NHS Primary Care Dentistry supporting Dental Workforce Training and Education

Across the country, there has been long-standing and well-known challenges for the public associated with accessing NHS dental care. Suffolk and North East Essex is in fact one of the most challenged areas.

Dental commissioning responsibilities will move from NHS England to local integrated care boards across the country from 1st April 2023. We are working on plans to deliver significant change and improvement in the medium to long term, with the vision of enabling timely access to NHS dental services for all and growing and developing the whole dental workforce.

The service will be expected to provide mandatory services to the population of NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board with a minimum of eight, fully equipped dental surgery units in order to address oral health needs utilising a skilled multidisciplinary team, covering all proper and necessary dental care and treatment.

The service will guarantee placements for local newly qualified and in training dental nurses, therapists, hygienists and dental technicians and provide or have the ability to provide placements for newly qualified and in training dentists. The service will provide a teaching environment for student hygienists and therapists affiliated with a local education establishment.

The service will provide or have the potential to provide the opportunity for overseas dentists to practice under supervision alongside completing the Overseas Registration Examination (ORE). The GDC require the provider to have 'institution' status to employee overseas dentists.

The service will work within the social, economic, and environmental themes within the Cabinet Office Social Value Model to ensure they are always doing the right thing by both their people and the planet.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please express an interest on in-tendhost.co.uk/snee-icb/aspx/Home ↗.

Register or login to In-tend and then select the tenders (current) tab, select the NHS Primary Care Dentistry supporting Dental Workforce Training and Education and click on express interest. This will register your interest. If you access the clarification section on the Tender Management page you will be able to download the draft service specification. Once the closing date has passed you will be contacted by the ICB. The closing date for expressing an interest in this service is 12:00 (noon) 31st March 2023. Additional information: The Services to which this Procurement related fall within Schedule 3 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended The Public Procurement (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020). As such, any procurement of the Services is to be conducted in line with the appropriate procedure. The Authority does not intend to hold itself bound by any of the Regulations, save those applicable to Schedule 3 Services.

The Authority may wish to introduce additional services during the lifetime of the contract ("Contract modifications"). Such contract modifications will be contemplated where additional requirements are similar and or complementary to the services already included in the Specification, at any given time.

Such expansion would be by the addition of services commissioned by the Authority as named in the Notice. To this end, any interested party should be aware that after the award of contract, there is a possibility that the Provider may be offered a variation to the contract to include (but not be limited to) additional services in line with the main elements of the service specification in accordance with Regulation 72 (1) (a) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended The Public Procurement (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020).