This opportunity is closed for applications

The deadline was Friday 24 June 2022

East Midlands AHSN in collaboration with Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Trust

Evaluation of a Mental Health Urgent Assessment Centre

3 Incomplete applications

3 SME, 0 large

2 Completed applications

1 SME, 1 large

• Published: Friday 10 June 2022
• Deadline for asking questions: Friday 17 June 2022 at 11:59pm GMT
• Closing date for applications: Friday 24 June 2022 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

• Off-payroll (IR35) determination: Contracted out service: the off-payroll rules do not apply
• Summary of the work: Evaluation of a Mental Health Urgent assessment centre in Lincolnshire. The MHUAC has been open since January 2022 and the evaluation must be delivered by 31st March 2023.
• Latest start date: Sunday 31 July 2022
• Location: East Midlands
• Organisation the work is for: East Midlands AHSN in collaboration with Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Trust
• Budget range: We expect to receive competitive fee proposals which allow us to demonstrate excellent value for money. The anticipated contract value will be in the region of £25-30K

About the work

• Why the work is being done: The project is to evaluate the implementation of a Mental Health Urgent Assessment Centre (MHUAC) within Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT). The MHUAC will offer high quality assessment of each presenting patient’s current needs and formulate a plan of care and support to access an appropriate pathway.; ; The MHUAC evaluation will aim to measure the effectiveness of the service through qualitative and quantitative key metrics as outlined in the evaluation outline document.; ; The evaluation must be delivered by 31st March 2023.
• Problem to be solved: When people are in crisis they are at their most vulnerable. It is essential that they receive the care and support they need as quickly as possible, in a place they can feel safe, and they are supported by people who understand their needs
• Who the users are and what they need to do: The MHUAC will provide a safe, lower stimulus (compared to Emergency Departments) and therapeutic environment where individuals who have no identified medical need can receive an assessment of their mental health needs and risk. This will also reduce whole system pressures by directing patients away from A&E, allowing emergency departments to concentrate their resources on physically unwell patients. The MHUAC will have close links with other co-located Mental Health Services to enable onward referral and liaison and will be staffed by practitioners with expertise in the assessment of mental health need and risk.
• Existing team: East Midlands AHSN - Service Improvement Lead, Evaluation Researcher and Analytics team.; Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust - Lead Nurse, Business Manager
• Current phase: Live

Work setup

• Address where the work will take place: The physical unit is within Lincolnshire. Meetings can be held remotely and work can be performed remotely.
• Working arrangements: The supplier is expected to provide suitably qualified evaluators to deliver a robust evaluation. Experience and knowledge of the relevant health and care sector is essential.; ; We require:; • Ability to deliver on time and work closely with the project team.; • A demonstrable strategic understanding of the health and care landscape both within the East Midlands and nationally; relevant to this programme area – specifically Mental Health.; • Ability to engage at a senior level and identify key strategic and operational issues relevant to the delivery of the project.; • The supplier will provide their own Professional Indemnity Insurance

Additional information

Skills and experience

Buyers will use the essential and nice-to-have skills and experience to help them evaluate suppliers’ technical competence.

• Essential skills and experience:
  • Have relevant experience of undertaking a similar piece of work, delivered to timescale
  • Comprehensive and suitable methodologies are proposed for all aspects of the work, with the rationale for each.
  • Identify potential project challenges and suitable mitigations proposed.
  • Confirm the availability of suitably competent staff who have relevant experience, evidenced by CVs
  • Demonstrate an understanding, and application of, data confidentiality and information governance issues.
  • Demonstrate an ability to deliver the report within the project deadline with a realistic timetable.
  • Consider how any changes to the project scope or timescale would be agreed with the provider Trust via your change control process.
  • Define the impact on patients and the organisation, including the extent to which these may be expected to be observed if rolled out further

How suppliers will be evaluated

All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.

• How many suppliers to evaluate: 6
• Proposal criteria:
  • Comprehensive and suitable approach and methodology
  • Identification of metrics and comparitor in order to prove efficiency of the solution
  • Measurement of the impact to the patients and organisation clearly defined
  • Clear aims and objectives
  • Understanding of the clinical area
  • Value for money
  • Potential challenge identified and suitable mitigations proposed
  • Experience of undertaking similar work
• Cultural fit criteria: work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers
• Payment approach: Fixed price
• Evaluation weighting:

  Technical competence

  75%

  Cultural fit

  5%

  Price

  20%

Questions asked by suppliers

• 1. Is there a preferred supplier or current incumbent for this role?: There is no current preferred supplier. We are seeking an evaluation partner which a specialism in the area of mental health to work with the key stakeholders and deliver an evaluation report to meet the specification and key metrics given.
• 2. Please could you post a link to the ‘evaluation outline document.’: www.emahsn.org.uk/images/002_ITQ_Web_version.docx
• 3. Please can you explain how you’ll score at the evaluation phase of the 100 words the essential SKILL and EXPERIENCE of ‘Confirm the availability of suitably competent staff who have relevant experience, evidenced by CVs’. How could you score a 3 for this as we can’t submit CVs within this part of the procurement?: Apologies as this is our first submission and we are still learning the process. This would be important to receive as part of the overall process before allocation but if we cannot receive files at this stage we would have to instead score on the submission of relevant experience listed against the topic of mental health and previous experience in evaluation delivery.
• 4. Please could you explain how the essential skill and experience of ‘Comprehensive and suitable methodologies are proposed for all aspects of the work, with the rationale for each.’ will be scored in the 100 word answer? This is usually something which is written within the proposal phase with a much bigger word count.: At this stage we would be looking for very brief overall methodologies which can be elaborated on as we move through the process, to show appropriate knowledge in this area. Apologies as this is a new process for us and we assumed we would need to list all requirements from the beginning.
• 5. Many of your essential skills and experience criteria are talking about the project and not asking about the suppliers previous essential skills and experience. It won’t be possible to give you evidence for a project which hasn’t happened. And it won’t be possible to give you information about how the project will be run in 100 words (that is what a proposal is for). Can you please explain how you intend to score your skills and experience?: I would expect relevant skills and experience to be listed from undertaking similar roles, with reference to other relevant tasks undertaken in the past which would give confidence that this project can be completed to a high standard.