Provision of Multiple Sclerosis Management Service for Children

NHS Arden and Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support Unit (AGCSU), on behalf of NHS England Highly Specialised Services (referred to as the Commissioner), is undertaking a market engagement exercise to understand the current and future capacity and capability of providers and potential providers within this highly specialised area.

All interested parties, including incumbent providers, are encouraged to register their interest and participate in the market engagement questionnaire which will provide feedback to commissioners.

Please note that this is not a call for competition although the commissioner would encourage all potential providers to respond to this market engagement exercise.

The outcome of this market engagement will help inform commissioners of the current and future capacity and capability of the market and will be considered to inform the commissioning approach.

This exercise is to commission a service that is able to expertly manage the provision of the Multiple Sclerosis Management Service for Children, including patients with suspected Multiple Sclerosis (MS) or equally rare 'MS-like', recurrent acquired demyelinating syndromes (ADS) or who have had a first demyelination episode and have a high risk of relapse which would require a similar treatment approach, including: Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder (NMO, NMOSD) and other AQP4 antibody associated demyelination; Myelin Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein (MOG) antibody associated relapsing demyelination and other forms of recurrent relapsing demyelination.

The MS Hub Lead Centres will be geographically spaced across the Regional areas of NHS England as follows: i) Lot 1 - North comprising the NHS England Regions: the North East and Yorkshire; the North West, ii) Lot 2 - the Midlands comprising the NHS England Regions: the Midlands; the East of England iii) Lot 3 - London and the South: comprising the South East; the South West; London The Commissioner reserves the right to direct award where competition is absent.

The questionnaire is available through the EU Supply portal: https://uk.eu-supply.com/login.asp?B=agcsu The reference is 62208 and the closing date for submission of the completed questionnaire will be: 12pm, midday on Tuesday 20th December 2022.