CareMatch Portal system notifications must be on during the evaluation period – AMENDED INSTUCTIONS RE INTITAL CQC DETAILS CLARIFICATIONS (information for home support providers)

We are currently in the Evaluation Period of the Home Support and Quick Discharge Tenders as shown on the indicative time table blow;

As stated in section 15.1 of the "Document 001 The Instructions P2170 Document for Potential Suppliers Invitation To Tender (ITT)" Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

The evaluation of SSQs for the FCA will consider responses and, where requested, written information and evidence provided by the Potential Supplier. All relevant evidence submitted will be evaluated against the selection criteria. Where there are inconsistences in the application, the Council may follow up with a clarification; a time limit will be set for the response and included in the clarification request. It is the Potential Supplier’s responsibility to ensure that any clarifications are received and correctly responded to within the set time frame. For more information see the CareMatch Portal User guide.

Initial clarifications on the CQC information provided will be emailed from HomeSupport2024@birmingham.gov.uk to the email address of the CareMatch Portal user that submitted the application. Responses will be required within the set deadline.

All further Supplier Selection Questionnaire (SSQ) clarifications will be sent via the CareMatch Portal. You will be able to view this correspondence (referred to as clarification or clarification request in the ITT) in two different formats. The first will be through an email notification, and the second through a correspondence window within the system, as shown in Figure 3.3.1 in the

CareMatch Portal User Guide

If you followed Route A (your company or organisation had never previously entered your Owner details into CareMatch Portal) or Route B (your company or organisation had previously entered your Owner details into CareMatch Portal, but has never been awarded a contract and had to use the none CQC route to register as a new Owner) when starting your application, your User account will automatically have “Message Email Notifications” set to YES.

If you followed Route C (added a contract to a Provider that had already been awarded a contract via the CareMatch Portal) or Route D (added a location to an Owner that had already been awarded a contract to a different location via the CareMatch Portal) to start your application, you will have to check that your email notifications are not disabled to ensure you do not miss out on important updates regarding your application. Please refer to Figure 4.5.2 in the Carematch Portal User Guide (see below) for details on how to check this and ensure RECEIVE MESSAGE EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS" is set to YES for the user that submitted the application.

CareMatch Portal User Guide

Email notifications are sent from the following email address; system.notifications@carematchportal.com. Check your spam/junk email folders for emails from this address.

For further information and guidance, see the following;

User Guide for providers using Care Match Portal | Birmingham City Council

section 3 which describes Routes A-D in further detail, section 3.3 “Procurement Correspondences” and section 4.5 “My Account”

How to apply for a 2024 Home Support or Quick Discharge Service contract through the CareMatch Portal – accessible slides

Slides 12, 14, and 15.

A voice over recording of the above slides is also available here;

How to apply for a 2024 Home Support or Quick Discharge Service contract through the CareMatch Portal