Pan London Out of Hours Telephony soft market testing

This soft market testing exercise concerns the renewal of the innovative joint contract for the provision for out of hours telephony service.

The provision of a high quality out of hours call handling shared service is imperative for the current users of the joint service and equally important for any potential new joiners.

The current framework is hosted by the London Borough of Ealing and is used by Ealing, Barnet, Haringey, Homes for Haringey, Barking and Dagenham, Barking and Dagenham Homes and Enfield.

As the Councils come to the end of a successful period of 7 years of working together (in the last of a series of contracts) they are looking to renew the arrangement and to offer the opportunity for other public bodies to join it.

In order to maximise the efficiency of the arrangement the new supplier may be required to undertake integration of the call centre service with the back-office function of each individual council.

All Councils and Housing Arm's Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) nationally offer an out of hour's service, some retain the service in-house whilst others have sub-let or work in partnerships with other organisations to provide a service. The current Ealing- led Out of Hours Service is exceptional in that all transactions are auditable and fully computerised in the overall management of both telephone and data systems. Some organisations may require an optional day time call handling service, however at present none of the participants have expressed a wish to utilise this option.

The Participating Organisations have joint ownership of a state of the art of telephony system which will be made available to the appointed supplier without charge.