Dental Access at Quayside House

NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (GICB) sought providers who have the capability and capacity to deliver Dental Services in Gloucester. Fundamentally this opportunity seeks to increase access to NHS dentistry in a part of the county where deprivation is greatest by working in partnership to commission a new bespoke primary care Dental Access Centre facility in a fit for purpose environment. GICB's vision for this service is to increase primary care dental access in a Core20 area and begin to address oral health inequalities. This service will provide urgent care and stabilisation, as well as offering routine treatment to a cohort of patients who are both poorly catered for under the existing high street model, and who are disproportionately affected with oral pain and diseases, which negatively affects their health and wellbeing. * The contract will be a Personal Dental Services (PDS) contract to deliver a Dental Access Centre in Gloucester. Premises are located at 1st Floor, Quayside House, Quayside Street, Gloucester, GL1 2TZ * The premises are mandated and owned and leased by Gloucestershire County Council (GCC). The successful provider will need to secure a lease with GCC for the duration of the PDS contract term. * A draft Heads of Terms was included in the Invitation to Tender (ITT) pack which set out the expected terms and conditions between the owner of the building and the service provider. * Construction work has been undertaken on behalf of GCC, and floor plans and room data sheets were included in the ITT pack to inform potential bidders about the premises and what is provided as part of the building fit out. * The successful provider will need to provide any additional fit out and equipment to deliver the services. It will also be expected to fund associated recurrent revenue costs, for example servicing and maintenance; rent and rates; cleaning and lighting. * The premises will have space for up to 7 dental chairs. * There is an expectation that the provider is or becomes a postgraduate training practice and hosts foundation dentists. * Funding for hosting foundation dentists is awarded and administered by NHS Workforce Training and Education (NHS WTE) and the successful provider will be expected to apply to NHS WTE for funding. * The PDS contract term will be for an initial term of 10 years, with an option to extend for any period up to a further 5 years, and then for a further 5 years, at the sole discretion of the Commissioner. * Rental payment and services are currently scheduled to commence on 1st July 2026. * Service must commence no later than 6 months after contract award, unless there is an agreement with the Commissioner to extend the mobilisation period. * The contract term and service payments will start on the service commencement date. * The total contract value excluding extensions is PS12,000,000, and PS24,000,000 including extensions. * The successful provider will need to deliver urgent care, stabilisation and routine care as part of the contract. * Following discussion and agreement with the commissioner, the successful provider may offer private treatment from the same premises however this must not be at the detriment of NHS patients or the provider's delivery of the PDS contract. * TUPE was not applicable for this procurement process. This is a new service to be delivered by a new provider. This notice serves as an intention to award a contract under the competitive process of the Provider Selection Regime (PSR). Aims and Objectives of the Service Gloucestershire ICB's vision for this service is to increase primary care dental access in a Core20 area and begin to address oral health inequalities. This service will provide urgent care and stabilisation, as well as offering routine treatment to a cohort of patients who are both poorly catered for under the existing high street model, and who are disproportionately affected with oral pain and diseases, which negatively affects their health and wellbeing. Located within the Quayside building in Gloucester City this new Dental Access Centre will be a bespoke primary care service in a fit for purpose environment and the service specification details an innovative approach to achieve this vision. By meeting the population's need for dental care and providing personalised prevention, the service will positively contribute to the delivery of the following elements of the NHS Outcomes Framework (March 22): - 3.7.ii Tooth extractions due to decay for children admitted as inpatients to hospital, aged 10 years and under - 4a.iii Patient experience of NHS dental services - 4.4.ii Access to NHS dental services. Eligibility criteria for each element of the service is detailed below: * Urgent Care - Any adult or child patient referred from the local dental triage line/111 - Patients referred by community partners - e.g. co-located GP surgery, charities where patients struggle to access urgent care via 111 -pathways to be arranged collaboratively with provider and community partners. * Stabilisation - Any patient referred for Stabilisation from urgent care at this centre or from other urgent care providers in the county as applicable. - Any patient referred for Stabilisation from defined third party partners e.g. GP surgeries, voluntary care organisations. - Any patient referred for Stabilisation from ICB developed stabilisation pathways e.g. cancer pathways, cardiology patients, high needs children identified through first dental steps program. * Routine Dental Patients - Patients eligible to receive ongoing routine dental care at the centre are those who have accessed stabilisation at the centre AND reside in a Gloucestershire Core20 Postcode or who belong to a vulnerable group as identified by Gloucestershire County Council Public Health Team and/or the NHS Consultants in Dental Public Health Team, including but not limited to, low income families, people who rely on others for care or support, people with a physical or learning disability, Children in Care, Care Leavers, people experiencing homelessness, people who misuse substances (drugs, alcohol, tobacco), asylum seekers and refugees. - Exact Eligible postcodes/cohorts will be agreed with the ICB. Split of Clinical Activity Urgent Care: 572 Sessions Per Year 10 sessions per week Monday to Friday 1 session per weekend 7 x 30 mins appointments per session Session rate PS650 Total annual cost: PS371,800 Stabilisation: 1,040 sessions per year 20 sessions per week 7 x 30 mins appt per session Session rate PS650 Total annual cost: PS676,000 Routine: 5,073 UDAs per annum UDA rate PS30 Total annual cost: PS152,200 There will be some flexibility over the course of the contract in relation to the split of activity particularly whilst the service is embedded and developed, and this will be agreed between the Commissioner and the successful Provider. It may be necessary to flex the proportions of urgent care, stabilisation and routine care specified above to meet local needs. Flexibility will be required in how the stabilisation sessions are utilised over the length of the contract. For example the potential inclusion of sessions for specific patient groups such as children or families or patients with cancer. The upper tolerance limit of Urgent Care that could be requested would be 819 urgent care sessions per annum (Making the urgent care portion of the contract worth PS532,350). There would be a corresponding decrease in the number of stabilisation sessions requested. This procurement has been carried out by NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW) on behalf of the Commissioner.

