Responding to Tenders

NHS Elect has worked with members to tender services, to respond to tenders and to design and deliver learning and development programmes to improve the commercial effectiveness of both commissioners and providers.

Practical support includes:

• Understanding which parts of the tender completion process can begin before the formal tender itself has begun
• Working with clinical colleagues to facilitate financially competitive models of care
• Identifying high risk parts of the bid process such as the sensitivity of bids to becoming non-viable after contract close
• Ensuring that the bidder has a cost effective approach to demonstrating good quality assurance processes in line with Better Standards for Health (BSH). Based on work with existing members NHS Elect has developed a simple document management tool to map existing governance arrangements against core and developmental standards of BSH.
• Financial modelling to support the bid process
• Facilitating partnership discussions and developing memoranda of agreement for joint ventures

Our learning and development work with members covers the lifecycle of the bid process alongside the key aspects of procurement, competition, consultation and employment law which need to be understood to avoid significant risks to the process. These include:

• An overview of procurement law and its interaction with the Procurement Guide for Commissioners of NHS Funded Services and laws covering employment and consultation
• Overview of competition law and the emerging role of Monitor in ensuring a mixed market for healthcare provision
• Responding to tenders; practical steps to professional bidding

For more information contact Jim Timpson at jim@nhselect.org.uk