Background
The Queen Elizabeth NHS Foundation Trust engaged the East of England Collaborative Procurement Hub on a project to streamline the supply of nursing staff into the trust. The aim of this project was to standardise charge rates, eradicate any remaining off-framework supply and better manage the spread of agencies who had pre-exiting relationships and supply in the trust.
The solution
East of England Collaborative Procurement Hub presented an option appraisal and fed into the process for potential future operating models, resulting in the award of a Master Vendor arrangement for nursing staff under the NHS National Clinical Staffing Framework.
East of England Collaborative Procurement Hub implemented a new call off contract, which included bespoke clauses and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in order to better manage the performance of the Master Vendor. Since the creation of the Master Vendor arrangement, East of England Collaborative Procurement Hub has implemented a rolling contract management programme, periodic review meetings and regular ad-hoc support on operational issues.
The results
Since the creation of the framework, trusts have been able to rationalise their multiple routes to market and streamline their framework usage. This has led to compliance against NHSI caps improving and the administration burden on trust staff has being reduced due to the smaller number of agencies that the trust interacts and has bookings with.
“As a collaborative team and in partnership with the East of England NHS Collaborative Procurement Hub, the trust has been able to standardise charge rates and reduce off framework spend through the introduction of new framework compliantagencies to the master vendor chain. This has created a supply of compliant partner agencies working towards the common goal of cost reduction and improved quality of service.”
– Anthony McCourt, Workforce Recovery