Health and social work services

Tender description

Further to the VEAT notice issued on 27/7/18 DWP shall enter into a Contract Variation of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Assessment Services Lot 3, Contract (the Contract) with the incumbent supplier following a period of 10 days from the date of publication of this notice. The Contract Variation provides for an extension of two (2) years. The Contract was awarded pursuant to the Health and Disability Assessment Services Framework Agreement (referenced DWP_100255) which expired in 2016. The Contract was originally for a term of 5+1+1 years and was due to expire on 31.7.2019. The new expiry date will now be 31.7.2021. The original Contract Award date and estimated value are stated in the 'Award of Contract' section of this notice. The Contract relates to the provision of 'social and other specific services' within the meaning of Schedule 3 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/102) (PCR) and is critical to the provision of statutory "PIP" welfare benefits. DWP are constantly looking at ways to continually to improve the PIP service. In response to Paul Gray’s Second Independent Review and the recent Work and Pensions Select Committee Report we outlined numerous further improvements to the PIP service. This included numerous measures to improve the clarity of our communications products and increasing the level of clinical coaching, feedback and support available to each assessor. A key part of our efforts to improve the assessment process will be making video recording of the PIP assessment a standard part of the process. We will be piloting videoing the assessment with a view to then roll this out across Great Britain. There have been improvements in the overall quality of assessments since 2015 but there is still more to do to deliver the high quality of service those claiming PIP rightly expect. DWP will continue to work closely with stakeholder groups and our Assessment Providers to improve the quality of claimant communications, assessments, decision making and the overall claimant experience. It is vital for claimants that we continue to have a stable service. DWP considers it important to continue to make improvements to the end-to-end PIP service, including in response to recommendations from independent reviews. A stable PIP assessment service is vital in order to deliver improvements to the overall service. DWP had originally intended to publish a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) in Spring 2018 for a re-procurement of the Contracts in accordance with Section 7 of the PCR. That timeline included a six month transition window prior to envisaged full service commencement on 1.8.2019. DWP has undertaken an extensive process of pre-market engagement and feasibility analysis (PME), including a number of supplier engagement events. Based on this PME, DWP has concluded that the IT and estate infrastructure needed to support the envisaged new contracts present substantial challenges to new market entrants. These challenges are compounded in the context of a six month transition period, which DWP considers poses an unacceptable risk. DWP therefore considered it necessary to explore options to extend the Contract for two years in order to: (i) provide sufficient time for a safe and stable transition of these complex and vitally important services, which support delivery of statutory welfare benefits to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable claimants each year and (ii) allow DWP to develop, build, test and implement an IT solution to support the new contract(s). Given that PIP is a critical statutory welfare benefit that caters for vulnerable people, a gap in service provision is not an option. DWP will continue to implement steps to secure further efficiencies and service improvements in the way that the existing Contract is currently delivered and in particular throughout the extension period and will monitor performance in order to demonstrate value for money. DWP intends to continue engaging with the market to discuss the future transition of the PIP assessment service and the future of health assessments more broadly. If you would like to participate in our market engagement process please contact cathy.bishop@dwp.gsi.gov.uk For the reasons set out below in Annex D1, DWP considers the proposed extensions are permitted in accordance with the PCR.