Cambridgeshire County Council Strategic Partner for New Residential and Nursing Care Home Provision

Cambridgeshire is facing an increasing challenge to meet the current and future needs of its expanding population of older people. There are significant pressures on the Council’s statutory services and accommodation provision for older people, which is in turn putting pressure on financial budgets. With increases in population and inflation there will be a significant shortfall in suitable accommodation if the way in which services are delivered do not change. The Council must therefore transform its accommodation strategy for older people.

Cambridgeshire County Council has identified a significant shortage of residential and nursing care provision throughout the County. As a result of this, an options appraisal was carried out and the need to appoint a strategic Partner(s) to deliver new provision within the County was identified.

The Council wishes to appoint one or more strategic partner(s) or a consortium of partners to design, build, operate and maintain new residential and nursing care provision within Cambridgeshire against the vision and outcomes set out in this document, with the partnership(s) commencing approximately January 2019.

It has been identified there is an immediate need for 450 additional bed capacity within the market, this is shared between Council funded and self-funded placements with demand for 125 affordable nursing/ nursing dementia placements and 25 affordable residential dementia placements funded by the Council, and 300 self-funding and health placements. These 450 beds are required to come online as soon as possible.

The aim of this procurement is to create this additional capacity by building new care homes on land provided by the Council with a third of all new provision to be made available to the Council at affordable rates. The number of suitable sites available and number of care homes required is yet to be determined.

This procurement will consist of three Lots:

- Lot 1 - North Cambridgeshire (Huntingdonshire, Fenland and East Cambridgeshire)
- Lot 2 - South Cambridgeshire (Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire)
- Lot 3 - Cambridgeshire as a whole

Bidders are invited to express their interest in any or all of the 3 Lots. Please note that the Council reserves the right not to award any Lot and will not award Lot 3 if it makes an award under Lot 1 and 2 or not award Lot 1 or 2 if it makes an award under Lot 3. Further information on expression of interest and award of Lots is included in outlined below.

Participation is open to any residential and nursing care provider(s) and/ or developer(s) who have previous experience of developing and/ or operating care homes for older people.

The successful strategic partner(s) (or consortium of partners) will demonstrate the expertise to design, build, operate and maintain new residential and nursing care home provision for older people across the County.