Preliminary Market Engagement - Portsmouth City Council - Care and Support in Extra Care Housing - 2025

Descriptions

Introduction Portsmouth City Council (the Council) is undertaking preliminary market engagement (PME) concerning the provision of care and support in Extra Care Housing. The Council needs to re-tender the existing services so are undertaking market engagement to inform the development of the commercial and procurement strategy, that aligns with both the Council's objectives and the needs of the service users. The Council requires the provision of 'extra care', a housing scheme designed to offer a safe, private and secure environment for residents, allowing them to maintain their independence by having their own home whilst benefiting from having staff on hand 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The current cost for delivering these services across four Extra Care facilities is approximately £3.5million per annum. However, this value can fluctuate on an annual basis dependent on existing occupancy levels and the support needs of the residents. Additionally, each contract will be subject to an increase in rates, which will be reviewed on an annually basis and has typically been based on the Retail Price Index. At present one provider manages all four of the sites, though the Council will be investigating options to split these sites into two distinct lots with two providers being responsible for the extra care facilities - • Lot 1 - Brunel Court, Caroline Square and Milton Village - £2.19M per annum • Lot 2 - Maritime House - £1.27M per annum It is envisaged the contracts shall commence on the 1st December 2025 for an initial 4-year term, extendable by a further 4-years in increments to be agreed at the time by both parties. The total value of the opportunity will be in the region of £35M, when including all extension options, assuming each Extra Care facility remains in maximum occupation, the likely support needs of the residents and including any potential inflationary uplifts. The Council estimate the total spend over the maximum extension period for each lot to be - • Lot 1 - £22M • Lot 2 - £13M The procurement process will commence in June 2025 with award targeted for August 2025 to allow for mobilisation and commencement of services on 1st December 2025. Background Extra care housing schemes in the city are a specialist sheltered housing provision designed to offer a safe, private and secure environment. Residents are able to maintain their independence by having their own home whilst having the benefits of having staff on hand 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The care staff can be used to provide either planned support or ad-hoc support in response to emergencies or Tunstall calls (Tunstall is a call system that is placed in each flat and allows residents to call for assistance at any time of the day) The care and support services in these schemes are currently delivered by Radis Community Care (GP Homecare Ltd company). The aim of the care service is to promote and maximise independence for the residents. There are 4 extra care schemes across Portsmouth as follows - - Brunel Court - located in Nuffield Place, 55 apartments. - Milton Village - located in Moorings Way, incorporates 65 apartments built as a complex. This is over 3 separate buildings - Crane Court (12 apartments) Osprey Court (16 apartments) and Brent Court (37 apartments). - Caroline Square - located in Portsea, 43 apartments. - Maritime House - located in Northern Parade, 80 apartments. The landlord of all 4 schemes is Housing21 and this does not form part of this PME exercise or the subsequent tender. The personal care hours into the extra care schemes fluctuates on a weekly basis depending on the individual's needs, there is also a fixed element linked to every scheme which is used for the ad-hoc support such as responding to Tunstall calls, extra support for residents or assisting with mealtimes in communal areas. CONTRACT DURATION & TERMS The Council envisages entering two separate 4-year contracts, extendable by a further 4-years in increments to be agreed at the time by both parties. The full scope of the services will formally commence on the 1st December 2025. The Council is currently reviewing options for contract terms and conditions and will be seeking input from the market via this preliminary market engagement process. TUPE This is a re-procurement of an existing outsourced service and therefore will be subject to TUPE. As such there will be a TUPE transfer of the incumbent's 'in scope employees' as part of this contract. It will be the providers' responsibility to manage any TUPE / Pension implications. ENVISAGED PROCUREMENT PROCESS &PROGRAMME The Council are considering running the procurement process using an Open Procedure under the Procurement Act 2023, though the Council could use a single stage Competitive Flexible Procedure to incorporate additional flexibilities in respect of the approach to evaluating returns i.e. the inclusion of interviews, presentations etc. Open Procedure The Council will issue a Tender Notice under the Procurement Act 2023 outlining the key details and requirements, including the overview of the procurement process & associated programme, value of the opportunity, scope of the contracts, lotting options & associated contractual terms, minimum levels of technical experience & accreditations and evaluation & award criteria. The Open Procedure is a single-stage competitive process where all interested suppliers may submit a tender, and there is no pre-qualification stage. As part of this process, suppliers will be required to meet Conditions of Participation before their tender submissions are assessed. These conditions will relate to the supplier's legal and financial standing and technical ability to deliver the contract, which is likely to include the successful delivery of current and/or previous contracts of a similar value and scope as the Council's. In addition, all suppliers and proposed subcontractors involved with the service delivery will be subject to assessment against the mandatory and discretionary exclusion grounds. Mandatory exclusion grounds include, but are not limited to, convictions for offences such as fraud, bribery, terrorism, and cartel activity. Where a supplier meets a mandatory exclusion ground, the Council is legally required to exclude them from the procurement process. Discretionary exclusion grounds may include issues such as poor past performance, conflicts of interest, or evidence of unethical conduct. The Council will assess these on a case-by-case basis and may choose to exclude a supplier where there is a significant risk to the integrity or delivery of the contract where insufficient evidence is provided in relation to self-cleaning. Any interested suppliers will need to register on the governments Central Digital Platform for the Council to review any potential grounds for exclusion and a debarment check. The Central Digital Platform is live and information on how suppliers can register can be found using the following link - Suppliers: How to register your organisation and first administrator on Find a Tender in three easy steps (HTML) - GOV.UK. Only those suppliers who successfully meet the Conditions of Participation and are not subject to exclusion grounds will have their tenders evaluated against the published award criteria, which will be based on the Most Advantageous Tender (MAT) principle, considering both quality and cost. Suppliers will be required to provide responses to published quality assessment questions in delivery of the services under any of the specific lotting options, which the Council will undertake a review of, including qualitative and pricing responses. The Council is considering an evaluation percentage split focused on quality of service, which may include for a 70/30 ratio in favour of quality. The Council envisages undertaking the future procurement process in line with the following draft summary procurement programme, however it should be noted that the dates below are purely indicative and may be subject to future change. • Issue Tender Notice - 25th June 2025 • Issue procurement documents via In-tend - 25th June 2025 • Clarification deadline - 18th July 2025, 23:59 • Tender submission deadline - 25th July 2025 14:00 • Contract Award Notice issued - 15th August 2025 • Completion of standstill period - 28th August 2025 • Contract Details Notice issued - 29th August 2025 • Commencement of services - 1st December 2025 PROCUREMENT ADMINISTRATION The Council will administrate the procurement process using the Council's e-sourcing system, In-tend, which will be used for: • Access to and issue of procurement information and documentation • Pre-tender submission clarification requests and response • Tender submission • Tender opening & access to responses • Post-tender submission clarification requests and response • Award decision notification and feedback The In-tend system can be accessed free of charge via the following web link: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/portsmouthcc/aspx/Home