Home Based Care Services - Open Framework

Following completion of the stage 2 tender assessment process the Council has issued assessment summaries to the successful and unsuccessful suppliers as required under Section 50 of the Procurement Act 23 (the 'Act').

Issuing of this Award Notice will now instigate a voluntary standstill period which will not be less than eight-working days (the Standstill Period), inline with section 51 of the Act.

The Council reserves the right to amend (extend) the Standstill Period if needed; if this right is exercised, the Contract Award Notice will be updated and affected suppliers will be notified accordingly.

After the Standstill Period has expired, and provided no legal challenge has been made by the end of the Standstill Period or any agreed extension, the Council intends to enter into contracts with the Successful Suppliers. Following this, the Council also intends to publish a Contract Details Notice.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCUREMENT

Following completion of the standstill period referred to above, the Council will proceed to establish an Open Framework to provide home-based care services, ordinarily in Portsmouth, but occasionally in the surrounding area.

Domiciliary care services support people to remain living successfully in their own homes. The service will help maintain an individual in a reasonable manner of health, hygiene, safety and ease in their own home. The level and type of support service required will be determined in line with each individual's support plan. Support service packages will vary in size based on the individual needs and may range from minimal support up to highly specialised and complex needs.

The framework agreement will commence on 20th July 2026. The framework will operate for a term of 8 years. It will be an Open Framework which will reopen once within the first 3-year period, and the Council will open it again at least once in the remaining 5-year contract term as required under Regulation 49 of the Procurement Act 23.

The Council may opt to open the framework for applications earlier than required, although not likely to be ever more than once per year. Re-opening may be in relation to the framework agreement in its entirety or in relation to specific lots. Earlier re-opening could be triggered by a range of factors, which may include but are not limited to:

• Supply & demand changes
• Changes to requirements
• Changes to framework lotting structure
• Changes to pricing structures
• Changes to qualitative assessment
• Changes to framework management
• Addition of new framework lots
• Changes to demand, volumes, values and geographical coverage due to impact of Local Government Re-organisation

The framework agreement will be split into 3 Lots as follows:

• Lot 1 - Standard Home-Based Care
• Lot 2 - Complex Home-Based Care
• Lot 3 - Take a Break (formerly Sitting Service)

The Council currently commissions approx. 60,000 - 65,000 hours of home care per month across 1,000 - 1,200 clients. Approximately 68% of these hours are for Lot 1 Standard Home-Based Care services with the remaining 28% for Lot 2 Complex Home Based Care services and 4% for Lot 3 Take a Break Services.

The Council spend on year to date (November 24 - November 2025) comes to approx. £22.8M on home-based care services over financial year 2025-26. Spend on Lot 1 Standard Home-Based Care services over this period equates to £15.9M / 69.6%. Spend on Lot 2 - Complex Home-Based Care equates to £6.3M / 27.8%. Spend on Lot 3 - Take a Break services is expected to equate to £600k / 2.6%.

Year on year spend over term of the framework cannot be accurately estimated to precise figures but is likely to increase year on year due to predicted increases in inflation, employee wage increases and increases in demand due to changing population demographics, increased life expectancies, continuing strategic focus on increasing home based care delivery and impacts of Local Government Reorganization, which could increase the annual value by approximately 50% from year 3 onwards following vesting day for the new unitary authority which the framework agreement will transfer to.