Community Health Services: Liverpool

(asked on 20th December 2016) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when the change in financial value of the tendered contract for community services in Liverpool to £77 million was communicated to the bidders for that contract; and whether the bid for that contract from Bridgewater NHS trust was changed following that change in value.


Answered by
Philip Dunne Portrait
Philip Dunne
This question was answered on 9th January 2017

We are informed by NHS Improvement of the following details in relation to the future provision of community services in Liverpool.

The value of the contract for community health services in Liverpool for 2017/18 is £81.6 million. This matches the value of the contract for these services in 2016/17.

NHS Improvement and Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust both recognise the need for thorough due diligence. Any analysis of potential redundancies will take place during this process.

The new contract will not be in place until 1 July 2017 to enable due diligence to be completed. This will enable NHS Improvement fully to assess the Full Business Case to be submitted by Bridgewater NHS Foundation Trust. NHS Improvement will also have sight of the Care Quality Commission’s inspection report for the Trust and the Trust’s subsequent action plan and response. It will also have sight of the outcome of the clinical review in relation to Liverpool Community Healthcare NHS Trust being led by Dr Bill Kirkup which will have reported well within the timeframe.

The funding envelope was communicated to bidders in advance of their submissions. Both bidders were given the opportunity to resubmit their bids by NHS Improvement in October 2016. At this juncture, Bridgewater NHS Foundation Trust revised its bid price.

The current status of Bridgewater NHS Foundation Trust is that of ‘preferred provider’ and as such NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has not yet formally engaged the Trust in any contract discussions.

Details around governance and financial risk sharing are still being worked on. Bridgewater NHS Foundation Trust is currently working on the details of the proposed governance and financial risk sharing arrangements between the Trust, Liverpool City Council and the Liverpool GP Provider Organisation. These will be shared as part of the Full Business Case submission. The contract would be let by NHS Liverpool CCG on behalf of all three commissioners of these services; Liverpool City Council, NHS England and NHS Liverpool CCG itself. The contract would be under the standard National Health Service contracting arrangements. The contract would be let to Bridgewater NHS Foundation Trust.

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