day standstill period.