DHSC: Medical Technology - Compass - Alpha phase

26

Applications submitted

Two stage

Call-off procedure

Value

Outside scope

Off-payroll (IR35) status

01 July 2025

Application closing date

1. Context and requirements

Pre-market engagement: No formal pre-market engagement process has been conducted. The Medtech Compass project is referenced in the Medtech Strategy: One Year On publication (2024), which outlined our intent to explore a digital solution to support procurement. In addition, the project has been presented at sector-specific conferences aimed at procurement professionals and MedTech suppliers. These opportunities have allowed us to raise awareness, gauge early interest, and gather high-level feedback.
Work done so far: A Discovery Phase was completed between December 2024 and March 2025, led by DHSC with support from external partners. It involved engagement with 38 users including procurement teams, clinicians, suppliers, and NHS stakeholders. Further information is provided in attachment 4
Which phase the project is in: Alpha
Existing team: The supplier's staff will be working with a Grade 7 level senior analyst and HEO level analyst at the working level. The supplier's staff will also be expected to report to G6, DD and Director level staff on a regular basis to provide progress updates in show and tell format. The suppliers will also be expected to engage with the wider healthcare system, in particular, procurement professionals and clinicians in secondary care settings.
Address where the work will be done: Most work can be done remotely, but we expect suppliers to attend occasional in-person meetings or workshops when helpful. DHSC offices are in London (39 Victoria Street) and Leeds (Quarry House), and any visits would be agreed in advance.
Working arrangements: The supplier’s staff will be expected to work collaboratively with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) team to deliver a discrete Alpha phase for a proposed digital solution that supports more consistent and evidence-based procurement of medical technologies. The Alpha is time-bound and outcome-focused, and is intended to test key hypotheses, de-risk technical and service design challenges, and lay the groundwork for a potential Beta. To support effective collaboration, the supplier should be available during standard working hours (Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 5.00pm). We expect the supplier to lead on agile delivery practices and ceremonies, including sprint planning, daily stand-ups, retrospectives, weekly progress updates, and show-and-tell sessions. These ceremonies will ensure that delivery remains transparent, iterative, and closely aligned with validated user needs. We are seeking a supplier with strong delivery capability and a collaborative approach. The supplier should also support internal capability-building by working in the open, sharing methods, and documenting key decisions, artefacts, and lessons learned. This will ensure that knowledge generated during the Alpha can be easily handed over to a future Beta team or internal owners. The supplier will be expected to record and collate key information as the Alpha progresses, in a way that supports the production of a comprehensive end-of-phase report. Further information is provided in attachment 4
Provide more information about your security requirements: Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)
Latest start date: 2025-09-08
Enter the expected contract length: 4 months
Special terms and conditions: All expenses must be pre-agreed between the parties and must comply with the Cabinet Office (CO) Travel and Subsistence (T&S) Policy.
Write the term or acronym: Medtech
Write the term or acronym: VBP
Write the term or acronym: DHSC
Write the term or acronym: NHS
Write the term or acronym: PIM
Write the term or acronym: NICE
Write the term or acronym: GIRFT
Write the term or acronym: MHRA
Write the term or acronym: UDI
Write the term or acronym: PQP
Write the term or acronym
Are you prepared to show your budget details?: Yes
Indicative maximum: 650000
Provide further information: The maximum budget is for the Alpha deliverables only.
Confirm if you require a contracted out service or supply of resource: Contracted out service: the off-payroll rules do not apply
Summary of work: We are looking to build on the findings from Discovery to develop a digital solution that supports NHS trusts to make faster, more confident, and evidence-based procurement decisions. At the core of this is the concept of supplier ‘passporting’, enabling suppliers to submit product information and evidence once, and then reuse it across multiple procurements. This will help address the duplication of effort and complexity suppliers currently face in repeatedly submitting the same data in different formats. The core aim is to create a service that centralises validated product information in one place, enabling suppliers to submit product data once, and allowing procurement teams to access and reuse it across multiple procurements and trusts. It should also surface existing product evaluations, including trust-level assessments and national guidance, to help reduce duplication of effort and highlight where a product has already been tested. Further info is provided in Attachment 4
Where the supplied staff will work: No specific location (for example they can work remotely)
Why the work is being done: This work is being undertaken to address the mentioned long-standing challenges in the NHS medical technology (medtech) procurement landscape. The aim of this work is twofold: first, to design and test a centralised digital solution that improves how product data and evidence are collected, validated, and shared across the system; and second, to support the wider shift to value-based procurement (VBP) by enabling more consistent, data-driven decision-making. The digital solution will reduce the burden on both suppliers and NHS procurement teams by allowing trusted product data to be accessed in one place, and it will embed a standardised framework for submitting and assessing evidence of value, making it easier to compare like-for-like products and evaluate their impact beyond just price. Together, these efforts aim to streamline how technologies are assessed and purchased, support more transparent and consistent product evaluation, and ensure that products delivering better patient and system outcomes are prioritised. This is not just about digitising current processes, it is about laying the groundwork for a smarter, more responsive procurement system that puts clinical and operational value at the centre. Further information is provided in attachment 4
The business problem you need to solve: The NHS currently lacks a consistent, centralised way to compare medical technology (MedTech) products during procurement. This results in the challenges recorded by the discovery: The NHS currently lacks a consistent, centralised way to compare medical technology (MedTech) products during procurement. While valuable evidence does exist, it is often fragmented, inconsistent, or difficult to use, leading to inefficiencies, repeated work, and missed opportunities to adopt high-value technologies. The Discovery phase identified four key opportunity areas where the proposed service could make a meaningful difference: Further information is provided in attachment 4
First user type: Procurement manager at a trust (buyer)
First user type: Clinician involved in procurement decisions (clinical user)
First user type: Supplier account manager (supplier user)
First user type: Innovation or clinical evaluation lead at a trust (innovation decision-maker)
First user type: Regional or national commercial leader (system user)

