Autism Assessment Service for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and pathway coordination for Children & Young People

Autism Assessment Service for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and pathway coordination for Children and Young People.

This is a Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency (VEAT) notice to inform the market that NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB is directly awarding a 12 month contract, with the incumbent provider, Clinical Partners Ltd.

The contract award will start 1st April 2023 and expire 31st March 2024.

The Provider has had a small historic contract with Knowsley place to manage a small number of children awaiting assessment, however during the COVID period there has been a significant increase in demand and backlog/waiting list and also as a result of the Joint Area SEND Inspection, Cheshire & Merseyside ICB has had to urgently address this significant waiting list to avoid any potential harm due to extended delays in assessments as part of a requested Written Statement of Action.

This award without competition is to ensure service continuity whilst pending development of wider system approaches for provision of neurodevelopment assessment and co-ordination are developed.

This Contract Award Notice is published under the Public Contract Regulations (PCR) 2015.

It is for clinical services which are Light Touch Regime services for the purpose of the Public

Contracts Regulations 2015 ('Regulations') as specified in Schedule 3 of the Regulations.

Accordingly, the contracting authority is only bound by those parts of the Regulations

detailed in Chapter 3 Particular Procurement Regimes Section 7. The contracting authority is

not voluntarily following any other part of the Regulations.

The contract is being awarded under PCR 2015 Section 32. Use of the negotiated procedure

without prior publication.

32.-(1) In the specific cases and circumstances laid down in this regulation, contracting

authorities may award public contracts by a negotiated procedure without prior publication.

General grounds

(2) The negotiated procedure without prior publication may be used for public works

contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts in any of the following

cases:-

(c)insofar as is strictly necessary where, for reasons of extreme urgency brought about by

events unforeseeable by the contracting authority, the time limits for the open or restricted

procedures or competitive procedures with negotiation cannot be complied with. Additional information: Contract Start Date: 1st April 2023

Contract End Date: 31st March 2024