The procurement contact named on the official notice.

North of England Commissioning Support (NECS) is working for and on behalf of NHS South Tyneside CCG and NHS Sunderland CCG (the Contracting Authorities) to conduct market engagement to obtain input and feedback in preparation for the tender of Audiology Services.

The aim of the service is to provide a comprehensive patient-centred Integrated Hearing Service, which will include the provision of hearing aids for age related hearing loss (non-complex), in line with national guidance and local requirements for the registered population of the NHS commissioning organisation South Tyneside and Sunderland, to ensure: • Equitable access to a high and consistent quality care for all patients using the service • A safe hearing service for patients that conforms to a recognised quality assurance tool e.g. the Improving Quality in Physiological Diagnostic Services - Self Assessment and Improvement Tool (Traffic Light Ready system (TLR)), and is UKAS accredited • Assurance to patients that if hospital specialist care/treatment is required that this will be appropriately provided.

The Contracting Authorities would like to gather soft intelligence from the market and are publishing a Request for Information (RFI).

The RFI and further documentation including draft service specification/model will be available on the Intend Portal https://in-tendhost.co.uk/nhsnecsu/aspx/home.

The RFI will be available from 18 March 2021 and the deadline for responses will be 17:00pm on 01 April 2021.

Please note that all communications and RFI submissions will be conducted via the Intend Portal.

The portal can be accessed at any time of the day and it is free to register.

Please note that this exercise is not part of any pre-qualification process.

It is intended as an awareness, communication and information gathering exercise offering an opportunity for provider organisations to help inform potential future service models and/or commissioning intentions.

To register an interest in responding to this market engagement exercise and obtain a copy of the Request for Information documentation please go to the Intend portal: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/nhsnecsu/aspx/home .

North of England Commissioning Support (NECS) is utilising an electronic tendering tool (In-Tend) (e-Tendering system) to manage this market engagement exercise and communicate with potential bidders in accordance with Regulation 22 of the Public Contract Regulations 2015 (as amended) It is free to register on In-Tend, which can be accessed at any time of day providing you have a working internet connection.

Should you have any queries, or you are having problems registering please contact the In-Tend helpdesk via: support@in-tend.com or call us on 0845 557 8079 / +44 (0) 114 407 0065.

The helpdesk is open Monday - Friday between 9 a.m.-5.30 p.m.