Introduction
This analysis presents an update on our previous work charting the impact of government policy on the use of outside providers to deliver and plan NHS care.
The data has been collected by recording submissions between April 2010 and April 2015, by all NHS Commissioners (CCGs/trusts/NHS/gov), on the official tendering websites. From the subsequent analysis we have identified the services that are being put before the market, the providers that are winning these contracts and crucially how this has changed in recent years.
Read the full report here.
Overview: April 2013 to January 2016
We found that £16 billion of NHS clinical contracts have been awarded through the market since April 2013 (411 contracts). Over this time the private sector has won nearly £5.5bn worth. In total around £30 billion worth of NHS contracts have gone before the market, although just over half this value has been awarded.
£6bn worth of clinical contracts have been awarded so far in this financial year (April 2015/16), another £5bn worth remain in the pipeline.
£789m worth were awarded in the first year after the Health and Social Care Act came into effect (2013/14), but this figure grew to just over £9bn in the year after (2014/15). This figure was inflated by one significant contract – a £5bn framework agreement to provide commissioning support services (see update below).
So far in this financial year (2015/16) the private sector has won just over £2.1 billion worth of clinically related NHS contracts (37%). The not for profit sector have picked up £955 million worth of contracts (16%) and the NHS has won £2.7 billion worth.
Read about the most significant contracts from 2015
Jargon Buster
TED: Tenders Electronic Daily, a supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). All public tenders over a given value must be published here.
Contract Notice: A document published in the OJEU which notifies interested parties of a contract which is being put out to tender.
Contract Award: A document published in the OJEU which announces the winner of a given contract.
Prior Information Notices (PINs): Documents published prior to a contract notice which may be used to engage the market and give interested parties extra time to prepare bids.
Lots: A large contract may be divided into 'lots', each of which can be awarded to a different supplier. Different lots will usually represent services in different locations.
