10.02.15
Three private sector bids included in commissioning support framework
Three private sector bids have been approved by NHS England to join the new Commissioning Support Lead Provider Framework, at the expense of two NHS commissioning support units (CSUs), casting doubt over their future and the fate of their 2,200 staff.
NHS England has announced that Capita, Optum and MBED – a consortium of Mouchel, BDO, Engine and Dr Foster – will be among the approved ‘end-to-end’ providers of support services on the framework.
Optum’s bid includes a supply chain that features a range of other companies, including KPMG and BT.
The rest of the list was made up of CSUs:
- North of England CSU;
- South East CSU;
- Greater East Midlands and Arden CSU;
- Midlands and Lancashire CSU;
- North and East London CSU;
- South CSU, South West CSU and Central Southern CSU;
North West CSU, which serves CCGs in Cheshire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester, and Yorkshire & Humber CSU were unsuccessful in their bids for accreditation to provide the full range of end-to-end support services. In 2013-14 their combined turnover was £183m. The two unsuccessful CSUs collectively serve 47 CCGs.
However while their bids to provide end-to-end services were unsuccessful, both CSUs were included in the part of the procurement framework to do with providing services to support continuing healthcare and individual funding requests.
This work however is unlikely to be sufficient to guarantee the viability of the vast majority of services provided by North West and Yorkshire and Humber CSUs.
The full framework winners are:
Providers were finally selected after a two month assessment by a panel of over 30 representatives from CCGs, NHS England’s area teams, NHS Improving Quality, NHS Right Care, and other experts.
The framework’s first wave of procurement will begin this month. CCGs will have three more procurement windows between April and September.
However, CCGs will not be forced to use the framework. They may decide to bring some services in-house, share functions between themselves, or conduct their own procurement.
NHS England is encouraging CCGs to use the framework to re-procure their current Service Level Agreements with CSUs, many of which run out in April 2016 and must be openly tendered before then.
It is anticipated that between £3bn and £5bn of services will be procured through the framework in light of the need for all current SLAs between CCGs and CSUs needing to be tendered openly to comply with EU law.
Bob Ricketts, director of commissioning support services, said: “I’m delighted about the range of quality providers that have made it onto the framework. I genuinely believe that these organisations have brought together the best services in the market to offer commissioners everything they need to deliver the vision of the Five Year Forward View.
“Local commissioners have been asking for a faster, simplified approach to choosing and changing their commissioning support provider. The framework will cut a typical procurement process to only three months and with the free procurement and legal support we are offering to CCGs and other commissioners, we hope to make the burden of re-procuring their commissioning support requirements as small as possible.”
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