How to Win Your Place on Domiciliary Care Frameworks

Introduction to Care Frameworks

When talking about ‘care frameworks’, there is the broader framework providers operate within, but for the purposes of bid writing and business growth, we are referring to framework agreements, which are ‘approved care suppliers’. These frameworks, or opportunities require a formal bid, via an invitation to tender (ITT) process and there are national opportunities (often with lot specific areas) such as with the NHS, as well as specific home care frameworks, for example, developed and managed by individual or groups of Councils or Local Authorities

They involve public sector procurement, to procure services from external providers. The main focus of this article will be on the intricacies of care frameworks and their significance in public sector procurement. Domiciliary care frameworks are used to procure in-home care services for individuals who require assistance with their daily activities.

Understanding Domiciliary Care

Domiciliary care, also known as home care, involves the provision of a range of care services to individuals within their own homes. These services can include personal care (such as assisting with bathing and dressing), medication management, meal preparation, and companionship. With our population ageing, the demand for these services is growing, leading to an increase in the issuance of domicile care tenders and the need for comprehensive home care agreements.

The Importance of Bidding for Care Frameworks

With the escalating demand for domiciliary care services, bidding for care frameworks can provide a valuable opportunity for care providers to secure long-term contracts and expand their business operations. Successfully securing a place on a care framework can not only provide a steady stream of income but also enhance your business's reputation within the industry.

These framework opportunities are also not always off limits to new providers, as there is such a shortage of supply.

Care Framework Compliance

Before bidding for care frameworks, it's crucial to ensure that your business has the necessary compliance in place. This includes accreditations such as CQC registration, evidence of quality care delivery, and adherence to health and safety regulations. A strong Care Quality Commission rating can greatly enhance your chances of securing a place on a care framework, demonstrating your commitment to compliance and quality.

The Role of a Bid Writing Consultancy

Bidding for care frameworks can be a complex process, requiring in-depth knowledge of the health and social care sector, strong writing skills, and a strategic approach. This is where a bid management strategy becomes essential, guiding you through the intricacies of the sector and helping you to adopt a strategic approach to your bids. Bid writing consultancy can provide invaluable assistance. With their expertise in tender writing and knowledge of the care sector, they can guide you through the bidding process, helping to maximise your chances of success.

For further information, tips and guidance, click here to view our Ultimate Guide to Winning Health & Social Care Tenders.

2023 Care Framework Wins

To demonstrate to breadth of our experience when it comes to bidding for care, please see several examples of our tender wins below:

Understanding Home Care Frameworks

As with domiciliary care frameworks, home care frameworks involve the provision of care services within an individual's home. These frameworks focus on the provision of medical care, such as nursing services and therapy sessions. Bidding for these frameworks requires the same approach to domiciliary care frameworks, with an emphasis on demonstrating your business's ability to deliver high-quality, person-centred care.

Key Focus Areas for Bidding for Care Frameworks

When bidding for care frameworks, there are several key areas you should focus on. These include:

1. Quality of Care: This should be the cornerstone of your bid, demonstrating your commitment to delivering high-quality, person-centred care.
2. Experience: Your bid should showcase your business's experience in delivering the specific care services outlined in the framework.
3. Compliance: You will need to demonstrate your business's compliance with all relevant regulations and standards.
4. Social Value: Many care frameworks place a strong emphasis on social value, so it's important to show how your business contributes to the wider community. We have a guide to maximising social impact and the National TOMS.
5. Innovation: Show how your business is using innovative approaches to improve care delivery and outcomes.

When responding to a tender it is essential you fully understand the requirement or framework specification. The specification, combined with the instructions, questions and evaluation criteria provide organisations with the tools to respond. Combined with additional research, an understanding of market expectations and your local competition, you can develop both a compliance and responsive tender response to the domiciliary care framework requirements.

When it comes to responding to tender questions using a structured approach will allow you to ensure the bid is compliance and fully answers the question, while also giving you the ability to then focus on refining it, highlighting why you are the most suitable for agency or provider for the framework.

As a general rule when bid writing for care tenders or frameworks, we work to BENEFIT, FEATURE, EVIDENCE. This is how sentences, paragraphs and whole tender responses should be structured to allow you to maximise the scores available.

