12 June 2013
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is seeking expressions of interest from suitably experienced organisations wishing to provide support for its Experts by Experience programme in England from 1 April 2014.
Experts by Experience (ExE) are people who have experience of using or caring for someone who uses health and/or social care services. They help us to gather the experiences of people who can find it more difficult to make their voices heard They take part in our inspections of health and social care services and our visits to monitor the use of the Mental Health Act. ExE also help CQC in other ways, such as taking part in consultations and staff training, and in helping us to develop our ways of working.
CQC is seeking to work with a range of ExE from the following backgrounds who use health and/or care services:
- Older people and their family carers
- People in the early stages of dementia and their family carers
- People who have a learning disability
- People who have a physical and/or sensory impairment
- Family carers of people who have severe learning disabilities and/or behaviour that is considered to be challenging
- People who have experience of using mental health services
- People who have been detained under the Mental Health Act
- People who have experience of using substance misuse services
- People who have experience of using home care services and their family carers
- Children and young people who use health or care services, who are family carers or their family carers
- People who have used maternity services
- People with experience of any combinations of the above.
We would also like to scope how we could work with offenders who are using care services. We do not currently recruit people around specific medical conditions, such as diabetes.
CQC would like to encourage bids from a range of organisations who have specialist knowledge of working with people from the above groups. Support organisations will need to have a proven track record and specialist experience in recruiting, training, involving and effectively supporting people who use services and/or their carers. They should also have a strong focus on equality, diversity and human rights and be able to demonstrate they can work collaboratively and effectively with other organisations locally, regionally or nationally
We would be particularly interested in receiving bids that provide national coverage of the above groups of people, and would therefore be happy for organisations to collaborate with each other and/or put forward consortium or joint bids. CQC will help to facilitate this by compiling a list of organisations who are interested in the work and of becoming part of a consortium or joint bid, and sharing it among those who have expressed an interest in working this way.
Support organisations are responsible for managing ExE on a day-to-day basis. They will be required to:
- Source a diverse range of ExE that meet the above profiles
- Interview ExE to ensure they are suitable for the role
- Carry out VBS checks on all ExE and any support workers they may have
- Carry out training of ExE both with CQC and separately
- Provide supporting documentation in appropriate formats to their ExE
- Allocate appropriate ExE for inspections, Mental Health Act visits and any other work
- Pay ExE and their support workers for carrying out their work
- Provide ongoing support to, and performance manage, ExE
- Carry out ongoing monitoring and provide timely reports to CQC in line with our monthly corporate reporting deadlines
- Take part in meetings and discussions with the CQC programme management team
- Take part in programme development activities
- Work collaboratively with other support organisations engaged in the programme
The procurement process will begin during the summer of 2013, and we expect to let contracts before the end of December 2013, which will enable new support organisations to recruit, train and VBS check their ExE in time for a 1 April 2014 start.
Full details about the estimated levels of activity will be provided in the Invitation to Tender.
The pre-procurement process
Organisations with specialist knowledge of working with people from the above groups are invited to submit an expression of interest by registering on Delta - eSourcing. This does not commit organisations to any further activity at this point.
If you are already registered on the delta website you will not need to register again, simply use your existing username and password. Please note there is a password reminder link on the homepage.
Organisations must log in, go to your Response Manager and add the following Access Code:
- If you are interested in collaborating with other support organisations, use Access Code P737PDGG44
- If you are not interested in collaborating with other support organisations, use Access Code R6U44FKC99
CQC will share contact details of organisations that wish to collaborate to enable companies to explore collaborative opportunities. Further details of the tender/collaborative process will be in the invitation to tender.
If you experience any technical difficulties please contact the Delta eSourcing Helpdesk on call 0845 270 7050 or email helpdesk@delta-esourcing.com.
Once you have registered all communication can be directed through the Delta website, however if you have any queries prior to registration please directed to: procurement@cqc.org.uk
The procurement process
Further information regarding the formal procurement process will follow after the pre-procurement process.
Ends
Find out more
For more information on how we work with Experts by Experience, visit Involving people who use services.