WorkCover conducted a tender (open to all suitably qualified suppliers) for return to work (RTW) services in September 2014 to transition from the pre-qualification process, to a contracted panel arrangement. This reduced the number of suppliers under management and allowed WorkCover to be more efficient in monitoring supplier performance. The current term of WorkCover's RTW services panel will expire in February 2020 and there are no options to extend.
WorkCover will be establishing a new RTW services panel and aims to have this in place by late January 2020. This will be done with an open tender process advertised on the QTenders website. A tender process is a fair and transparent way of giving all existing and any new suppliers an opportunity to apply for a position on the panel. No panel positions are carried over, and all suppliers must reapply if they wish to continue providing services for WorkCover. Current panel members should treat this application as if it was the first time applying; that is, provide succinct yet detailed responses and do not rely on current panel member status. There will be no guaranteed positions and no preferential treatment for current panel members.
WorkCover will be conducting the tender via the QTender website, with a target opening date of 2 August 2019. In past tenders, not all applicants have been appointed as the number of offers has exceeded our requirements. The final number of panel members will be based on a demand analysis for the category of services required and for each location. Only the top-scoring suppliers in each category/location will be appointed.
Suppliers interested in applying for the new panel are strongly encouraged to start planning for this and to also register with the QTenders website if they have not already. Suppliers should set up appropriate alerts for tenders that match their business focus. Suppliers will need to complete the registration process before they will be able to download the tender documents (please note, the tender documents will not be available until August 2019).
WorkCover does not keep a list of interested parties, so please do not rely on WorkCover to notify you when the tender has been released. Suppliers are encouraged to set up alerts in QTenders, and monitor WorkCover's website news page for further updates. WorkCover will also notify relevant industry associations of updates to be passed on to their members.
