Mental Health Tenders

A recent survey of roughly 5,000 Britons found that nearly one in three – 36 per cent – never make time in their daily schedules to address their mental health. The discussion surrounding mental health in the United Kingdom is becoming increasingly important on the back of the cost-of-living crisis and on top of the lasting effects caused by the pandemic. 

As the discussion surrounding mental health begins to deepen, and there is wider public acceptance and understanding of mental health issues, will more people begin to seek out the necessary mental health care services within their local community. 

Finding mental health tenders in the UK can become an arduous process as there are multiple factors to take into consideration beforehand. In the following article, we’ll explore different mental healthcare tenders, and how your private sector business can leverage opportunities in the healthcare sector.

What are mental health care tenders? 

Adequate mental health care ensures the well-being of children, adolescents, young people and adults. Mental health services are one of the most critical public healthcare services in the UK, enabling people suffering from mental health conditions to obtain the necessary help. Addressing mental health issues is a long, and complex process, and requires experienced professionals to assist throughout the process. 

Mental health care tenders may include some of the following:

• Ability to deliver professional mental health care services based on council needs
• Deliver quality services within a given timeline
• Ensure that suppliers can identify any potential risks
• Appropriately managing any potential risks that may affect staff or constituents
• Maintain a standard of quality, diversity and inclusion
• Ability to deliver the project within the given budget
• Ability to complete a project based on proposed methodology project outcomes

How are mental health care contracts made available?

As public spending for mental health care continues to increase, as a private sector supplier looking for public healthcare tenders, you will need to ensure that you have the necessary understanding of how to find the right social care tenders for your business. 

While the process of securing mental health tenders is typically more complex than other available public social care contracts, competition for these is typically less stringent, as these services are more specialised. 

Any council that seeks to deliver quality services to their designated area will need to acquire the services of a provider and will make contract notices available within their local framework or via the Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) registers

If you’ve already applied through a DPS register and were unsuccessful, you can reapply, as these registries remain active for several years. With frameworks, the conditions are slightly different, as there are set deadlines for tender applications, and several other suppliers can apply for the same tender and still be successful.

Additionally, you can use a tender portal to assist with finding mental health contracts in your area, and based on your requirements. The HCI Opportunity Portal provides seemingly untapped access to thousands of available public healthcare contracts, and you will be able to search and filter through results based on budget, keywords and location.  

Why use the HCI Opportunity Tracker?

Securing the right contracts can help your business scale, leading to new opportunities for growth. The public procurement process is often highly competitive, and without the necessary research, finding and securing contracts will cost your business valuable time, money and other important resources.

Using the HCI Opportunity Portal, you can have unlimited access to a range of mental healthcare tender opportunities, and other healthcare contracts available at the NHS. The easy-to-use portal allows you to filter available tenders according to the budget, location and specific keywords. 

With the Opportunity Portal, you will receive other valuable information to help adjust your bid. For starters, the HCI spend analysis can help track and determine spending patterns of buyers, allowing you more opportunity to adjust your sales growth plan. Secondly, there are thousands of NHS procurement contracts available, meaning that you have multiple business opportunities to apply for, across a variety of sectors and industries. 

What are the requirements for mental health care tenders in the UK? 

There are several important factors to consider throughout the tendering process, however, for those who may be new to the process, we’d advise booking a demo with experts to help further elaborate on the specifications of writing a tender in the UK. However, as a quick overview, some of the basic requirements for mental health care tenders in the UK include the following: 

Methodology 

You will need to provide a proposed methodology or plan of action that clearly outlines how your business will deliver the service requirements, and what your methods may be to achieve successful outcomes.

Company capacity

As a new tender applicant, you will need to provide buyers with information about current employees, including your capacity to undertake the work as a team. 

Project completion 

An outline of how you will complete tasks within a given time frame and budget. 

Solution-based risk management 

Mental health conditions can be a serious situation and requires your team and business to properly mitigate any potential risks that may put your employees, or any other member in danger.

As part of this, you will need to properly advise buyers on how you will overcome any risks or challenges, and what is your process in doing so. 

As a final consideration, you will need to keep in mind that a buyer will typically award a tender based on the economic advantage a business can provide them with. What this means is that buyers often look at more than just the price of a tender, and take into consideration a broad range of other factors that may impact the outcomes of the tender process. 

What are examples of previous mental health care tenders in the UK?

University of Bristol Dental School Clinical Governance

Service Buyer: Bristol Dental School 

Location of Service: Bristol 

Budget: Experience based

Medical Examination Gloves and Surgical Gloves

Service Buyer: Collaborative Procurement Partnership LLP

Location of Service: London 

Budget: Undisclosed 

Non-Emergency Patients Transport HDU and Shuttle Bus Services

Service Buyer: Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 

Location of Service: Chelsea and Westminster Hospital

Budget: £5.0 million

The Takeaway 

While there are a lot of grounds to cover during the tendering and procurement process, any supplier must remain informed about ongoing developments that are taking place within the healthcare system. 

Being informed about new mental health care tender opportunities allows your business to apply for public contracts that will help your business grow, but more importantly, deliver an exceptional service to public constituents suffering from mental health conditions. 

Every day new care tenders are published on the internet, and keeping track of everything while ensuring you meet all the requirements can be a complex process. Taking advantage of the HCI Opportunity Portal will help provide you with the appropriate mental health tenders, and further assist throughout the process to ensure you have all the necessary insights and data to successfully complete your healthcare tender bid.