Health and social work services

Tender description

Further to the VEAT notice issued on 10 July 2020 REF. NO 2020/S 135-333755 of July 2020 notice, DWP shall enter into a contract variation of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment services Lot 3 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 from 1 August 2021 – 31 July 2023. See VI.3) for Additional information. On 5 March 2020, DWP published a Prior Information Notice 2020/S 046-109668, signalling its intent to re-procure the PIP Contracts in accordance with Section 7 of the PCR. Within days of this, the Covid-19 Pandemic hit the UK and significantly impacted DWP including delivery of health assessments and the planned procurement. The impact of Covid-19 meants the Department were unablewe have not been able to launch the procurement as planned. Extensions to the existing contracts are needed to fully understand and evaluate the impacts of Covid-19 ahead of future procurements as well as to stabilise the assessment service and resource. The impact of Covid-19 has been, and continues to be, very significant. The assessment service has had to be very quickly adapted, in particular to suspend face to face assessments and mobilise alternative methods of delivery to support claimants. Alongside this departmental and supplier staff and resources have had to be restructured and redeployed to help deliver DWP and the wider government's operational response to Covid-19. DWP has also consulted with the market on the impacts of Covid-19. Given that PIP is a critical statutory welfare benefit that caters for vulnerable people, a gap in service provision is not an option DWP therefore consider it necessary to explore options to extend the contract for up to 2 years in order to: (i) stabilise the assessment service; (ii) ensure a continuous service for these complex and vitally important services, which support delivery of statutory welfare benefits to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable claimants each year; and (iii) allow DWP to fully understand and evaluate the impacts of Covid-19 on the assessment services we require of the market ahead of future procurements. DWP will continue engaging with the market to discuss the future transition of the PIP assessment service and the future of health assessments more broadly. DWP will build in periodic reviews (4-6 monthly) to understand the developing Covid impact on the extensions we intend to put in place. This will support identifying whether longer or shorter extensions than 24 months are needed.