NHS England has provided funding for sub-national secure data environments (SDEs). Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) was chosen as the contracting authority for the pilot in the East of England in partnership with Health Innovation East (HIE) and support from other trusts and research institutions in the region.
Background
NHS health and social care data has immense value beyond the direct care of patients. It accelerates the discovery of new treatments from industry and academia and helps the NHS to plan better services.
As part of the government’s strategy Data Saves Lives, NHS England committed to implementing secure data environments as the default way to access NHS health and social care data for research and analysis.
The ambition is to provide researchers and analysts with access to NHS health and social care data at a significant regional scale, maintain patient confidentiality and enable connectivity to local communities and NHS care teams.
The project
The Hub’s Digital team worked in collaboration with CUH and HIE to complete the procurement process and provided a range of activities. The Hub completed an options appraisal on available routes to market, which led to Crown Commercial Service’s Digital Outcomes framework as the preferred route.
As this was a regional project, a wide cross section of stakeholders was involved in providing and compiling requirements and evaluating tender responses.
The Hub supported this activity in several ways:
- Coordinating the requirements
- Drafting and managing the evaluation process, which included running training sessions for members of the evaluation panel
- Hosting moderation sessions
- Providing support in coordinating and chairing supplier clarification presentations
- Writing shortlist and award justifications
- Managing supplier outcome notifications and feedback
- Coordinating the contract pack through to contract signature
The outcome
A robust two-stage process was run, with a winning bidder that ranked first on technical criteria, was priced within budget, provided assurance on technical requirements and provided a collaborative, future-proofed approach.
As the pilot project had a quick turnaround period, the Hub, CUH and HIE worked together at pace to agree the route to market, pull together requirements and issue tender documentation within five weeks, allowing sufficient time for a robust pilot within the available timescales.
A real partnership approach was taken with this project, with strong engagement and good communication among the Hub, Health Innovation East and Cambridge University Hospital throughout. This led to a smooth procurement process and the delivery of a successful outcome.
As the designated contracting authority for this regional project, we were asked to lead the procurement process at relatively short notice, with an already over-subscribed workplan of strategic projects which presented us with a resourcing challenge.
I have worked alongside Hanna [Hanna Chipchase, Procurement Specialist at the Hub] throughout the project from a support and governance perspective and she has been excellent. Her engagement and management of the stakeholder group has been particularly impressive, alongside her capability in designing and facilitating the tender process, which resulted in what is considered the best value outcome for the region. Hanna is a pleasure to work with and I would not hesitate in recommending her for other digital procurement projects for other trusts and cohorts.
Ian Hooper
Director of Procurement and Supply Chain Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust