RM6126 DPS Call Off Contract for NHS Patient Survey Programme

DPS Call-Off contract for a Survey Co-ordination Centre supplier for the Survey Programme - developing, co-ordinating and analysing data from approximately five national patient experience surveys.

CQC collects, analyses and uses a range of data about people's experiences of care. A significant volume of that information comes from people who have recently used NHS services and are asked about their experiences as part of the NHS Patient Survey Programme. The programme is designed to systematically capture the views of representative samples of patients from all eligible NHS trusts in England. Each survey contains questions that are designed and tested to provide insight into fundamental aspects of people's experiences and to highlight areas where individual providers and systems could improve how they provide services.

The programme currently includes annual surveys of adult inpatients and community mental health services. CQC also undertakes three acute surveys on a biennial schedule: maternity services, urgent and emergency department services and children's and young people's inpatient and day case services.

Typically, the surveys are sent to a sample of between 850 - 1,250 patients, who meet specific eligibility criteria, per provider. The sample is drawn from people who have experienced care during a specified time period, and on average between 25% and 50% of eligible patients respond. The Programme is switching to online first methods of administering questionnaires, with use of supplementary SMS reminders to encourage online completion.

The results of these surveys, including local and national reports, are published on CQC's own website and NHS Surveys, along with the guidance and tools used to deliver the survey.

Supporting CQC's commitment to increase the use of people's experiences at the centre of regulation, it is likely adjuncts to the NHS Patient Survey Programme will emerge over the life of this contract and it will be important to engage with innovation and opportunities to ensure patient experience is collected and used in the most expedient way to maximise the impact and value of data for regulation and service improvement. During the life of the contract it will also be important to extend use of data to look at people's experiences of integrated care.

This procurement was undertaken the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Research and Insights Dynamic Marketplace DPS (RM6126) following a further competition process.

The contract is awarded for an initial period of 24 months with an option to extend for up to 24 months.

Total Awarded Value is the maximum of all charges including all optional contract extensions.

Contract Reference: CQC I&D 027