The Bid Writing Process

The process of bid writing for a care framework involves several key steps. Initially, you will need to thoroughly review the tender documents to understand the framework's requirements and assess your business's suitability. Once you've decided to proceed, you'll need to gather all the necessary information and evidence to support your bid. At this juncture, a bid writing consultancy can provide invaluable support, helping you craft a persuasive bid that resonates with the tender's evaluators.

At Thornton & Lowe, we support our clients through each step of this process, providing guidance, mentoring or a fully outsourced bid writing solution for your domiciliary care frameworks.

Proven Bid Writing Consultants for Home Care Frameworks and Tenders

Bidding for care frameworks can be a complex and time-consuming process. However, with the right approach and the support of a professional bid writing consultancy, it's possible to successfully secure a place on these frameworks. By focusing on the quality of care, showcasing your experience, demonstrating compliance, and highlighting your social value, you can create a compelling bid that stands out from the competition.

Thornton & Lowe has been providing an outsourced bid writing solution to domiciliary care providers since 2009. We have seen the changes in the sector, differing regional requirements and bidding and procurement trends when tendering for care. But what hasn’t changed is our commitment to supporting providers from across the UK, large and small, to compete and win places on care frameworks.

See our reviews and testimonials. As procurement and supply chain experts, we work across multiple sectors which allows us to drive innovation and create compelling differentiators for our clients.

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Domiciliary Care Framework Questions and Winning Strategies

Competing for domiciliary care frameworks requires a thorough understanding of the questions you'll face during the tender process. By anticipating these questions and preparing a comprehensive bid library, you can set yourself up for success.

We work with providers as an outsourced bid and tender writing company to help you respond to live frameworks and tenders - we also have Tender Library which provides a place for you to store you previous bids efficiently and AI tools to search and re-use this data, as well as first draft answers to all these questions and much more! This includes specific answer for domiciliary care frameworks!

Domiciliary care frameworks range from being compliance focused and really quite 'accessible' to more competitive, higher volume frameworks often require far more depth and detail from your tender writing. They typically include a range of questions covering various aspects of your organisation and service delivery. While the exact number of questions may vary from one tender to another, you can generally expect between 5 and 12 questions, with word counts ranging from 750 to 1000 words per response - though we often see 3,000 word responses for quality and social value questions. Preparing informative and high-scoring answers is key to making a strong impression on the evaluators!

Key Areas of Focus: When responding to domiciliary care tenders, it's essential to address the following key areas:

1. Organisational Culture and Values Demonstrate how your organisation's culture and values align with the Local Authority's objectives and how they are embedded throughout your operations.
2. Social Value and Community Impact Highlight your commitment to social value and explain how your organisation supports the implementation of Social Value Policy and Framework.
3. Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Showcase your organisation's approach to promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion across your workforce and service delivery.
4. Environmental Sustainability Outline your strategies for reducing your carbon footprint and promoting environmental sustainability while delivering services.
5. Workforce Development and Support Detail your workforce strategy, including recruitment practices, training plans, development approaches, and staff support programmes.
6. Quality Assurance and Continuous Improvement Provide an overview of your quality assurance processes and explain how you ensure continuous improvement in service delivery.
7. Contract Compliance and Performance Management Describe your systems for ensuring compliance with contract terms, KPIs, and SLAs, and explain how you measure and monitor service performance.
8. Person-Centred Care and Service User Engagement Highlight your approach to delivering person-centred care, ensuring service user dignity, choice, and independence, and provide examples of how you engage with service users to achieve their goals.
9. Risk Management and Safeguarding Outline your risk management strategies, safeguarding processes, and compliance with relevant legislation, such as the Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS).
10. Innovation and Adaptability Demonstrate your organisation's ability to innovate, adapt to new ways of working, and leverage technology to improve efficiency and service user outcomes.

Writing Winning Framework Responses: To create compliant and competitive responses to domiciliary care framework questions, consider the following tips:

• Use clear, concise language and structure your answers logically
• Provide specific examples and case studies to illustrate your points
• Highlight your unique selling points and competitive advantages
• Demonstrate your understanding of the Local Authority's requirements and priorities, as well as broader legislation
• Use data and evidence to support your claims and showcase your impact
• Ensure consistency across all your responses and align them with your overall bid strategy