INTERMEDIATE CARE/REABLEMENT SERVICES FOR ESSEX

Essex County Council works with NHS Partners to jointly commission services which make up the Intermediate Care pathway, for people requiring short-term support within the community or following hospital admission, including reablement. Referrals to ECC’s Intermediate Care services can be via discharge teams in acute hospitals, or from the community to support hospital admission avoidance. To ensure ongoing availability of this service, the Council will be tendering for the delivery of reablement services to support the core service delivery from our Local Authority Company. The Additional Reablement Capacity contracts, known as ARC, will address further service demands across the county, divided into 5 distinct geographical locations. Significant efforts have been made to enhance intermediate care services across the county. This includes aligning contracts and fostering collaboration. Additionally, a dedicated project has been initiated to shape the future of Intermediate Care in Essex. For the purposes of this Prior Information Notice, one Lot is included. The eventual Contact Notice, initiating the procurement process, will include 5 separate Lots:

• North Essex (Colchester and Tendring Districts)
• Mid Essex (Braintree, Chelmsford and Maldon Districts)
• South-East Essex (Rochford and Castle Point Districts)
• South West Essex (Basildon and Brentwood Districts)
• West Essex (Uttlesford, Epping Forest and Harlow Districts) This Prior Information Notice initiates a period of market engagement, to inform the tendering specification and ensure alignment between market deliverables and the strategic direction of the Council's intermediate care services. Further stages of this engagement process, in order to refine the nature of the Intermediate Care may include the issue of questions, meetings (both face-to-face and virtual) and group presentations to the market. The publishing of this Notice does NOT represent a commencement of the tender process, an attempt to reduce overall tender timescales, a call for competition or a partial release of the tender documentation.