Tenders for sexual health services in Rotherham have been put on hold

The tender, which was due for publication in July, has been delayed to give service providers time to recover from the pandemic and to enable council resources to be diverted to deal with the repercussions.

The service was awarded to The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust in 2015

Its contract was due to expire in March 2021, but Rotherham Council cabinet members have voted to extend it until 2022, to allow services to ‘return to a more normal state’.

A report to the cabinet said: “The tender for the provision of sexual health services was planned for publication in July.

“The request is to delay this until April 2021 and to have the tender concluded for a new contract start of April 1, 2022.

“The current contract with TRFT expires on March 31, 2021.

"The proposal to delay the reprocurement of the new contract therefore requires that the existing contract is extended past its current expiry date by 12 months.

"The value for the sexual health contract is £2,179,930 in 2020-21.

"The forecast cost of out-of-area genito-urinary medicine is £180,000. As a result of the delays proposed, this activity will stay with the council until the tender is completed as TRFT may not be in a position to take on new responsibilities until the pandemic situation improves."

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