Invitation to Tender: Subject matter expert & author: clinical governance for primary care optometry

The College of Optometrists is the professional body for optometry. It qualifies the profession and delivers the guidance and development to ensure optometrists provide the best possible care. We promote excellence through the College’s affixes by building the evidence base for optometry and raising awareness of the profession with the public, commissioners, and healthcare professionals.

The College is seeking a subject matter expert to work as an independent contractor to review, update, and rewrite our clinical governance guidance. 

We are looking for a contractor (Individual or team) with clinical or academic expertise in clinical governance and experience developing clinical governance guidance in primary care; you do not need optometry-specific experience.

To review the current governance guidance and frameworks for primary care optometry, conduct a literature review to identify current best practices and write evidence-based clinical governance guidance. 

You must have exceptional communication and writing skills, and proven expertise in primary care governance. Previous experience in writing guidance or equivalent is essential. An understanding of primary care optometry in the UK is desirable, however our in-house clinical guidance team will provide context and setting support.

• Produce a fully referenced report in the agreed six-week period, with regular update meetings. You should be based in the UK, but there is no requirement to attend the College head office as all meetings will be virtual. 
• You will use your own IT, software and research access required for use to create the guidance. 
• You must be happy to be the named author and available to present an online webinar to College members on the report's content at a mutually convenient date and time. 
• You will be required to hand over the intellectual property of the report, which will be published online in the College’s house style. 
• The College will reserve editorial rights and copy-proofing by agreement. 

Please provide a document setting out how you will meet the requirements of the tender brief. Please include the CVs or equivalent of the key individuals working on the project, including the lead writer. Tenders will be assessed on the basis of how they meet the brief, relevant experience of the individual/team and value for money.

Our values are important to us, and we expect all our supplier partners to work in in a way which is aligned to them:

• We act with integrity and transparency.
• We listen and we learn.
• We demonstrate respect and professionalism.
• We achieve high quality.
• We champion equality, diversity and inclusion.