This notice is placed as a Prior Information Notice (PIN) to inform the market of NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board's (ICB) (the Commissioner's), intention to commission dental access as part of a Centre of Dental Excellence (City Campus, Gloucester) and a Dental Access Centre (Quayside, Gloucester). The Commissioner would like to understand the level of provider interest in delivering these services. Fundamentally this opportunity seeks to increase access to NHS dentistry in a part of the county where deprivation is greatest by working in partnership to commission 2 new bespoke primary care facilities in fit for purpose environments, incorporating flexible commissioning and workforce training. A key aim of this opportunity is to provide NHS dental access in a Core 20 area. This will provide much needed dental care to a cohort of patients who struggle disproportionately with oral pain and disease, which negatively affects their health and wellbeing. * NHS Gloucestershire ICB is seeking to secure a Prime Provider(s) who has the capability and capacity to deliver primary care dental services, in line with the specified requirements. * There are likely to be two dental PDS contract procurements. The Dental Access Centre (Quayside) procurement is likely to be published in August 2025 and the procurement of access as part of the Dental Centre of Excellence (City Campus) procurement is likely to be published in Autumn 2025. Each contract will have a value of PS1.2m per annum. * The contract term for the Dental Access Centre (Quayside) is expected to commence in Spring/Summer 2026, and the Centre of Dental Excellence (City Campus) in Summer/Autumn 2026. Both contracts are likely to be for a period of a minimum of 10 years. In partnership with other anchor organisations, the ICB has identified two potential Gloucester City centre sites for the delivery of these services, one for the Centre of Dental Excellence (City Campus) located at 3rd floor, City Campus, Northgate Street, Gloucester, GL1 1SQ and the other for the Dental Access Centre (Quayside) located at 1st Floor, Quayside House, Quayside Street, Gloucester, GL1 2TZ. Providers will be expected to lease these sites from the respective landlords for a term which mirrors the length of the contract. * A Heads of Terms will be developed in advance of commissioning a service provider which sets out the expected terms and conditions between the owner of the building and the service provider/s. At both sites it is anticipated that the service provider/s would fund the fit out of the accommodation. The service provider would be expected to fund associated, recurrent revenue costs, for example servicing and maintenance; rent and rates; cleaning and lighting. * There is an expectation that the provider is or becomes a postgraduate training practice and hosts foundation dentists. As part of the Centre of Dental Excellence, the University of Gloucestershire anticipates delivering Dental Nurse Cert HE; Dental Hygienist BSc and Dental Therapist BSc. The provider must form and maintain a mutually supportive collaborative relationship with the provider of undergraduate Dental Care Professionals (DCP) training who may share the Centre of Dental Excellence (CoDE). This will involve referral of student appropriate patients. No teaching or clinical supervision of undergraduate students is expected under this contract. * Some of the space within the Centre of Dental Excellence will be shared with the University, for example the Decontamination Room. A Memorandum of Understanding for use of the shared space will need to be developed by successful bidder and the university. * TUPE will not be applicable for this procurement process. To allow potential providers to reflect on the proposed services, the Commissioner has provided early indicative information as part of this notice (located within the Atamis e-procurement portal) which includes: 1. Service specifications 2. Floor plans for each premises 3. Architecture data sheets for each premises 4. PDS contract Please note all the above documents are in draft form and yet to be finalised. The Commissioner welcomes your feedback on these documents via return of the market engagement questionnaire. Details on how to access the market engagement questionnaire and early indicative information are contained within the 'VI.3. Additional information' section. We kindly ask you to submit these by midday Thursday 17th July 2025. The Commissioner has also included the PowerPoint slides and Q&A from the market engagement event that took place earlier this year in April / May 2025. Please note that there have been some changes to the ICB's commissioning intentions since this event took place. The changes have been reflected in the information in this PIN notice and the service specification. This exercise is being carried out by NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW) on behalf of the Commissioner.