National Framework for Childhood Influenza

NHS Arden and Greater East Midlands CSU (NHS Arden & GEM CSU) on behalf of NHS England (referred to as the Commissioners) is inviting suitably qualified and experienced providers to deliver the services.

Delivery of the childhood flu vaccination programme is intended to interrupt the number of cases, circulation and transmission of flu within the community. The economic case accepted by the JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccine and Immunisation) was that this programme could significantly reduce demand on NHS services and ease winter pressures.

Following a recommendation in 2012 by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) that the annual influenza vaccination programme should be extended to include all children aged two to under 17 years of age, the phased introduction of this extension began in 2013.

The aim is to extend the existing annual routine immunisation programme against influenza to more age groups of children increasing quantity and quality to significantly lower the number of infections and outbreaks caused by the flu viruses.

This season (2015-16) the flu vaccine will be offered to all two to 6 years old in England.

The key objective of the procurement is to qualify additional providers (framework members) to the recently established national framework for 2016/17 flu season service delivery and beyond.

Additional framework members will give commissioners a larger pool of providers to invite to participate in a mini-competition (as set out in section 3.2 of document 4 – Framework terms and conditions) to call off their local requirements for 2016-17.

Please note the framework went live on the 1st April 2015 and is for 3 years until the 31st March 2018, this window (window 2) is to invite further qualified providers onto the Framework for a period up to the 31st March 2018 only

The Framework will allow for a quicker solution at “call off” as providers will have been through Quality and Assurance checks to become accredited on the National Framework.

‘Call-off’ when required, will be via the mechanism set out in Section 3.2 “Mini Competition” of Document 4 (Framework Agreement Terms and Conditions) for local commissioning of Childhood Flu Immunisation.

‘Call-off’ from “Window 2” of the framework will allow for contracts up to 2 years to be commissioned by local NHS England Teams. There will be a requirement for providers to demonstrate their capability to deliver to sub-region local specifications at the point of call-off.

The contract value will be defined by each sub-region at the point of ‘call-off’ from the National Framework in line with the service specification.

Additional information: The Invitation to Tender (ITT) documentation will be available from 1st September 2015 and should be completed by the closing date of 17:00 on 15th October 2015.

Deadline for Expression of Interest is Friday 9th October at 5pm

All submissions will be evaluated using the scoring criteria which is contained within the ITT -Document 1 published on the Arden & GEM Bravo e-sourcing portal.

Clarifications may be asked during the procurement process as set out in section 7 of this document, the deadline for clarification questions is 17:00 on 8th October 2015.

The Contracting Authority intends to use an eTendering system in this procurement exercise.

The services to which this notice relates fall within Part B of Schedule 3, Part 10 of the Public Services Contracts Regulations 2006 (as amended) ('the Regulations').

Neither the publication of this notice nor the employment of any particular terminology nor any other indication shall be taken to mean that the contracting authorities intend to hold themselves bound by any of the Regulations save those applicable to the procurement of Part B services. Please see published documentation for further detail.

Suppliers Instructions How to Express Interest in this Tender:

• 1.Register your company on the eSourcing portal (this is only required once)
• Browse to the eSourcing Portal: https://ardengemcsu.bravosolution.co.uk and click the link to register — Accept the terms and conditions and click ‘continue'
• Enter your correct business and user details
• Note the user-name you chose and click ‘Save' when complete
• You will shortly receive an e-mail with your unique password (please keep this secure)
• 2.Express an Interest in the tender
• Login to the portal with the user-name/password
• Click the ‘PQQs / ITTs Open To All Suppliers' link. (These are Pre-Qualification Questionnaires or Invitations to Tender open to any registered supplier)
• Click on the relevant PQQ/ ITT to access the content.
• Click the ‘Express Interest' button at the top of the page.
• This will move the PQQ /ITT into your ‘My PQQs/ My ITTs' page. (This is a secure area reserved for your projects only)
• You can now access any attachments by clicking ‘Buyer Attachments' in the ‘PQQ/ ITT Details' box
• 3.Responding to the tender
• Click ‘My Response' under ‘PQQ/ ITT Details', you can choose to ‘Create Response' or to ‘Decline to Respond' (please give a reason if declining)
• You can now use the ‘Messages' function to communicate with the buyer and seek any clarification
• Note the deadline for completion, then follow the on-screen instructions to complete the PQQ/ ITT
• There may be a mixture of on-line and off-line actions for you to perform (there is detailed on-line help available)

You must then submit your reply using the ‘Submit Response' button at the top of the page.

If you require any further assistance please consult the on-line help, or contact the eTendering helpdesk