2. Assessment Criteria
About assessment criteria
About evaluation weightings
Select your pricing model: Capped time and materials
Additional assessment methods: Presentation
Create your scoring criteria: 3
How many suppliers to evaluate: 6
Technical competence: 50
Cultural fit: 20
Social value: 10
Price: 20
Essential skills and experience: 9
Nice-to-have skills and experience: 4
Technical questions: 87
Describe the essential skill or experience:: • Experience of delivering an alpha phase for a large-scale data platform which meets the GOV.UK Service Standard and Technical Code of Practice criteria, including experience of successfully passing a service assessment.
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 17
Describe the essential skill or experience:: • Experience of working with secondary data and how to integrate it into a central data platform, including data cleansing and development of data standards.
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 17
Describe the essential skill or experience:: • Significant experience in developing, testing and iterating prototypes through user testing/research, ensuring this will lead to the successful delivery of this service, and evaluating options for any future beta phase.
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 17
Describe the essential skill or experience:: • Experience of developing data driven solutions, including initial priming of a database and on-going maintenance of data.
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 17
Describe the essential skill or experience:: • Understanding of the challenges faced by the NHS' procurement teams, and the regulatory environment around procurement
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 16
Describe the essential skill or experience:: • Experience designing or delivering digital solutions that support product comparison or structured decision-making in a complex procurement environment, including driving behavioural change among users.
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 16
Describe the nice-to-have skill or experience:: • Experience of working with product-level and/or healthcare data.
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 34
Describe the nice-to-have skill or experience:: • Experience of delivering an alpha phase where the discovery phase has been delivered by another party.
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 33
Describe the nice-to-have skill or experience:: • Experience of working within the medtech sector and a knowledge of data/evidence frequently used to compare the benefits of medtech.
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 33
Explain the technical question:: •Describe how you propose to meet the requirement and problem statement, setting out your approach and methodology
Enter a weighting for this technical question in whole numbers, for example 30: 35
Explain the technical question:: •Describe how the team you are proposing to undertake this work is structured has the relevant skills and experience to deliver the project
Enter a weighting for this technical question in whole numbers, for example 30: 22
Explain the technical question:: •Set out a project plan with proposed timelines for delivery, including identification of risks and proposed mitigation
Enter a weighting for this technical question in whole numbers, for example 30: 22
Explain the technical question:: Presentation - How would you approach identifying, prioritising, and sifting relevant data sources or evidence types during alpha, and what early thinking do you have around the technical architecture or tools you might use?
Enter a weighting for this technical question in whole numbers, for example 30: 21
Your question: •Please describe how you will work collaboratively with the internal team Including how you will plan and deliver knowledge transfer, particularly where team members may have limited experience of agile practices or delivery roles.
Enter a weighting for this question: 34
Your question: •Please demonstrate your ability to communicate, share findings, and produce conclusions for a range of external stakeholders Including those with varying levels of digital, technical, or commercial understanding.
Enter a weighting for this question: 33
Your question: •Please describe how you will ensure transparency in your delivery approach Including how you will involve DHSC and partner organisations in key decisions, progress updates, and iterations throughout the Alpha phase.
Enter a weighting for this question: 33
Explain the social value question: Theme 3: Fighting Climate Change MAC 4.1 - Additional environmental benefits
Enter a weighting for this question: 50
Explain the social value question: Theme 4: Equal opportunity MAC 6.1 - Tackling inequality in the contract workforce
Enter a weighting for this question: 50

3. Timeline
Publication of stage 1: June 13, 2025, 4:36 PM
Clarification period closes: June 20, 2025, 4:00 PM
Deadline for suppliers to submit their stage 1 responses: June 30, 2025, 10:00 AM

Clarification questions and responses

There are no questions and clarifications relating to this opportunity.

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