Provision of Occupational Health Services for LFB Employees

Concepts

• health and social work
• health services
• health management limited
• occupational health services
• employees
• the incumbent contractor health management limited
• lfb employees
• provision of occupational health services
• health
• lfb

Location

London Fire Brigade 169 Union Street, London SE1 0LL

Description

Provision of Occupational Health services for employees of London Fire Brigade to ensure the continued provision of health, safety and welfare of all its Employees as its most valuable resource. This VEAT notice is in respect of a direct award of a contract. See additional information at Sections II.2.4 and IV.1.1.

Total Quantity or Scope

LFB intends to award a contract to the incumbent contractor Health Management Limited for a term of 12 months. See further information at IV.1.1.

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• 85000000 - Health and social work services
• 85100000 - Health services

Indicators

Legal Justification

This notice relates to the award of a new contract without prior publication pursuant to Regulation 32(2)(c) and (b)(ii) Public Contracts Regulations 2015 for the reasons set out in this Section IV 1.1. Namely that the direct award of the new contract is strictly necessary for reasons of extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable to LFB and the time limit for the open, restricted or competitive procedures cannot be complied with. Further that due to the nature of the IT systems required for the provision of the Services and the time scales involved only the incumbent contractor is able to provide the services and IT solutions within the required timescales and as such competition is absent for technical reasons. Regulation 32(2)(c) PCR has been satisfied for the following reasons: The London Fire Commissioner's current contract for occupational health services is due to cease on 4th March 2024. LFB commenced a procurement for a new contract due to commence in March 2024. However due to unforeseen issues arising during the procurement exercise, that tender exercise was abandoned. There is insufficient time to procure a new contract, following an open, restricted or competitive procedure, and for the IT solution to be implemented before the expiry of the current contract. The service is a critical service for LFB employees and a break in service provision is not a viable option. From the aborted procurement exercise it is clear to LFB that contractors require a period of between 42 and 52 weeks for implementation of a new IT system which, with the support of LFB, would have to be implemented prior to the commencement of the services, in addition the new contractor will need to acquire/lease suitable premises for the provision of the Services. The timescales available between now and the expiry of the current contract do not permit this. In order to ensure the service may continue without interruption it is concluded that only the current contractor, Health Management Limited, is capable of providing the services within the timescales available. LFB intends to directly award a short-term contract to the incumbent supplier, whilst a new open tender exercise is re-started for a longer-term contract. LFB considers that a 12-month contract will provide sufficient time for the concurrent procurement exercise to conclude and a new IT infrastructure/system to be implemented to ensure a go live date of the new service on 5th March 2025. Further it is considered that pursuant to Regulation 32(2)(b)(ii) competition is absent for technical reasons for the following reasons: As set out above the IT infrastructure and implementation is likely to take between 42 and 52 weeks to implement. The current contract expires on 4th March 2024 and therefore there is insufficient time to implement a new system to align with the current contract. The current LFB IT solutions are bespoke systems and an alternative supplier would not be in a position to take over and implement a new integrated system. Accordingly the only provider who would be in a position to commence the services on 5th March 2024 would be the incumbent contractor and as such competition is absent for technical reasons and no reasonable alternative or substitute solution exists, and the absence of competition is not the result of an artificial narrowing down of the parameters of the procurement. As described above, the aborted procurement has demonstrated that the services can only be provided by the incumbent contractor from 5th March 2024.