Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust issues £50m tender for 'strategic ICT partner'

Ten-year contract up for grabs for provision of ICT services

Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a strategic partner to assist in developing and shaping its future ICT requirements, in a deal worth up to £50m.

The Trust is a specialist paediatric hospital that serves upwards of 200,000 children and young people of Merseyside and the North West of England every year.

It was founded in 1914, and at its main site, Alder Hey Hospital in West Derby, Liverpool, it provides a range of specialist and general health services.

In the Official Journal of the European Union notice, the Trust said it is looking for a partner who can "demonstrate innovation, add value to the Trust's activities and provide the best strategic ‘fit' with the Trust's vision and values".

In a bid to raise its international profile, the Trust has begun building work on a new state-of-the-art hospital intended to open in September 2015.

The next stage of the project is for the Trust to agree a deal with a strategic partner who will be required to provide strategic planning, business transformation and consulting services in relation to the Trust's ICT strategy.

The Trust said that the strategic partner would have to "build value in and jointly exploit" the Alder Hey model for the delivery of child-centred health services.

The selected partner could also be required to assist the Trust in developing its programme and strategy for the procurement of ICT goods and services for use within the Trust. This may include but is not limited to areas of expenditure around infrastructure, e-enablement systems and software, as well as consultancy and implementation support for various projects and initiatives.

The Trust believes that the relationship with the partner may take the form of a joint venture and that the remuneration of the strategic partner may be based on a "risk and reward" model that includes the "possibility of exploitation of jointly-developed intellectual property".

The pilot phase is to last between one to two years, with the second phase focusing on exploitation of developed products. The overall arrangement could last between seven and 10 years, with a possible break option for either party after the pilot phase is completed.

The contract, which is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement, is valued at £500,000 in the pilot phase and up to £5m per annum thereafter.