outline business case - NHS Health at Work

Geography
The IAS will cover the entire UK. The focus for the Network will be to partner with a lead party and
provide the T2 OH service in England.
Commercial Arrangements:
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are currently working up the tender specification
for the IAS contract. It is possible that any future contract may follow the route taken by the DWP
for awarding its Personal Independence Payments (PIP) contract, which commenced in 2013. The
PIP contract was broken down into 5 regional ‘lots’ as well as a single ‘national lot’ to provide full
national coverage in the event that the procurement decision was to award the entire contract to
one provider working on a national basis. Ultimately, a number of different providers were
‘awarded’ the regional ‘lots’. This approach helps to encourage innovation, mitigate contractual
risk, and create competition within the provider market place.
For the reasons referred to earlier in this paper, the Network does not have the resources, or the
expertise, to be the lead provider for such a large-scale contract. However, the NHS is potentially
well positioned to leverage its trusted brand, geographical coverage, and OH expertise, to deliver
an effective face-to-face T2 service. As such, the Network will need to partner with a chosen
provider that offers the best strategic fit. To help the Network facilitate this arrangement, it will
work with our colleagues at Syngentis (formerly NHS Plus) to provide the business support to help
to develop and negotiate our commercial arrangements. As a not for profit limited company,
Syngentis will hold the contract with the chosen lead partner on behalf of the Network, and will
operate on a hub and spoke basis working with any qualified Network Member.
The length of the contract is not yet known, but is likely to be in the region of 3 to 5 years, with the
potential for performance-related extensions.
Risk
In the event that the IAS contract follows the same route as the PIP contract, it is recognised that
there is a degree of risk associated with partnering with one single organisation in the event of an
unsuccessful bid. To mitigate this risk, Syngentis and the Network have embarked upon
discussions with six of the leading OH and health assessment market providers. The choice of
partner will be taken by the Network Board, who will weigh up the strengths and weaknesses of
each provider to determine the best fit.
There is an additional risk of direct approaches being made to Network Members by other
providers, who may request exclusivity. The Network will need to communicate its plans to
Members to minimise the potential risk associated with fragmentation of the Network in this way.
Network Members are susceptible to rapidly changing demands upon their services by their host
employer, such as responding to infectious disease outbreaks, delivering large-scale winter
influenza immunisation programmes, and even occasionally covering for general hospital staff
shortages. Annual cost improvement programmes exacerbate these pressures. Participation in
delivering the IAS under contract has to be seen as a long-term commitment, and requires ringfenced
staffing and other resources to avoid any breach of contract. To mitigate against this risk,
participating Members will need to seek Trust Board approval and Chief Executive sign-off for any
subsequent IAS contract.
Revenue Scenarios
The DWP expect the total value of the IAS contract to be in the region of £45m - £135m per
annum. This is broken down as:
NHS Health at Work Network 5 July 2013