Enhanced Service Pathways in High Street Optical Practice

Hampshire, Southampton and Isle of Wight ICB are publishing this call for competition, for Enhanced service pathways in high street optical practice for NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board.

As a result, the Authority intends to award a 12+12 month contract from April 2023.

The Contracting Authority encourages you to attend our Market Engagement before completing the expression of interest form, to enable a more thorough understanding of the service details. Please submit the 'Market Engagement Event form' and submit via the InTend portal as a correspondence NOT as a formal submission before the deadline 17:00 on the 30th November 2022. The Event will be held on the 1st December via Teams.

If you wish to submit any questions regarding the information published, please use the 'Provider Question Log' and submit via the correspondence section on the portal, prior to the deadline of 5pm on the 5th December 2022.

Questions received prior to the market engagement event will be endeavoured to be answered on or before the event. Any additional questions received will be answered when the full list is published on or before the 7th December. Provider names will be anonymised, and the Q&A will only be published if not marked commercially confidential.

If after having reviewed the specification, slides/attended the market engagement event, and wish to express an interest in tendering for this requirement, providers should express their interest by completing the 'Expression of Interest form' and returning via the In-tend portal response section by 12 noon on 23rd December 2022 at the latest. Late entries cannot be accepted.

This notice is an opportunity to express an interest in the delivery of the interim 12+12month contact, however if no expressions of interest are received from alternative providers, the ICB intends to extend the contract with its incumbent provider to ensure service continuity whilst the service review is undertaken, under the Regulation 32 exemption from procurement if no expressions of interest are received.

In order to express an interest to provide the services under the advertised contract, a completed Expression of Interest Form will need to submitted via the portal (the form to be completed can be found together with the service specification, market engagement slides by accessing the tender portal).

Please note that only genuine interest will be taken into consideration, this legal notice is not an opportunity for companies to advertise themselves for e.g., sub-contracting opportunities or to offer services such as bid writing. The Contracting Authority reserves the right to clarify the interest with the company/organisation in order to ensure that that scope of requirements is understood and can be delivered.

It is anticipated that the legal landscape governing procurement of NHS contracts is due to change in 2022/23. The ICB reserves the right to amend or abandon the procurement process in response to any legislative changes that may occur.

Value stated is for the total area for 12+12 months.