North of England Commissioning Support (NECS) is a care system support organisation and is managing this market engagement exercise and a possible future procurement process for the provision of a North Region - Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) Screening Programme for NHS England and NHS Improvement North East and Yorkshire (South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw (SY&B)) and (North East & North Cumbria (NENC)) and NHS England and NHS Improvement North West (Lancashire & South Cumbria (L&SC)) and (Cheshire & Merseyside (C&M)) and Greater Manchester Health & Social Care Partnership (Greater Manchester and East Cheshire) (GM&EC)) (the Contracting Authorities).

The Contracting Authorities are issuing this Prior Information Notice (PIN) as a Request for Information (RFI) to gather market intelligence/information, to gain a better understanding of the capacity and appetite of the market in delivering the proposed North Region - Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) Screening Programme and to alert the market to a possible future tender opportunity.

It is important to note that this PIN/RFI is not a call for competition and as such potential providers will need to express interest in any future tender opportunity once a contract notice is published in Find a Tender Service and on Contracts Finder.

It should be noted that this PIN/RFI invites individuals and organisations to express an interest in this RFI exercise only, and it is NOT a pre-qualification questionnaire, and is NOT part of any pre-qualification or selection process.

An expression of interest in this RFI exercise is no indication of a commitment to participate in the RFI process nor does it infer any preferential or special status on those individuals and organisations who express an interest in the RFI exercise.

NECS is utilising an electronic tendering portal (In-Tend) to manage this RFI and as such interested individuals and organisations will need to register on the portal to access the RFI documentation and return the completed RFI response document.

Please note that it is free to register on In-Tend, which can be accessed at any time of day.

In-Tend can be found at: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/nhsnecsu Potential providers are to note that the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 as amended by the Collective Redundancies and Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 (TUPE) may apply to a future procurement including the New Fair Deal non-statutory policy setting out how pensions issues are to be dealt with when staff are compulsorily transferred from the public sector to independent providers delivering public services.

The RFI documentation will be accessible from 12:00 noon on 25 April 2022 and completed RFI responses must be submitted by 12.00 noon on 16 May 2022.

A future procurement opportunity for NHSE561 North Region - Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) Screening Programme could be published in August 2022.