FAQs - Round 2

The Tackling Indigenous Smoking (TIS) program is managed and funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Health and Aged Care (DOHAC)’s Preventive Health and Communicable Disease Section in the First Nations Health Division. The program aims to improve the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by reducing the prevalence of tobacco and recreational e-cigarette use (vaping) through population health promotion activities.

The National Best Practice Unit Tackling Indigenous Smoking (NBPU TIS) was established by DOHAC to provide tailored support to organisations funded under the national Tackling Indigenous Smoking (TIS) program. The NBPU is a consortium led by Ninti One Ltd and includes the Health Research Institute at the University of Canberra and the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet based at Edith Cowan University.

A component of the TIS program involves Ninti administering funding for the National Reach and Priority Projects (NRPP), which are time-limited projects to support the achievement of the key aims to expand the reach of smoke-free/vape-free programs, increase focus on prevention activities, and reduce the prevalence of tobacco use in regional, remote and very remote regions among the two priority groups of Indigenous young people and Indigenous pregnant women, their families and women of childbearing age.

Ninti expects to release an RFQ in early 2025. Prospective tenderers are advised to begin planning and designing their responses now.

Information in the RFQ will take precedence over information in this FAQ. For avoidance of doubt, any information in this FAQ is for advance notification, and cannot be relied upon when responding to the RFQ or eventual contracting.

The NRPP will be administered as commercial contracts between Ninti and the supplier. They are not grants.

Suppliers will be contracted via commercial contracts, with payments upon achievement of performance milestones.

The NRPP falls under Tackling Indigenous Smoking, a national Department of Health and Aged Care program.

First Nations-owned business Ninti One Limited is tasked with running a procurement process, commissioning and managing the subsequent individual NRPP projects, overseen by DoHAC.

The NRPP is focused on achieving better health outcomes for Indigenous people in the following areas only:

· two thematic areas of

(1) expanding the reach of the TIS program, increasing exposure of First Nations people in regional, remote and very remote IREGs (based on ANU TIS categories) to smoke free and vape free messaging and/or activities, particularly in IREGs with high Indigenous smoking rates (based on ABS/AIHW data) and/or

(2) increasing the focus on preventative population health activities in regional, remote and very remote areas, to support the development, promotion and/or implementation of smoking- and vaping prevention resources and/or activities across multiple IREGs, and/or

· two priority groups

(3) young Indigenous people (youth) in regional, remote and very remote areas, to support and improve First Nations youths’ understanding of the harms of vaping and smoking, to prevent and reduce uptake across multiple IREGs/communities, and/or

(4) First Nations pregnant women, their families and women of childbearing age in regional, remote and very remote areas – increasing their exposure to smoke-free and vape-free messaging and/or activities, particularly in IREGs with high Indigenous smoking rates during pregnancy (based on ABS/AIHW data) https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/mothers-babies/indigenous-mothers-babies/contents/antenatal-period/risk-factors

Projects providing support in regional, remote and very remote areas in Australia, as determined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, will be eligible for funding.

https://maps.abs.gov.au/

The DOHAC has commissioned Ninti to run a procurement process via a Request for Quotation (RFQ) process. Ninti will contract suppliers by using the most up-to-date procurement guides and rules of the Commonwealth government. This means that Ninti will use the Department of Finance (DOF)’s Commonwealth Procurement Rules (CPRs), the Commonwealth Grant Rules and Guidelines (CGRGs), and other DOF tools such as the Australian Government Contract Management Guide.

Larger projects are preferred, as opposed to a range of numerous small projects.