Independent Consumer Champion for Health & Social Care (Healthwatch) (2022) - Market Engagement

Concepts

• health and social work
• health and social care
• reading
• independent consumer champion for health & social care services
• social care services
• powerful local consumer voice
• social care
• market engagement
• local government & public involvement in health act
• provision of an independent consumer champion

Location

Berkshire:

Description

Reading Borough Council are completing a Market Engagement exercise for the provision of an Independent Consumer Champion for Health & Social Care Services (commonly known as Healthwatch) prior to commencing a tendering process in the coming months.

Total Quantity or Scope

Contract Purpose: To provide a seamless portal for the public and patients in Reading to allow them to find out what they need to know; understand what their choices are and how to act on them. To help resolve complaints and concerns about health and social care services; and act as a powerful local consumer voice for all aspects of health and social care. Contract Vision: Run by local people for local people. It will be the independent consumer champion for health & social care to enable people of all ages and from all backgrounds to enjoy high quality care and to understand their care choices. This is a statutory service. (The Local Government & Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, which was amended by the Health and Social Care Act 2012t, outlines the main legal requirements for provision of Healthwatch. Each local authority has a duty to make provision for the delivery of Healthwatch statutory activity in their local area.) The provider and their obligations Healthwatch England was established under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to understand the needs, experiences and concerns of people who use health and social care services and to speak out on their behalf. Local Healthwatch services are funded by and accountable to local authorities. Their main statutory functions are to: Obtain the views of people about their needs and experience of local health and social care services. Local Healthwatch make these views known to those involved in the commissioning and scrutiny of care services; Make reports and make recommendations about how those services could or should be improved; Promote and support the involvement of people in the monitoring, commissioning and provision of local health and social care services; Provide information and advice to the public about accessing health and social care services and the options available to them; Make the views and experiences of people known to Healthwatch England, helping us to carry out our role as national champion; Make recommendations to Healthwatch England to advise the CQC to carry out special reviews or investigations into areas of concern. Additional information: This phase of the process does not constitute a formal tender or other competitive bidding process and will not result in the letting of a Contract. This market engagement event is solely to test the market to gather information, ascertain the level of interest and help shape our future requirements for the subsequent procurement

CPV Codes

• 85000000 - Health and social work services

Other Information

There will be an open forum event (hosted online) on October 15th at 10am for any interested stakeholders to attend to learn about our objectives and engage with the Council to inform our potential future design. Further details of the event will be issued closer to the time including full agenda and joining instructions. Suppliers that would like to take part in this process are invited to "Express Interest" upon which they will be given access to the event delivered through this portal. Where available, documents can be accessed from the "My Tenders" area of this website by selecting the "View Details" button for the project. Expressions of interest for the market engagement event will only be accepted until 13th October 2021 at 23:59. Any questions relating to this opportunity should be made via the correspondence link on this portal. ** PREVIEW NOTICE, please check Find a Tender for full details. ** Please register on our portal in order to receive further information including event details and agenda