In the last week or so (I’m not sure when) the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) quietly deleted its comprehensive market engagement page for the proposed Health Sector Resourcing (HSR) framework – the health and social care equivalent of the recently-awarded Public Sector Resourcing (PSR) framework.
If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em
As the new, rather more sparse, page confirms: HSR is no longer a single framework but is instead a collaborative “strategy”. In simple terms, instead of one big framework with several lots, CCS has decided to join forces with NHS Procurement in Partnership (known more commonly in the recruitment world under its previous name – NHS CPP) to address and update each of the established frameworks previously run separately by the two bodies. One service at a time.
CCS also published a news item on the collaboration with NHS PiP – answering a question I raised at the end of last year as to how the broader HSR proposition would challenge some of the more well-known NHS clinical supply frameworks.
So what’s next?
The first item up for review is the managed staff bank framework, which should be of interest to all clinical recruitment specialists wanting to future-proof their NHS proposition. The contract notice is due out later in February (according to the page) and although market engagement is ongoing, it’s likely that the procurement will draw heavily on the HSR consultations that have already taken place.
NHS Improvement has been saying for some time how they want to see more recruitment providers bring their expertise and innovations to in-house/staff bank arrangements and to increase the options available for trusts. It will be interesting to see how open the selection criteria is for this framework when the contract notice is published.