Health and social work services

Tender description

The GP Patient Survey (GPPS) is an England-wide annual survey which has been running every year since 2007. It is sent to approximately 2.2 million people and asks about experiences of local primary care services including dentistry. Currently, the survey is ‘mixed mode’ and uses paper invitations and questionnaires with the option of completing the survey online (in the form of a link provided on a letter that individuals can type into their device and via SMS reminder messages). The survey currently provides data at national, Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and GP practice levels. It is used to understand performance at GP practice level as well as identifying emerging and ongoing national trends which feed into policy making. The GPPS is extensively used by NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSEI), the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Care Quality Commission (CQC). The survey not only provides data on key priorities such as access to general practice, but also provides insight about a wide range of other areas including health inequalities at a population level, a key focus of the NHS Long Term plan. The survey is also key asset at local level, providing robust and comparable insight to local organisations and health systems about the performance of general practice. The cost of the survey has been rising significantly year on year as postal inflation is an issue and falling response rates are a challenge, so that there will always be a focus on finding ways to minimise costs, such as minimising reliance on paper and post. The current GPPS contract ends on 31 July 2021, NHS England intends to centrally commission a provider to run the survey from August 2021. At this stage we have the following working assumptions about the GP Patient Survey in a new contract: Methodology • That the survey will continue to be run on a yearly basis at GP practice level. • That the survey’s implementation will continue to be mixed mode — paper based and online. This is to minimise selection bias and ensure a key part of the population are not excluded. In addition, experiments in this area have found a drop-in response rate with increased online completion, which impacts on the ability to report robustly at GP Practice level. • The drive to increase online uptake will continue. Content • That the main focus of the survey will continue to be general practice but that the survey content reflects changing primary care contexts and policy priorities. Sampling • That the survey sampling criteria remains the same — those registered with a GP practice for at least six months, aged 16 and over. • That the survey sample will continue to be drawn from the personal demographic service (PDS). Please note mobile telephone numbers and emails do not cover everyone in the sample (email approx. 25 % and mobile telephone number 75 %). • That the survey will continue to produce weighted data that are representative and comparable at GP practice level and that are also nationally representative. Data production • That the survey would be run to the existing timings including survey fieldwork January until early April and publication in July the same year. • That there would be the opportunity to report the survey based on other geographies such as STP and PCN. However, the requirements concerning which spatial reporting levels will be required as standard are still being determined. • The survey will require a certain sample size and/or confidence interval width at practice level and that this will be defined in the ITT. Further information about the current requirements can be found here: https://www.gp-patient.co.uk/downloads/2019/GPPS_2019_Technical_Annex_PUBLIC.pdf NHS England is asking potential bidders to complete a market assessment questionnaire to help inform the forthcoming procurement exercise. The aim of the market engagement exercise is to inform potential providers of the opportunity and to collate feedback. There are plans for a presentation and Q&A session with interested bidders, should potential bidders find that valuable. Questionnaires must be submitted by 2 October 2020 via the Bravo Tendering system. The RFI (questionnaire) is under PQQ_102 — RFI — GP Patient Survey re-procurement 2021. To register on the NHS Bravo system and to access this opportunity, please go to the link below. As mentioned above, you can then search for the opportunity and access any further information. https://nhsengland.bravosolution.co.uk/web/login.html In addition, NHS England will be holding an online supplier event on 14th October.