Contract for the Provision of a Local Healthwatch in the LOndon Borough of Redbridge

The London Borough of Redbridge (“the Authority”) invites Tenders from suitably qualified and experienced organisations for the Contract for The Provision of a local Healthwatch in the London Borough of Redbridge (“the Contract”).

The Contract will commence on 1st April 2018 and shall continue up to and including 31st March 2021 (the “Contract Period”). At the sole discretion of the Authority the Contract Period may be extended in such period or periods as the Authority deems appropriate up to a maximum of two (2) years, providing a possible total Contract Period to midnight on 31st March 2023.

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 requires local authorities with adult social care responsibilities to commission a local Healthwatch.

The successful provider will be required to ensure the local Healthwatch is of benefit to patients, users of services, carers and the public by providing support to get the best out of services, improving outcomes and supporting services to be more responsive to what people want and need. To work with communities to influence commissioners to design and provide better health and social care services.

The local Healthwatch will need to be independent and coordinate and build upon all of the existing mechanisms for engaging users of health and social care services, established by the Authority, the National Health Service (“NHS”) and the networks of user-led organisations. It will also establish relationships that engage communities, patients, service users and carer groups, bringing a strong voice to the Health and Wellbeing Board of which the successful provider will be a member.

Tenderers shall be experienced in providing similar services and shall also be required, as part of their Tender, to complete a Selection Questionnaire containing information about their economic and financial standing, technical capability and other general information. This information will be assessed to establish that the organisation is financially viable and technically capable of undertaking a contract of this nature. Also, as a pre-condition to their Tenders being evaluated, Tenderers will have to satisfy the mandatory and discretionary grounds for exclusion contained in the Selection Questionnaire.

The Authority carries out financial appraisals of all organisations that Tender for the Authority’s contracts to ensure that such organisations satisfy the Authority’s minimum standards of economic and financial standing. In this instance the Authority has set the following financial threshold of the minimum of £173,000 annual turnover in the last 2 years.

The Authority has also set a ratio of no lower than 8 out of 20.

The Authority retains discretion to exclude any organisation that fails to meet this standard.

The Contract shall be awarded to the organisation based on the most economically advantageous Tenders received. Tenders shall be evaluated in accordance with the following Evaluation Criteria:

Price 60% Quality 40%

A full breakdown of the Evaluation Criteria is contained in the Tender Documents (Volume C).

The Authority considers that the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 as amended by the Collective Redundancies and Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 (“TUPE”) are likely to apply to the Contract. Organisations will be required to comply with their obligations under TUPE without additional cost to the Authority.