Evaluating the National Diabetes Prevention Programme Demonstrator Site Services

The primary purpose of this Notice is to inform the market of a prospective opportunity to undertake an evaluation of type 2 diabetes prevention programmes in the demonstrator sites for the national diabetes prevention programme. The evaluation aims to capture learning and evidence from seven sites (referred to as ‘Demonstrator Sites’) to inform the development and implementation of an evidence based national diabetes prevention programme across England.

Every year, about 20,000 people with diabetes die early. Diabetes is a leading cause of preventable sight loss in people of working age and is a major contributor to kidney failure, heart attack, and stroke. In the NHS Five Year Forward View, published in October 2014, NHS England stated that “our ambition is to…become the first country to implement at scale a national evidence-based diabetes prevention programme modelled on proven UK and international models".

PHE has commissioned an evidence review that will build upon existing reviews undertaken by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) and alongside new evidence from international type 2 diabetes prevention programmes to inform our service design.

This demonstrator phase evaluation will address what form the national diabetes prevention programme should take in its national rollout and not whether the national diabetes prevention programme should be rolled out at all. This research will focus on existing and new activities within demonstrator sites. The aim of the demonstrator evaluation is to understand what should be the key features of a national diabetes prevention programme including its core components and the differences of various model and pathway options in terms of structure, process and outcomes, examining what works well, for whom, in what context and why. This may also include collating lessons learnt from demonstrator activity to inform the national roll out to follow and local delivery models from the demonstrator sites will need to be evaluated to estimate the likely health benefits and cost-effectiveness of the national programme.

We are interested in providers who can work with us at pace, as we are looking for activity to start in mid-September 2015.

Public Health England as the lead contractor would work with a supplier to define the scope of the work and our early thinking suggests that evidence may be needed on service delivery / throughput, clinical and service outcomes, patient / provider experience, and the quality and usefulness of existing routine data sources of costs and outcomes.