Other community, social and personal services

Description

The Secretary of State for Health (the ‘Authority’) is issuing this notice to inform the market of its intention to start a competitive procurement of 2 NIHR Coordinating Support Centres – national centre for dissemination and the coordinating centre for patient and Public involvement, participation and engagement (PPIPE) in research. The purpose of this tendering exercise is to identify suitable providers to continue the provision of these 2 requirements which have a combined total value of 6 000 000 GBP for contract terms of 3 years, with an option to extend for a further 2 years at additional cost of 4 000 000 GBP after appropriate evaluation. As the most integrated clinical research system in the world, the NIHR drives research from bench to bedside for the benefit of patients and the economy. It carries out its activities through 4 main work strands: research, infrastructure, faculty and systems. management support of these work strands are carried out by coordinating centres. The NIHR’s partnership with the public has become one of its hallmarks and the NIHR remains firmly committed to Patient and Public Involvement, Participation and Engagement (PPIPE) in research. The NIHR works to ensure that patients, carers and the public are involved in all the processes by which research is identified, prioritised, designed, conducted, evaluated and disseminated. Central to the leadership, coordination and delivery of this agenda is the role of the involve coordinating centre, a national centre which has, to date, focused its efforts on patient and public involvement in NIHR research. The current contract for the involve coordinating centre ends on the 31.3.2020. There however remains a need for a national coordinating centre going forward and this notice is designed to advise interested parties of this on-going need. It is envisaged that the new coordinating centre will: — provide expertise, support, guidance and challenge to NIHR and stakeholder research to be done ‘with’ and ‘by’ the public, — ensure NIHR structures and strategic decision-making involve, and are informed by, patient and public voice, — support NIHR policy development and strategy in this area, including anticipation of emerging involvement issues/trends to maximize continuous improvement, informed by patient and public patient voice, — generate and influence partnership, connectivity and knowledge exchange in and beyond NIHR, including regional networks that enable national to local structure and leadership. The re-tendering exercise is for the NIHR Coordinating Centre for PPIPE. The aim of this tendering exercise is to identify a suitable contractor to provide national coordination of NIHR work that aims to promote PPIPE in health and social care research. Please refer to the procurement documents for more detailed information on the requirement. The link to the documents is as stated in section 1 of this notice. The NIHR Centre for Dissemination (NCD) was established in April 2015, with a remit to improve awareness and uptake of research evidence, particularly from the NIHR, by people working in health and social care. The NCD produces regular, accessible summaries of recent single studies (NIHR and non-NIHR) through signals; broader themed reviews of key topic areas 3 times a year; and a range of shorter topic-based summaries, collections and blog campaigns (highlights, 6 per year). In addition, The NCD undertakes a range of engagement and communications work, including events, partnership working and social media campaigns. The NCD has built a significant and engaged audience over this period, and has embarked on a number of potentially high-impact partnerships with organisations such as Royal Colleges and the BMJ. It is therefore important that the next phase of NCD activity effectively capitalises on this progress, enhancing the successful elements of work and generating new approaches based on learning to date. It is envisaged that the NCD will: — play a key role within the NIHR to support dissemination activity and help shape NIHR thinking in this area, — produce a range of evidence summaries at appropriate pace and scale and based on robust and efficient business processes, — forge active partnerships with practitioners, patients and service users at every stage of the dissemination process to ensure products are relevant and usable, — work at national level to inform policy and practice, drawing on extensive knowledge in health services research, public health, mental health and social care research. The aim of the proposed tendering exercise is to identify a suitable contractor to undertake the role of the NCD. Please refer to the procurement documents for more detailed information on the requirement. The link to the documents is as stated in section 1 of this notice.