Termination of Pregnancy Services for South Tyneside CCG

North of England Commissioning Support (NECS) are working for and on behalf of NHS South Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group (STCCG) who wish to commission a Termination of Pregnancy Service (TOPS) to cover the whole of South Tyneside locality. The CCG are expecting to commission a high quality advice and treatment service which is responsive and sensitive to the needs of people referred or referring themselves to the service. The service will be in 2 Lots, Lot 1 Co-ordination and Medical Procedures, Lot 2 Surgical Procedures. Bids will be accepted for one or both Lots.

This service is required to provide advice and support to women wishing to explore a termination of pregnancy and to facilitate access to the most appropriate service for either Medical or Surgical procedures.

The aims of the service are:

- To offer high quality, impartial support and advice to all service users who request an abortion, regardless of age, ethnicity, language, disability, sexual orientation, religious or personal circumstances.

- To provide abortion methods clinically appropriate for a service user's gestation and clinical circumstances.

- To improve the sexual health of service users through providing sexual health screening, counselling and referral to treatment as appropriate for Chlamydia and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV.

- To encourage use of contraception services and ensure women have information about local contraception services incl...g those GP Practices that provide a full range of contraceptive services.

- To support women in their decisions about treatment options.

The service is to commence from 01 July 2016 for a period of 3 years with the option to extend the contract by a further 1 x 24 month period subject to satisfactory contractual performance.

Under the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 the contracting authority must consider:

How what is proposed to be procured might improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of South Tyneside and how, in conducting the process of procurement, it might act with a view to securing the improvement. This will be tested via the response to the tender.

NECS is utilising an electronic tendering tool to manage this procurement and communicate with potential providers. Accordingly, there will be no hard copy documents issued to potential providers and all communications with NECS, including your submission, will be conducted via the portal https://In-tendhost.co.uk/necs hosted by In-Tend, the managed service provider for the NECS e-tendering system.

It is free to register on the portal, which can be accessed at any time of day. Should potential providers have any queries, or are having problems registering on the portal, they should contact the In-Tend helpdesk by calling 0844 2728810 (Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm) or email support@in-tend.co.uk.

Please note the deadline for submission of all bids is 12 Noon on 18 January 2016.