Health & Social Care

The health and social care sector is rarely out of the news. The UK’s aging population continues to put stress on an industry which predominantly cares for older people, whether that’s at home, in the community or in residential care settings. These increasing needs, and the changing requirements of commissioners, need expert knowledge and experience to ensure tenders address the needs of a fast-changing field.

Writing Tenders for Health and Social Care

We help place bidders at the cutting edge of the latest thinking, adding real value to submissions by integrating ideas and innovations into their tenders. We have produced winning tenders for social care services for all 32 London borough councils, all 27 county councils and almost every borough or city council in the UK. We have helped newly registered providers access frameworks for the first time, and have similarly supported some of the largest care companies and charities in the UK through training, bid writing and bid management to improve their success rates. Most recently, we supported a large regional care provider to expand into three new geographic areas as a result of successful tenders in late 2016 and 2017, which has allowed them to open three new offices supporting up to 400 service users.

We have an in-depth knowledge of the full range of care and support models offered by care providers throughout the UK to both children and adults, including:

• Domiciliary care, supporting service users of all ages to keep their independence and continue living in their own homes
• Residential and nursing care
• Extra care, combining the benefits of around-the-clock care worker presence with the autonomy that comes with having your own front door
• Supported living, mostly for adults with learning disabilities
• Supported accommodation for people with housing-related needs, including young adults
• Diverse services that contribute to people’s overall health and wellbeing, which include drug and alcohol services, smoking cessation, weight management and many more.

The Care Act 2014

What commissioners want from providers is subject to continual change as the Government seeks to meet the increasing care needs of the population: changes which we make sure you address in your submission. The Care Act 2014 saw a greater focus placed on the wellbeing agenda, and while outcomes-led care has been around for many years, all local authorities are placing a greater emphasis on personalisation, enablement and the achievement of greater independence. This comes down to the paired benefits of empowering people and supporting them to become more autonomous, and alleviating some of the financial pressure on local authorities thanks to people’s reduced reliance on paid support. This isn’t limited to one kind of care; even maintenance care packages come with an expectation that the service user might be empowered to take greater control of managing their own needs, while drug and alcohol services are significantly more focused on sustainable recovery and capacity building rather than meeting immediate needs.

This movement towards a new, more outcomes-focused way of commissioning services brings opportunities for providers to benefit from frameworks and public-sector contracts. For every pound of UK public expenditure, over 28p is spent on health and social care. Local authorities continue to look to the private sector for the provision of social care services, and companies ranging from small, local care agencies to large multinationals find opportunities to offer packages commissioned by councils and CCGs.

Providers looking to tender for social care contracts need to be particularly aware of:

• The Care Act 2014 and its implications. For example, the Care Act clarifies carers’ rights to receive an assessment of their own needs. Tenderers need to consider how this legislation impacts on the service they provide.
• The key challenges faced by the industry. First and foremost, buyers in the public sector are well aware that recruitment and retention are a challenge to providers. A winning tender will convince the buyer that those challenges will be overcome.
• Their statutory obligations. Beyond CQC registration, how will you demonstrate compliance with local and national obligations around issues such as safeguarding?
• The local context. While many of the challenges faced by the industry are nationwide, what buyers really want to know is how will you deal with issues on a local level.