NECS491 End of Life Domiciliary Care Service

North of England Commissioning Support is working for and on behalf of NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) (the Contracting Authority) to carry out market engagement for an End of Life Domiciliary Care Service to potentially be delivered in Newcastle, Sunderland and Tees Valley.

The Contracting Authority is issuing this Prior Information Notice (PIN) as a Request for Information (RFI) to engage with the market and to gather information in order to gain a better understanding of both the capacity and appetite of the market in delivering the proposed services, and to alert the market to a potential future tender opportunity.

You will need to express your interest in any future opportunity once the contract notice is published in Find a Tender.

It should also be noted that this PIN/RFI invites individuals and organisations to express an interest in this RFI exercise only and is NOT part of any pre-qualification or selection process.

This PIN/RFI is intended as an awareness, communication, and information gathering exercise. An expression of interest is no indication of a commitment to participate in the RFI process nor does it infer any preferential or special status on those individuals and organisations who express an interest in the RFI exercise.

NECS is utilising an electronic tendering tool to manage this RFI exercise and communicate with potential providers. Accordingly, there will be no hard copy documents issued to potential providers and all communications with NECS, including RFI submissions, will be conducted via Atamis: https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome If you have already registered on the system (e.g. to access contracts with another Health Family organisation) then there is no need to re-register.

If you have not already done so you should now register as a Supplier on the shared system.

You can register here: https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome

It is free to register on the portal and it can be accessed at any time of day providing you have a working internet connection. If you find that you need any advice or support in registering please contact the Atamis helpdesk using the following details:

Phone: 0800 9956035

E-mail: support-health@atamis.co.uk

Opening times 8am - 6pm

PLEASE NOTE: You may be asked if you wish to merge your account with an existing organisation. This is based on a number of criteria including the domain name of your email address, so please ensure that you do register with your official work email address.

The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (as amended) may apply to a future procurement including the New Fair Deal non-statutory policy setting out how pensions issues are to be dealt with when staff are compulsorily transferred from the public sector to independent providers delivering public services.

The RFI documentation will be accessible from 05 February 2024 and completed RFI responses must be submitted by 5pm on 19 February 2024.

Following review of returned RFI responses, should the commissioner wish to seek further clarification to any part of the responses, further market engagement may be carried out. Providers will be made aware of these arrangements via the Atamis system.