Health and social work services

Tender description

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council (‘the Council’) and Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust (‘the Trust’) will establish a co-operative working agreement in accordance with Regulation 12(7) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR); under which the parties will co-operate in the delivery of the following services: — 0 to 5 services — this comprises the health visiting service including the breastfeeding support service and the Best Start service (intensive home visiting programme) for vulnerable families; — sexual health service — provision of an integrated sexual health service including but not limited to Genito-urinary medicine testing, contraception and sexual health advice and support, provisions for HIV preventative medicine, emergency hormonal contraception and domiciliary sexual health services in the community; — infection prevention service — where consultation and support on infection control is provided. The Council and the Trust intend to enter into a co-operative working agreement to deliver the following services: — 0 to 5 services — this comprises the health visiting service including the breastfeeding support service and the Best Start service (intensive home visiting programme) for vulnerable families; — sexual health service — provision of an integrated sexual health service including but not limited to Genito-urinary medicine testing, contraception and sexual health advice and support, provisions for HIV preventative medicine, emergency hormonal contraception and domiciliary sexual health services in the community; — infection prevention service — where consultation and support on infection control is provided. This co-operative working agreement falls within Regulation 12(7) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015/Article 12(4) of Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council. The proposed co-operative working agreement falls within the scope of regulations 12(7) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 because: (a) the contract establishes or implements a co-operation between the participating contracting authorities with the aim of ensuring that public services they have to perform are provided with a view to achieving objectives they have in common; (b) the implementation of that co-operation is governed solely by considerations relating to the public interest; and (c) the participating contracting authorities perform on the open market less than 20 % of the activities concerned by the co-operation. Under the Co-operative working agreement the Council and the Trust will co-operate to deliver these services to achieve common objectives in relation to Public Health in Sandwell. Payments made by the Council to the Trust will be on the basis of reimbursement of costs only. Neither party will generate a profit under the arrangement, which will be governed solely by considerations relating to the public interest. The parties will perform on the open market less than 20 % of the activities covered by the co-operative working agreement.