Express LIFT

Community Solutions is proud to have been selected to be on the national framework for selection to establish a LIFT Company through the Express LIFT procurement route.  Community Solutions is one of only seven organizations on the framework and welcomes the opportunity to bid anywhere in England  to work closely with Primary Care Trusts and their public sector partners to improve services to local populations. 

The difference between Express LIFT and a traditional LIFT procurement

Following the successful establishment of 48 LIFT companies covering more than half of the population of England, Express LIFT has been developed to provide a 'fast-track' procurement route. A 'private sector partner' is selected from a nationally procured framework of pre-approved partners, without the need for a 'traditional' competition based around the design of sample schemes, making it more cost effective.

In a 'traditional' LIFT procurement, bidders are required to provide fully costed designs for the sample schemes in competition. This is a time consuming and costly process for all bidders and PCTs. In Express LIFT, public sector participants will be required to have an outline SSDP which they will utilise assistance from their LIFT company to complete. This means that the LIFT company can have a far greater influence on what it is that the PCT is trying to achieve through its commissioning and estates strategy. There will be no competitive design element (which will significantly reduce both time and cost) and no obligation to establish a supply chain for delivery and maintenance of defined projects at this stage.

Procurements under the Express LIFT programme will be significantly shorter. PCTs will need to undertake a reasonable amount of preparatory work before commencing a competition and will, of course, have to be mindful of the logistics of obtaining all the requisite Board approvals, however, it ought to be possible for a PCT to run the competition process in less than three months.

For further details on Express LIFT please see the Community Health Partnerships website:

www.communityhealthpartnerships.co.uk