RTL034P - Community Dental Services

NHS England London Region (the Contracting Authority) is seeking to identify suitable providers of Community Dental Services (CDS) as part of its strategy for the development and delivery of special care dentistry and paediatric dentistry across London. There are three parts to the delivery model:

• Core CDS Provision – Providing quality dental care to special care and paediatric groups and selected other hard to reach groups, in both clinic and community settings

• Provision of Dental Services to Homeless – The provision of dental services for people whose unpredictable living circumstances prevent them from accessing general dental practice. These services are being procured as additional services linked to the core community dental service procurement; and

• Provision of Dental Services to Bariatric patients - The provision of dental services for people whose obesity prevents them from accessing general dental practice. 'Bariatric dentistry' is used as an appropriate way of referring to dentistry for this group of patients. These services are being procured as additional services linked to the core community dental service procurement.

These service contracts are split into 10 Lots as follows (see map provided with PQQ documentation):

• LOT 1; Outer NW London (1); Based within the area covered by the London Boroughs of Hillingdon, Hounslow and Ealing

• LOT 2; Outer NW London (2) – Based within the area covered by the London Boroughs of Barnet, Brent and Harrow

• LOT 3; Inner NW London – Based within the area covered by the London Boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster

• LOT 4; Outer NE London – Based within the area covered by the London Boroughs of Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Barking & Dagenham and Havering

• LOT 5; Inner NE London - Based within the area covered by the London Boroughs of City & Hackney, Tower Hamlets and (Newham from April 2021)

• LOT 6; N Central London – Based within the area covered by the London Boroughs of Enfield, Haringey, Camden and Islington

• LOT 7; Outer SE London – Based within the area covered by the London Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley and Greenwich

• LOT 8; Inner SE London – Based within the area covered by the London Boroughs of Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark

• LOT 9; SW London (1) – Based within the area covered by the London Boroughs of Sutton, Merton and Croydon

• LOT 10; SW London (2) – Based within the area covered by the London Boroughs of Richmond, Kingston and Wandsworth

• LOT 11; Homeless – Based on the highest levels of homelessness within specified boroughs, the proposed service will be delivered from 4 sites

• LOT 12; Bariatric – The proposed service will be delivered from a maximum of 4 sites

The contract/s let as a result of this procurement to deliver Community Dental Services will be for a period of 5 years (60 months) followed by an optional extension period of 5 years (60 months). Therefore if all extension options are used, the maximum (extended) contract period will be 10 years (120 months).

The envisaged start date for the new services is currently 1st April 2017.

Indicative annual contract values per Lot are as follows and are subject to amendment up until the issue of the ITT.
Lot Envisaged Maximum Annual Contract Value
(Core CDS Only)
£m Envisaged Maximum 5-year Contract Value (excluding extension options)
£m
1 – Outer NW (1) 2.85 14.2
2 – Outer NW (2) 3.18 15.9
3 – Inner NW 1.62 8.1
4 – Outer NE 3.30 16.5
5 – Inner NE 1.50 7.5
6 – N Central 3.28 16.4
7 – Outer SE 2.94 14.7
8 – Inner SE 2.69 13.4
9 – SW (1) 2.78 13.9
10 – SW (2) 2.23 11.1
11 – Homeless 0.63 3.1
12 - Bariatric 0.33 1.6
TOTAL 27.33 136.5

The costings for each LOT are based upon the eligible population in each borough broken down by the following groupings:

• 0-5years
• 6-16 years
• child special needs
• adult special needs
• physical disability
• Frail Elderly (over 80)

An example of the costing methodology used to calculate the pricing for Barnet is attached as Appendix 1 to demonstrate how the values for each borough have been arrived at. Bidders should be aware that these contracts are based on a new specification and referral criteria, and not existing ones. The principles which underpin the specification reflect both the National Commissioning Guide in respect of Special Care Dentistry, and the draft Paediatric Commissioning Guide. In addition to the Core CDS service, resources have been set aside to supplement the costs of Domiciliary care, Epidemiology, and for the provision of GA not provided under an acute contract.

Bidders will not be limited in how many Lots they are able to bid for and the Contracting Authority may award multiple Lots to one Bidder (where Bidders express an interest in being awarded multiple Lots and are the highest scoring Bidders across multiple Lots following evaluation – see PQQ documentation for further details).

This procurement process, the Contracting Authority intends to award one contract for each of the Lots described above. Further information on the proposed structure of the contract will be provided in the ITT documentation made available online to interested parties on the e-tendering portal.

The Contracting Authority is operating an e-Procurement process, through its procurement support provider North and East London Commissioning Support Unit (NEL CSU) via the link provided below.

Interested Applicants wishing to participate in this procurement must respond to this advert by submitting their PQQ response via the portal before 17th March 2016 at 12:00pm.

The PQQ documentation is available online on https://procontract.due-north.com/register website. If you are not already registered on the portal you will need to register. Guidance on how to register is attached.

The contract will incorporate a suite of KPIs and standard performance monitoring arrangements. NHS England London Regional is operating an e-tendering process via the link provided below. Interested Applicants wishing to participate in this procurement activity must express an interest by registering their details and completing the PQQ available from the portal website at: https://procontract.due-north.com/register. If you are not already registered on the portal you will need to register your organisation before you can continue with your Expression of Interest and this registration procedure will take 24hrs to turnaround from the submission of your registration.

Once registered, you will need to navigate to "Current Opportunities". Within this area there is a project called “RTL034P Community Dental Services”. Click the link for the opportunity and in the right hand box on the screen titled: “Expression of Interest Window”, please log-in and register your interest in this opportunity. Please follow the instructions to express an interest. You should then receive two emails; 1: advising that you have successfully registered your interest, 2: advising you that the documents are now available to download. You will then need to log back into to the portal to access and download the documentation. Please note that by expressing an interest you are NOT committing yourself to submit a bid.

Bidders are reminded of the steps that must be completed:
1. Ensure that your Organisation is registered on the portal (if not then remember it takes 24hrs for this to turnaround).
2. Express your interest inside the published deadline.
3. Complete and submit the PQQ available from the portal website.

All the above steps must be completed inside the published deadline for your application to be considered. Failure to complete any and or all of the above steps will result in your application being be rejected, please ensure that you leave enough time to complete all the steps listed, inside the published deadline.

The deadline for PQQ responses in relation to this procurement process is on 17th March 2016 at 12:00pm. This date may be subject to change at any time and such changes will be notified via the ProContract e-tendering portal.

It is anticipated that the tender award will take place during August 2016. The Contracting Authority reserves the right not to award the Contract/s.

The Services to which this ITT relates fall within Part B of Schedule 3 to the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 (the Regulations) and Appendix II B to Council Directive 2004/18/EC. Neither the publication of the above advertisement, the inclusion of a Bidder selection stage, “Standstill Period” nor the use of the term “Open Procedure" nor any other indication (including any statement in this ITT) shall be taken to mean that the Contracting Authority intends to hold itself bound by any of the Regulations, save those applicable to Part B services.

The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 do not apply to NHS Healthcare services until April 2016, hence the reference to the 2006 legislation and “Part B” services.

Any queries on the tender process and the services should be sent via the Clarification Question (CQ) process outlined in the ITT documentation available via the tender portal.