The Hub’s Estates team supported Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust and Essex Partnership University NHS with a collaborative procurement with a high risk of legal challenge.
Background
In 2023, Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (MSE) and Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust’s (EPUT) current Linen and Laundry contracts were coming to a conclusion. The trusts chose to work collaboratively to run a joint procurement for the supply of Linen and Laundry Managed Services, and sought support from the East of England NHS Collaborative Procurement Hub (the Hub) to run the exercise on their behalf.
While their outgoing contracts were each awarded to different suppliers, the trusts hoped to award a single provider to achieve the best possible commercials for the service. They also aimed to improve their specification to deliver a better quality service for staff and patients and to benefit from the most recent innovation and technologies the market had to offer, particularly around the sustainability of the service.
Although the tender predated spend controls, the provision of Linen and Laundry Services carries a high-risk of legal challenges due to the limited market, the high value contract and differing incumbent providers
A multi-disciplinary working group was established to review the specification of services to ensure it met with the trusts’ respective requirements and ensure service improvements were captured.
The project
Although the issue of this tender predated spend controls, Linen and Laundry is regarded as high risk due to the limited market and increased risk of challenge. The Trusts had not tried to award together before, but the differing incumbent providers further increased the risk of challenge here. There had been previous attempts to award this contract for one of the Trusts only, which had been abandoned for various reasons including covid changing stakeholders’ priorities and the threat of a legal challenge.
The Hub Estates team evaluated appropriate routes to market, which resulted in the project working group’s decision to engage with NHS London Procurement Partnership Linen and Laundry dynamic purchase system. They then set about establishing the project plan in conjunction with input from the Trust stakeholder representatives and provided advice and support throughout the procurement process. This included:
- Record keeping
- Project planning and progress updates
- Adherence to TUPE Regulations
- Specification development
- Award criteria
- KPIs and service credits
- Evaluation panel selection and training
- Evaluation and moderation of scoring
- Tender clarifications
- Commercial/legal guidance
As mentioned, there was a high risk of legal challenge, and the EOECPH team approached all aspects of this project with that in the forefront of our minds.
Developing a specification that met both trusts’ requirements and the need to cover multiple sites across the Mid and South Essex region increased the complexity of the contracting process.
In order to mitigate the risk of challenge, it was paramount to scrutinize each element of process to ensure full compliance with regulations was maintained.
During the Standstill period, a claim was received from a rejected bidder alleging evaluation inconsistencies. The details of the claim were assessed by the working group and found to be without . To protect the parties’ position, legal advisors were instructed by MSE and EPUT resulting in the successful rebuttal of the alleged claim without formal court proceeding being lodged.
MSE is extremely grateful to the Hub for their level of commitment and expertise offered throughout this collaborative, high-risk procurement process, resulting in an extremely successful outcome for the Trust.
It has been a pleasure working with the Hub on this project and special thanks are given to Patrick Pereira for his guidance and support throughout.
– Nicola Kruger, Category Manager
Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust
The outcome
This procurement has resulted in the award of a robust long term managed service contract that fully meets with the regulatory requirements of MSE and EPUT, and which provides reassurance with respect to continuity of essential services. With the support of the team at EOECPH, the delivery of the procurement avoided formal challenge, which in turn saved the trusts both time and money spent on legal fees.
The contract awarded also included options for additional service elements should either trust elect to take-up one or all of the options during the course of the contract.
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