Special Care & Paediatric Dentistry (SCPD) to NHS Kent and Medway ICB

Descriptions

This is an intention to award notice.

SCPD services are available for children and adults with additional needs who are unable to have treatment at a general dental practice. It is a referral-only service, providing a range of dental treatments for children and adults with additional needs, including physical or learning disabilities, or where they have a need for additional support to receive treatment. Home visits are also provided for patients who are housebound. People are usually referred in via their dentist or doctor.

NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB) intends to award contracts to 2 existing providers following Direct Award Process C of the UK Health Care Services (PSR) Regulations 2023 for SCPD services in the Kent and Medway area. For the avoidance of doubt, the provisions of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 do not apply to this award. The publication of this notice marks the start of the standstill period.

The existing SCPD contracts have previously been contracted under the Standard Clauses For A Personal Dental Services (PDS) Agreement and include the provision of general anaesthetic (GA) services. As the provision of services under GA is excluded under clause 73 of the PDS contract, SCPD GA services will instead be contracted for separately under NHS standard contracts.

The terms of the existing SCPD contracts are due to expire on 31st March 2026 and NHS Kent and Medway ICB have proposed that new SCPD and SCPD GA contracts should replace the existing contracts at the end of their term. All requirements outlined in Regulation 6(5) of the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023 have been met, including that the considerable change threshold has not been met, and therefore Direct Award Process C has been determined as the appropriate provider selection process.

After conducting assessments of the existing providers, taking into account the key criteria and applying the basic selection criteria, NHS Kent and Medway ICB is content that the existing providers are satisfying the original contracts and will likely satisfy the proposed contracts to a sufficient standard.

The awarded contract will be for a term of 36 months and are due to commence from 1st April 2026, terminating 31st March 2029. The total maximum contract value of these contracts is £32,281,338.

There are 4 contracts being awarded to 2 providers as follows:-

1. SCPD for East Kent - Kent Community NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT)

2. SCPD GA for East Kent - Kent Community NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT)

3. SCPD for Medway and West Kent - Medway Community Health (MCH)

4. SCPD GA for Medway and West Kent - Medway Community Health (MCH)