Case Study

PROVIDENCE CARE SOLUTIONS LTD NHS Hertfordshire and West Essex Domiciliary Care AQP

Tender Overview

For a domiciliary care business that has never held an NHS contract, the gap between wanting one and actually having one can feel wide. The procurement language is unfamiliar. The regulatory framework is different. The standard of evidence expected is higher than most providers have previously encountered. The application itself is detailed, procedurally specific, and submitted through a portal that closes at a fixed point with no ability to add or amend anything after the fact.

Providence Care Solutions Ltd recognised all of this when the NHS Hertfordshire and West Essex Domiciliary Care AQP opened in 2025. They deliver personal care to adults who need support to stay at home, and they had built a solid client base doing it. What they wanted next was an NHS contract. What they needed to get there was a team that knew the process inside out. They brought in AssuredBID.

The procurement was run by NHS HWE Integrated Care Board under the Provider Selection Regime. The AQP model approves every provider that clears a defined set of criteria, adding them to a pool from which commissioners and service users choose when arranging NHS-funded domiciliary care. The criteria covered financial standing, insurance, CQC registration and compliance, safeguarding governance, data protection, workforce management, and service delivery capability. All were assessed separately. All had to pass.

Challenges Faced

Providence Care Solutions had not previously applied for an NHS contract. First-time NHS applicants face a learning curve that goes beyond filling in a form. The Provider Selection Regime, which governs this procurement, only came into force in January 2024. The terminology it uses, the procedural steps it requires, and the way the standstill period and contract issue work are all specific to the new regime. Getting those details wrong carries real risk, even when the substantive content of an application is strong.

The evidential standard of an NHS AQP is also more demanding than many care providers expect. NHS commissioners are not satisfied by statements of intent or general descriptions of good practice. They need to see documented, specific, verifiable evidence of how an organisation functions across every assessed area. For a business submitting to an NHS commissioner for the first time, understanding what that level of evidence looks like in practice, and how to present it correctly through a portal like CarePulse, is not intuitive.

What We Did

AssuredBID’s first task was a complete review of Providence Care’s existing documentation. Before any response was drafted, we needed to know what they already had that was usable, what needed to be brought up to date, and what was entirely absent. That review covered CQC records, policies across safeguarding, data protection and quality assurance, insurance certificates, financial standing records, and staffing and training documentation.

With that picture established, we wrote the application. Each section was tailored to Providence Care’s actual operations. Rather than describing what a compliant domiciliary care provider should theoretically do, we described what Providence Care specifically does: how their management structure works, how they hire and develop care staff, how quality is checked and maintained, how they would receive and manage NHS referrals, and how they would operate within the Hertfordshire and West Essex footprint.

Supporting documents were tracked throughout. Each required item was pulled from the review, checked against the specification requirement it was there to address, verified for current validity and correct format, and uploaded to CarePulse ahead of the deadline. The approach was methodical because it had to be. On an AQP where a missing document carries the same consequence as a missing answer, nothing could be overlooked.

The Outcome

NHS Hertfordshire and West Essex wrote to Providence Care Solutions on 9 March 2026 to confirm their application had been approved. Following the standstill period required under the Provider Selection Regime, the contract was issued. Providence Care Solutions opened for NHS-commissioned referrals on 1 April 2026.


Client	Providence Care Solutions Ltd
Commissioner	NHS Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB
Procurement	NHS HWE Domiciliary Care AQP 2025
Contract Start	1 April 2026
Result	Successful

Conclusion

Providence Care Solutions now holds an NHS contract for the first time. They are on the HWE approved provider list for an ICB area covering a large population across Hertfordshire and the west of Essex, with NHS referrals now accessible to them through the AQP channel. The ICB’s written confirmation of their approval is also a formal record of their organisational standards, one that will be relevant and useful in every future procurement they take part in.

If your care business is considering NHS commissioning and you want experienced support navigating the process from application to award, visit www.assuredbid.co.uk or contact AssuredBID directly to talk through what your submission needs to look like.

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PROVIDENCE CARE SOLUTIONS LTD NHS Hertfordshire and West Essex Domiciliary Care AQP

Tender Overview

Challenges Faced

What We Did

The Outcome

Conclusion

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