Contracts for remote or online sexual health testing

Richard Brown made this Freedom of Information request to Norfolk County Council as part of a batch sent to 111 authorities Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.

The request was partially successful.

Dear Norfolk County Council,

We are researching the use of online sexual health testing services. These services allow citizens concerned that they may have a sexually transmitted infection to order a test kit to be sent to their home, and then to either self-test at home, or return a sample to the laboratory, receive a result usually via email or text message, and to obtain medicines and further advice if required. The services are part of local government public health responsibilities

Please answer the following questions in relation to online sexual health services.

1. Does the authority commission or procure these services

2. In each of the financial periods 2021-22, 2022-23, April 2023 to December 2023
a. How much did the authority spend overall on sexual health testing services
b. How much did the authority spend on online services
c. How many citizens were tested using online services

3. How much was spent (by the authority or predecessor organisations) in each period with each of the following providers for online sexual health services
a. Preventx
b. SH 24
c. TDL or their NHS joint venture, Health Service Laboratories
d. Viapath
e. Synlab or their joint venture, Synnovis
f. Lloyd’s pharmacy
g. NHS Trusts/ their laboratory services
h. Other. Please name any provider where the spend in any year exceeded £100,000

4. When did the authority last issue a tender for these services

5. When does the current contract expire

Yours faithfully,

Richard Brown

Freedom of Information, Norfolk County Council

Dear Richard Brown

Freedom of Information Act 2000/Environmental Information Regulations 2004
Information Request ENQ-683785-R7C7Y6

Thank you for your request for information received on 31/01/2024.

We have up to 20 working days in which to deal with your request.

If we require clarification of your request we will contact you to explain this, and the 20 working-day period will then start from the day that we receive your clarification.

We will inform you in advance if there is a charge for supplying copies of any information, and we will provide an explanation if any information which we hold is not released to you.

If the requested information contains references to any third parties, we may need to seek their views before we can decide whether or not to release the information to you. In such cases we will not share your own personal details with third parties.

Should you have any queries regarding your request, please contact the team by email at [Norfolk County Council request email] or by telephone on 01603 222661.

Please also note for future reference that requests can be submitted online. Further information and the online request form can be found via the following link:
About the FOI Act and making a request - Norfolk County Council

Yours sincerely

Information Governance Team
Strategy and Transformation Department
County Hall , 5th Floor

show quoted sections

Freedom of Information, Norfolk County Council

4 Attachments

Dear Richard Brown

 

Freedom of Information Request ENQ-683785-R7C7Y6

 

I refer to your request for information dated 1 February 2024.

 

You asked for information regarding online sexual health testing services.
You asked:

 

 1. Does the authority commission or procure these services

 

Our response:

 

I can confirm that Norfolk County Council does commission and procure
online sexual health testing services. These services are the
responsibility of our public health service.

 

 

 2. In each of the financial periods 2021-22, 2022-23, April 2023 to
December 2023
a.      How much did the authority spend overall on sexual health
testing services

 

 

Our response:

 

Norfolk County Council commissions a number of services that provide
screening/ ‘point of care’ and/ or confirmatory (serological) testing for
sexually transmitted infections.

 

Some of these are commissioned as integrated services, and on a ‘block
contract’ basis meaning that we are unable to stipulate an overall spend
specific to sexual health testing.

 

b.    How much did the authority spend on online services

 

 

Our response:

 

Norfolk County Council commissions a number of online services.

 

Some of these are commissioned as part of one or more integrated service,
and on a ‘block contract’ basis, meaning that we are unable to stipulate
an overall spend specific to online sexual health services.

 

c.      How many citizens were tested using online services

 

Our response:

 

The data available across each of our online sexual health testing
provisions does not provide information as to the number of unique
citizens/ residents who utilised the service(s) in any given period.

What we can provide is details as to the number of testing kits returned
and processed across our platforms.

 

 

iCaSH Express¹ Other
HSL Preventx Terrence Higgins Trust² SH:24³ Total
2021/22 9,184 5,566 4,062 297 19,109
2022/23 64 14,762 4,184 446 19,456
Apr23 - Dec23 10,562 3,877 306 14,745

 

¹ As per our response to 3.a and 3.c below, Norfolk’s iCaSH Express is
delivered under an integrated services contract held between Norfolk
County Council (the commissioner) and Cambridgeshire Community Services
(the provider). In delivering this online service, Cambridgeshire
Community Services has established commercial arrangements, until end
2021/22 with HSL and more recently with Preventx.

 

² Terrence Higgins Trust provide the functions of the National Chlamydia
Screening Programme in Norfolk. In doing so they distribute much of their
screening online, however some of these kits could have been distributed
by other means including outreach. We do not have a division of this data
to stipulate the proportion that will have been returned for screening
from online distribution.

