The following section tries to anticipate some of the common scenarios you will face as a buyer and offers some simple guidance about what activities you need to undertake to address them on behalf of your stakeholders and users.
It should be noted that this version of the guidance reflects the MVP (minimum viable product) status of the current Buying Catalogue as released. Further releases will encode these actions within a controlled digital workflow; the current guidance reflects the manual nature of the activities to be taken at this time.
Common Business Change Actions
A Catalogue Solution is no longer required
Acting on behalf of the Call Off Ordering Party you will need to contact the contracted Supplier to either:
give notice to terminate the Call Off in its entirety. As long as this is after the Initial Term of the contract you simply need to write to them to serve notice and there will be no penalty for doing so. Should you wish to terminate a Call Off during the Initial Term you will generally incur a penalty in accordance with the contract. Termination of the Call Off will automatically terminate all associated Service Instances.
give notice to terminate a Service Instance. Again, as long as this is after the Initial Term you will not incur a penalty; you should simply contact your contracted Supplier and agree the appropriate variation to the Call Off Order Form.
A practice is ceasing
Acting on behalf of the Call Off Ordering Party you will need to contact the contracted Supplier to agree a variation to the Call Off Order Form that enacts the termination of the provision of the relevant Catalogue Solution(s) for the Service Instance. This then needs recording on the order tracker see ordering solutions
A practice is merging
If you wish to merge practices the you will need to contact the contracted Supplier to agree a variation to the Call Off Order Form to reflect the change in Service Instances. Where a Service Instance is ceasing through merger this should not incur a penalty even where the this variation occurs within the Initial Term for that Service Instance.
A new practice is coming into being
If you wish to add a new practice to the Call Off you will need to contact the contracted Supplier to agree a variation to the Call Off Order Form to reflect the commissioning of a new Service Instance. Often in such a scenario you will not have existing information to establish an initial patient number size, in which case simply estimate this based on your best available information, the standard reconciliation processes associated with our invoicing procedure with establish the correct position at the first available opportunity.
Common Purchasing scenarios
Commission a Video Conferencing solution
A range of assured Video Conferencing solutions are currently contracted and paid for centrally.
If you wish to order these services, select the Catalogue Solution(s) you require from those available [PL1] and liaise with the supplier of that Catalogue Solution to place your order and arrange their deployment to you. Further information regarding the solutions available to you may be found here
If you wish to order a solution which is not subject to a central contract then you will need to purchase this yourself using the standard purchasing procedures.
I wish to recontract for a Catalogue Solution currently deployed to my users without conducting a competitive process
For information about the procurement procedures see:
Note that there are financial limits to the contracts placed using the Direct Award process. Where your requirement breaches these you must conduct either:
On-Catalogue Further Competition for non-Foundation Solutions, or an Off Catalogue Further Competition
As indicated above, it may be the case that you do not have the option to avoid conducting a competitive process where a Foundation Solution contract breaches the financial limits for accessing the Direct Award procedure.
I wish to secure a Catalogue Solution for one or more Service Recipients using the information on the Buying Catalogue only
For information about the procurement procedures see:
Note that there are financial limits to the contracts placed using the Direct Award process. Where your requirement breaches these you must conduct either
On-Catalogue Further Competition for non-Foundation Solutions, or otherwise conduct an Off Catalogue Further Competition
As indicated above, it may be the case that you do not have the option to avoid conducting a competitive process where a Foundation Solution contract breaches the financial limits for accessing the Direct Award procedure.
Please note that it is your responsibility to comply with the Procurement Regulations as well as your own organisational standing financial instructions and Procurement Policies at all times.
I wish to secure one or more Catalogue Solutions for one or more Service Recipients where you require suppliers to tender
For information about the Further Competition Procedure please visit here
You may conduct Further Competitions yourself or access the dedicated procurement support service that we have provided for purchasing entities and Commissioning Groups wishing to use this Catalogue by emailing commercial.procurementhub@nhs.net
Please note that it is your responsibility to comply with the Procurement Regulations as well as your own organisational standing financial instructions and Procurement Policies at all times.