NHS England South East - Sexual Assault Referral Centre Services

This notice is placed to inform the marketplace that contract extensions have been enacted by NHS England South East ("the Commissioner"), for the Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) contracts in Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley and Hampshire. Contract extensions are effective from 1st April 2024 - 31st March 2025, with an option to extend for a further 12 months up to 31st March 2026.

The Forensic Science Regulator has established a new Code of Practice which mandates that all SARC sites must achieve UKAS accreditation (ISO 15189). In order to achieve accreditation, SARC sites must be suitable and comply with the accreditation standards. In light of this, NHS England South East have sourced and secured new sites across the region and plans to commence work to develop these sites into SARCs over the coming months.

As this work would take place during the recommissioning process for SARC services, if they remained in line with current contract expiry dates, the Commissioner has taken the decision to extend the contracts in order to enable a fully-informed and robust recommissioning process to be completed. This process will take place during the remainder of the extended contract, and will be communicated separately.

The contract modifications (in the form of contract extensions) are enacted under regulation 72(1)(b) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

Extending contracts will not alter the overall nature of the contract; service provision will remain in line with current delivery models and requirements, and in line with existing annual financial envelopes.

The SARC contracts to which the extensions have been applied to are:

• Kent (Provider: Mountain Healthcare)
• Surrey (Provider: Mountain Healthcare)
• Sussex (Provider: Mountain Healthcare)
• Hampshire (Provider: Solent NHS Trust)
• Thames Valley (Provider: G4S)

The total contract value (inclusive of all the above contracts) is approximately £5,041,867 for the initial 12-month extension, (and approximately a total of £10,083,734 for a 12 + 12 month contract).

South Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW) is acting on behalf of the Commissioner to inform the market of their commissioning plans.