Tendering For Care

It is the small organisations and providers who are being hit the hardest by the new procurement requirements. It is sad that many organisations, large and small, do not understand the new requirements, are failing to take the necessary action and, as a result are losing contracts and therefore business.

£90 million announced for the Hostels Capital Improvement programme.

Unlike small providers who are losing business, there are some who are winning and this is showing in their "bottom line".

Joint Guidance on the care of people with dementia was published.

The Department of Health published details of the revenue grant funding allocations for Adult Personal Services for Child and adolescent mental health services for 2007 - 08. The document includes details of the allocation by Local Authority and type of service provision.

The Department of health published details of the grant allocations for the single pot and mental helth elements for 2007 - 08. These grants can be used for capital projects. The documents gives detaisl of amounts by Local Authority.

The NHS published a guidance document regarding practice based commissioning. This document makes very clear that this approach, like tendering and procurement is here to stay.

The Department of Health published a leaflet describing approaches to self care for people with long term conditions. This includes a number fo case studies.

CSCI published Performance Ratings for Adult Social Services in England. This is the complete document including the results of all social services.

There appears to be a growing view, particu;arly amongst third sector organisations that they are failing to win contracts because they are being "undercut" by the large providers. In fact, over the coming months there are huge opportunities open to those smaller organisations who have a real understanding of how the tendering and procurement process works. The "old days" of receiving a telephone call from a commissioning officer offering a new contract are well and truly gone. A delegate at one of our recent Workshops said "at least I know that a contract which we wanted had been handed to someone else at a golf course". It is true that with understanding of what is needed also comes a considerable amount of work for staff and those involved in governance. However, there is a growing body of evidence which shows that the smaller organisations can and are succeeding.