Healthwatch Essex Core Service

Essex County Council ("the Council") is undertaking a Soft Market Test (SMT) exercise to inform future commissioning considerations for the Healthwatch Essex Core Service. It may be worth noting that the existing contract for this service is due to end in March 2027.
The Council has a statutory responsibility to commission a local Healthwatch service under the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Local Healthwatch acts as the independent champion for people using health and social care services, ensuring that residents' voices are heard and used to inform service improvement across the health and care system.
Please note that pending governance approval, any newly commissioned service is expected to commence from April 2027 and is due to be fully funded via an external grant funding arrangement.
At this stage, no decision has been made regarding future commissioning arrangements. The purpose of this exercise is to engage with the market and gain insight into prospective providers' capability, capacity to deliver the proposed service alongside seeking their views on the potential delivery models including any innovative approaches or alternative options based on their experience of delivering similar services.
The Council's ambition is for the Essex Healthwatch service to be an independent, influential and impactful voice for Essex residents, ensuring that feedback from local people leads to meaningful change across health and social care services. The Council wishes to maintain a service that is demonstrably independent whilst working collaboratively with partners across the health and care system.
The council is particularly interested in models that:
• Deliver statutory responsibilities effectively and independently.
• Increase engagement with diverse and under-represented communities
• Ensure insight and feedback are representative of Essex residents.
• Demonstrate clear impact and outcomes from engagement activity.
• Strengthen the link between resident experience,...