West Yorkshire CYP Palliative and End of Life Care Out of Hours Service – 24/7 Advice and Call-Out Support

This is a notice to inform the market of the intention to award a contract for West Yorkshire Children and Young People (CYP) Palliative and End of Life Care Out of Hours Service for the population of WYICB via the Most Suitable Provider Process This is a notice to inform the market of the intention to award a contract for the West Yorkshire Children and Young People (CYP) Palliative and End of Life Care Out of Hours Service for the population of WYICB via the Most Suitable Provider Process. The Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023, Paragraph 10 - The Page 4 to 5 Most Suitable Provider Process is being used to commission this service. This notice will be live for fourteen (14) days from the date of publication. This is a notice to inform the market of the intention to award a contract for West Yorkshire Children and Young People (CYP) Palliative and End of Life Care Out of Hours Service for the population of WYICB. The aim of the out of hours service is to provide rapid access to specialist paediatric palliative and end of life care support, improve coordination of care, support patient choice, and reduce avoidable hospital admissions. The service will include telephone-based clinical advice, escalation to specialist medical input where required, and the provision of urgent face-to-face support in complex cases. The service requires a provider with highly specialised clinical capability in paediatric palliative and end of life care, including access to Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS), on-call paediatric palliative medical support, and the ability to deliver a coordinated and responsive out of hours call-out service across West Yorkshire. The provider must demonstrate established integration with existing regional care pathways, including hospice provision, community services, and acute settings, to ensure safe and continuous care for children and young people with complex needs. Following consideration of the service requirements and delivery context, it has been identified that the service is most appropriately delivered through an established specialist hospice model, supported by existing infrastructure, workforce, and system-wide relationships across West Yorkshire. The service requires delivery through providers with highly specialised expertise in paediatric palliative and end of life care, supported by established hospice infrastructure and existing integration within regional care pathways. To ensure a coordinated and consistent service across the West Yorkshire footprint, a lead provider model is considered the most appropriate approach. This enables delivery of a single, integrated service supported by collaborative working arrangements, ensuring effective coordination, clinical safety, and optimal use of the specialist workforce. Given the highly specialised nature of the service, the requirement for established specialist clinical expertise in paediatric palliative and end of life care, and the need for effective integration with existing regional pathways, the proposed approach has been developed to support a safe, coordinated, and sustainable model of delivery in line with system requirements. The estimated value of the contract is £2,025,000 over a 2-year term with an optional 1-year extension.