Smokefree County Durham

Descriptions

This notice is an intention to award a contract under the competitive process under the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023.

This is re-procurement of an existing service being awarded to a new provider and the contract period is 1/4/2026 - 31/3/2029 with an option to extend for a further 3 periods of 12 months each from the actual end date subject to funding and commissioner approval. The estimated contract value is £10,000,000.

The specialist stop smoking support service is for people who live / work in County Durham, and is comprised of evidence-based interventions including behavioural support and access to pharmacotherapy to support quit attempts.

The service is to offer support that includes dedicated Stop Smoking Advisors (Level 3 provision) - responsible for direct support to key target groups.

The Provider will be responsible for a coordinated approach to delivery of stop smoking support including but not limited to:

•Promotion of services through the coordination and management of effective marketing and communications strategies.

•Development and maintenance of local referral pathways and networks across a range of services including primary and secondary care within the NHS.

•Direct provision of specialist stop-smoking support for targeted groups and people with complex needs.

•Management, payment and coordination of universal stop smoking support provision (Level 2).

•Provision of the recruitment, training, support and resource for the Vape + and NRT + offer (Level 1.5).

•Sub-contract of the Smokefree App, or equivalent in consultation with commissioners, to ensure that there is a coordinated regional approach to app-based support to compliment behavioural support for those in service, but also to provide self-support for those who are not ready or do not feel that traditional stop smoking service support is for them.

•Training of stop smoking support providers.

•Building capacity of the wider health and social care workforce (Primary Care Networks, acute trust, mental health trust), and voluntary and community sector in very brief advice.

•Contribution to place-based and settings work facilitated by Public Health.

•Development of and access to self-help support, including, but not limited to the Smokefree App.

•Coordination and management of data collection for the quarterly submissions to the Department of Health and Social Care.

•Management of referrals and allocation to the correct advisor.

•Membership of the Tobacco Control Alliance.

•Supply a case management system from Year 2 of the contract.

This is a Provider Selection Regime (PSR) intention to award notice. The awarding of this contract is subject to the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. For the avoidance of doubt, the provisions of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 do not apply to this award. The standstill period begins on the day after the publication of this notice.

Five tenders were received of which one was successful.

Representations by providers must be made to the relevant authority by midnight on the 20th January 2026. This contract has not yet formally been awarded; this notice serves as an intention to award a contract under the competitive process of the PSR.

There were no conflicts of interest identified.

Decision makers were officers of the Public Health team and Commissioning Team.

The evaluation criteria included :

contract specific essential pass/fail criteria

seven technical questions - 100% (1. Quality & Innovation 25%, 2. Value 10%, 3. Integration, Collaboration and Service Sustainability 20%, 4. Improving Access, Reducing Health Inequalities and Facilitating Choice 20%, 5. Performance Monitoring 15%, 6. Social Value 5%, 7. County Durham Approach to Wellbeing 5%)

Pricing - Pass / Fail Criteria

Five tenders were received of which one was successful.

Written representations should be raised via the correspondence section on Open (www.open-uk.org) on the Smokefree County Durham project.