Specialist Wheelchair & Posture Service

NHS Midlands & Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit (ML) on behalf of the Commissioner, NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care Board (CPICB), invites providers to attend an 'Early Supplier Involvement' session which will inform the market of the Commissioner's intentions to procure their Specialist Wheelchair and Posture Services for Children, Young People and Adults service.

The Commissioner would like to meet virtually with any interested and capable provider(s) to discuss potential service delivery models for the service.

The wheelchair services will ensure that all Service Users registered with a GP within NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough ICB, who have a long-term illness or disability, have a better quality of life and are able to maximize their mobility through the provision of a wheelchair that meets their clinical needs.

Aims and objectives of the service:

To maximize the mobility and independence and improve the quality of life for Service Users and their Carers, through timely access to appropriate assessment, provision and maintenance of equipment.

To respond to changes in Service users' health conditions through regular review and deliver users with a high level of service user experience.

To deliver a service that is innovative, flexible, and accessible to service users.

To continuously improve and evolve over the lifetime of the contract to further enhance service user experience.

The Commissioner would value providers' expert insights and feedback. The information provided and discussed, unless classified as confidential, may be used in the rationale for the final service model. The Commissioner is not bound to take on board providers' information that will result in the delivery of this service.

The provider's engagement will be in two stages. The first stage will be for all interested parties and will take place on the 19th of March 2025 from 9.30am to 11am, virtually via Microsoft Teams.

The intention for stage one, Early Supplier Involvement, is for the Commissioner to outline and share with the market the proposal for the new service.

The Commissioner will take suitable notes of the discussions during the events to inform the commissioning of the future service and will circulate the presentation slides and collate a Q&A document based on questions raised during the event with the providers.

The second stage, only open to parties who attended stage one, will be an individual virtual session with each interested party and the commissioner, to discuss:

• how the new service model can be most effectively delivered;
• any challenges and/or lessons learned experiences providers may be able to share;
• an opportunity to ask questions and/or raise any other areas providers may see as relevant.

If you are interested in attending the stage one event, please register by emailing paulo.sousa-cabral@nhs.net and provide the following details by no later than 5pm 14th of March 2025 with the following information:

 Name of delegates

 Job title of delegates

 Organisation details, including address

 Delegate email address and telephone number.

Please note that registration at this event does not count as registration for the full procurement process, which will be separately advertised via the Finder a Tender website. We are aiming for the future procurement process to be issued around the end of May/June 2025. Interested providers will need to respond to this opportunity when advertised, whether they attend the Early Supplier Involvement meetings or not, or any subsequent market engagement event the Commissioner may decide to run.

The current contracting arrangements are due to expire on the 31st of March 2026.

The new contract is anticipated to start on the 1st of April 26 and is likely to be for 5 years with the possibility of extension for up to another 5 years. The indicative contract value will be circa £33m (including VAT) for the lifetime of the contract (including extensions) - please note that this information is indicative only. All these factors may change up to the point of the formal procurement process and should not be relied upon as exact data at this stage.

The service will be commissioned via a competitive process, which is proportionate to the value and complexity of the service and contract. The process will be conducted in line with The Procurement Act 2023 (PA23), Procurement Regulations 2024 (PR2024), and will be advertised line with Transparency duties into all providers in due course.

To register on Atamis

If you have not accessed the portal before you will need to click Register from the landing page and complete the required form.

1. Register on the portal webpage health-family.force.com/s/Welcome ↗ (registration and use of the website is free of charge).
2. Once registered, to search for tendering opportunities that have been published by the buying organisation, click Find Opportunities.
3. From the Find Opportunities page, click on the title of an opportunity. If the tendering project is at the stage where it is open for suppliers to express interest, you will be able to click Register Interest.

For technical support in submitting your Expression of Interest or registering on the 'Atamis Electronic Sourcing system please contact the Atamis helpdesk via email: support@atamis.co.uk.

All communications from providers should come through the Atamis portal. Strictly no other forms of communication to MLCSU or the Commissioner will be accepted (including telephone calls, postal queries/submissions, faxes or email communications) during this period.

Right to Cancel

The contracting authority reserves the right to discontinue the procurement process at any time, which shall include the right not to award a contract or contracts and does not bind itself to accept the lowest tender, or any tender received, and reserves the right to award a contract in part, or to call for new tenders should it consider this necessary. The contracting authority shall not be liable for any costs or expenses incurred by any candidate or tenderer in connection with the completion and return of the information requested in this Contract Notice, or in the completion or submission of any tender, irrespective of the outcome of the competition or if the competition is cancelled or postponed. All dates, time periods and values specified in this notice are provisional and the contracting authority reserves the right to change these.

Transparency

The contracting authority is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR) and may be required to disclose information received in the course of this procurement under FOIA or the EIR. In addition, and in accordance with the UK Government's policies on transparency, the contracting authority intends to publish procurement documentation and the text of any resulting contractual arrangements, subject to possible redactions at the discretion of the contracting authority. Any redactions, whether in relation to information requests under FOIA, the EIR or policies on transparency will be in accordance with those grounds prescribed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. Further information on transparency can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/publicati… ↗ and-contracting-transparency-requirements-guidance