19.03.15
Redundancies begin in primary care support services as outsourcing plans move ahead
NHS England is to make 60 people redundant at the NHS Primary Care Support Service’s (PCSS) head office in Lancing as it continues with its plans to outsource the service.
Originally formed in 2005 from the merger of four smaller NHS organisations, the PCSS forms part of the Surrey & Sussex and South London NHS England Area Teams. It provides administrative and payment services to GPs, dentists, pharmacies and opticians throughout Surrey, Sussex and South West London.
An NHS England spokesman said: “NHS England, like all publicly funded NHS organisations, needs to make significant savings in order to protect delivery of front-line services.
“As part of a programme to reduce costs, a number of Primary Care Support Services will be consolidated onto fewer sites. Lancing is one of the sites that is proposed to close, and inevitably this will mean that some staff will be made redundant.
“NHS England is committed to supporting staff through this process and to find new employment opportunities within the NHS. During this period of change all services will continue to be provided to the primary care contractors in West Sussex.”
The decision has been made as NHS England continues with its plans to outsource primary care support services nationwide. In January they announced the shortlisted bidders for the £1bn deal, which is one of the single largest outsourcing deals ever proposed in the NHS.
The three shortlisted bidders are:
- Capgemini, a global consultancy and outsourcing firm, with South East Commissioning Support Unit;
- Capita with Anglian Community Enterprise (a social enterprise providing community services in north east Essex); and
- Equiniti, which specialises in finance and administration.
Several NHS Commissioning Support Units (CSUs) were interested in bidding but were barred from doing so due to currently being part of NHS England. Any decision to award the contract to them could be challenged under procurement law once the units become autonomous in 2016.
NHS England made the decision to launch an ‘open’ public procurement process for primary care support services (PCS) in July 2014 after not being able to design a viable in-house solution.
NHS England said this would mean a “difficult time” for PCS staff and said it will ensure any transfer process to an external organisation is “as smooth as possible”.
The contract will be awarded in early spring, according to NHS England.
Staff at the Lancing office will remain in their posts until the end of June.
The decision and the way it has been handled has angered staff, according to Caroline Fife, Unison regional organiser for the South East.
She told the Worthing Herald: “I think they are really cross about the way it’s been handled because there has been discussions about reorganisation for nearly two years, but until two weeks ago they still didn’t know what was happening or what their future was.
“I don’t think they are feeling particularly supported by NHS England. They have been in a bit of a limbo state. People like working for the NHS so they just continued until they knew what was happening with their jobs.
“I have been dealing with emails putting people in
touch with local NHS organisations. My question is what have they (NHS England) done to mitigate redundancy?”
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