Purpose

The purpose of this report is to seek
approval, in accordance with Contract Procedure Rule 9.1.2, for the
award of contract to Care Vision for a Digital Social Care Records
System for Adult Provider Services.
 
The reasons for the decision are, as required
by Contract Procedure Rule 9.1.2 – The services could only be
supplied by a particular supplier i.e. competition was absent for
technical reasons and there was no reasonable
alternative.  In specific terms, a
competitive procurement process could not be formalised via the
Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England Dynamic
Purchasing System and assured supplier list as this had expired-on
the 20th of December 2024 and has not been replaced
since. Assured suppliers were approached outside of the Dynamic
Purchasing System and only one supplier could meet the relevant
selection criteria.
 
The assured supplier list, made publicly
available by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social
Care, was used as a due diligence tool to ensure that the suppliers
we engaged with had been pre-screened and pre-approved as an
assured supplier of this solution, so, there is safety in the fact
that NHS England have approved the supplier identified as being the
most suitable supplier for Adult Provider Services.
 
The award of a contract without formal
competition is being sought as, following extensive engagement and
market testing with potential suppliers, only one supplier meets
all the service requirements.
 

Decision

By Executive
Director (Resources):
 
(i)       That permission be
granted to award a contract directly for the provision of a system
of Digital Social Care Records for Adult Provider Services in
accordance with Contract Procedure Rule 9.1.2.
 
By Executive
Director (Health and Social Care):
 
(ii)       That a contract be
awarded without competition to Care Vision CMS UK Ltd for a Digital
Social Care Records System for Adult Provider Services from
9th June 2025 to 9th June 2027; and
 
(iii)      That the Procurement Team
be authorised to make the necessary arrangements for the issue of
the relevant contract documentation.
 

Alternative options considered

Do Nothing: This option was considered and
rejected as this option would not support the Knowsley Council
Transformation Programme. This option would mean the service would
need to continue to manually handle  Social Care Records 
across several service areas in Adult Provider Services which would
result in a significant amount of management time and capacity
being occupied for this purpose.
Deliver in house: This option was considered
and rejected due to the Council not having an appropriate system
that meets the Business Requirements for Adult Provider
Services.
Seek Competition (Quotation / Tender):
A Soft Market Test (SMT) was conducted between
available suppliers on the assured supplier list. The SMT exercise
identified potential systems, and each system provider was
contacted directly with a request to submit a response to the
Council’s requirements. A panel evaluated each
submission and concluded that only one organisation met all the
requirements.