 

³ SH:24 holds the national contract with the UK Government for HIV
self-sampling, and our procurement of their service is via the Framework
Agreement made available to local authorities in England as a result of
the associated central government procurement exercise.

 

 

 

 3. How much was spent (by the authority or predecessor organisations) in
each period with each of the following providers for online sexual
health services
a.      Preventx

 

Our response:

 

Our universal online sexual health service is an integral part of our
local, specialist, Level 3 sexual health services. Norfolk integrated
Contraception and Sexual Health (iCaSH) is provided by Cambridgeshire
Community Services NHS Trust (CCS), a feature of which is ‘iCaSH Express’;
an online sexual health service. Preventx have a commercial arrangement
with CCS delivering many aspects of the iCaSH Express provision. In effect
Preventx will have received monies for delivery of sexual health testing
within the Norfolk system, but as this arrangement is not via contract
with the local authority we cannot advise as to its value.

b.      SH 24

 

Our response:

 

┌───────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────┐
│SH:24 spend │  │
├───────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┤
│2021/22 │£ 4,032.00 │
├───────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┤
│2022/23 │£ 6,142.00 │
├───────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┤
│Apr23 – Dec23 │£ 4,853.00 │
└───────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────┘

 

c.      TDL or their NHS joint venture, Health Service Laboratories

 

Our response:

 

In relation to our response to 3a. above, previously HSL have held a
commercial arrangement with CCS delivering many aspects of the iCaSH
Express provision. As this arrangement was not via contract with the local
authority we cannot advise as to its value.

d.      Viapath

 

Our response:         N/A

 

e.      Synlab or their joint venture, Synnovis

 

Our response:         N/A

 

f.      Lloyd’s pharmacy

 

Our response:         N/A

 

g.      NHS Trusts/ their laboratory services

 

Our response:

 

Our universal online sexual health service is an integral part of our
local, specialist, Level 3 sexual health services.

 

Norfolk integrated Contraception and Sexual Health (iCaSH) is provided by
Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust (CCS), a feature of which is
‘iCaSH Express’; an online sexual health service.

 

Given that iCaSH Express is commissioned as part of an integrated
services, and on a ‘block contract’ basis, we are unable to stipulate an
overall spend specific to sexual health testing.

 

The total contract value, including the provision of physical, specialist
clinics and iCaSH Express is as follows:

 

CCS
2021/22 £ 5,351,131
2022/23 £ 5,351,131
Apr23 - Dec23* £ 4,034,928

 

*Please note that the figure offered is simply a pro-rata value calculated
from the whole financial year contract plan of £5,379,904

 

h.      Other.  Please name any provider where the spend in any year
exceeded £100,000

 

Our response:

 

The contract for service with Terrence Higgins Trust is integrated and
block. As a result we are unable to define the value aligned to online
provision. The total contract value however is in excess of £100,000 and
so we wished to acknowledge that here.

 

 4. When did the authority last issue a tender for these services

 

Our response:

 

For clarity, the authority funds the following online sexual health
services. Not all of these are funded through direct procurement, and as
such additional detail has been offered to best respond to the question
posed:

 

Service Procurement Route Last Tender Issued
iCaSH Express Directly commissioned May 2014
service
THT - NCSP Sub-contracted activity by N/A – not issued by
commercial arrangement Norfolk County
Council
National HIV Self-Sampling Framework Agreement N/A – not issued by
Service established by DHSC through Norfolk County
open tender Council

 

 

 

 5. When does the current contract expire

 

Our response:

 

Service Contracting Route Expiry Date
iCaSH Express A feature of a wider 31 March 2026
specialist sexual health
services contract
THT - NCSP Sub-contracted activity by 31 March 2026
commercial arrangement
National HIV Self-Sampling Framework Agreement 31 December 2024
Service established by DHSC through
open tender

 

 

If you are dissatisfied with our handling of your request you have the
right of appeal through the Council’s internal review procedure by setting
out the grounds of your appeal in writing to:

 

[1][Norfolk County Council request email]

or Information Compliance Team

County Hall

Martineau Lane

Norwich

NR1 2DH

 

An appeal should be submitted within 40 working days of the date of this
notice and should be identified as "FOI Appeal".

 

If you are dissatisfied after pursuing the appeal procedure, you may apply
to the Information Commissioner under Section 50 of the Act for a decision
whether your request for information has been dealt with in accordance
with the requirements of Part I of the Act.  Refer to the ICO Website at:
[2]https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ for advice on how to report a concern.  Or
you can write to them at:

 

First Contact Team

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane, Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

 

Yours sincerely

Information Compliance Officer

Information Governance
Team Tel: 01603 222661

5th Floor, County Hall

[3]Norfolk County Council[4]    [5]Twitter[6] [7]Facebook[8] [9]Web

 

[10]Campaign Logo

 

show quoted sections