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Exceeding

Enhanced Procurement in the NHS.

In no other industry is the reward for ‘doing things better’ greater than in the NHS, where budgets are squeezed and every penny saved going towards improving the patient experience, providing vital services and life-saving care.

eXceeding offers invaluable support to NHS procurement teams, providing both expertise and additional capacity to bolster internal resources, particularly during times of knowledge gaps or resource constraints.

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Healthcare spending has increased nearly every year since the NHS was established, with around £155.1 billion a year allocated to NHS England for spending on health services.

From new building projects to essential day-to-day facilities services, as well as vital information technology systems, purchasing clinical goods and corporate works and services within the sector comes with complex challenges and requires specialist knowledge.

Some common challenges in NHS procurement include:

  • Regulation and compliance: Procurement processes must adhere to stringent regulations and standards, such as the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and the Procurement Act 2023, which can be complex and time-consuming to navigate.
  • Budget constraints and limited financial resources: The NHS operates within strict financial limits, requiring careful allocation of resources to ensure cost-effectiveness while maintaining high standards of care.
  • Data management: Effective procurement relies on accurate data. However, many NHS organisations struggle with fragmented and inconsistent data, making it difficult to analyse spending patterns and make informed decisions.
  • Fragmented and multi-layered Trusts and departments: The NHS is composed of numerous trusts, co-ordinating efforts across these entities to collaborate and achieve economies of scale and standardisation of goods and services can be challenging.
  • Workforce skills: Adequate training and development of procurement staff are essential. There is a need for continuous professional development to keep up with the evolving regulations, technologies, and market conditions. However, this must be balanced with providing tactical availability of procurement resources in what is usually a high-volume environment.
  • Manual processes or dated procurement technology: The adoption of new procurement technologies, such as eSourcing and P2P systems, can streamline processes but also requires significant investment and training, which can be a hurdle for NHS trusts.
  • Innovation adoption: Integrating innovative products and services into the procurement process is often slow due to the need for rigorous evaluation and validation to ensure they meet clinical and safety standards.
  • Sustainability goals:The NHS aims to reduce its environmental impact, requiring procurement processes to consider sustainability criteria, which can complicate decision-making and increase costs.
  • Contract and supplier relationship management: Implementing robust contracts with clearly defined SLAs and KPIs and then developing and maintaining strong relationships with suppliers is challenging but necessary for ensuring consistent quality and delivery of goods and services. NHS procurement teams are often overwhelmed with running procurements and are not able to focus sufficiently on these areas.
  • Capacity and skills gaps: Due to NHS budget constraints, procurement teams can often suffer from lack of headcount and resulting lack of capacity to meet periods of peak activity, and also subject matter expertise for particular category requirements or types of complex procurement exercise.

Why eXceeding?

As the Procurement Act regulations loom, our assistance becomes even more crucial, helping organisations not only prepare for the changes but also identify opportunities and implement necessary adjustments.

By collaborating with eXceeding, clients benefit from unparalleled confidentiality standards. With triple ISO accreditation and Cyber Essentials certification, we ensure the utmost security and confidentiality of your data and information.

Furthermore, accessing our services through the NHS SBS Consultancy and Advisory Service of Health Framework Agreement streamlines the process, granting direct award access. This means you gain access to our best practice toolsets, a dedicated delivery team, and extensive category knowledge, all backed by pre-qualification and approval, providing peace of mind and simplifying the procurement journey.

If you would like to speak to us about how we can support your procurement needs, please drop us an email or give us a call on 0330 088 1620.

At eXceeding, we’re here to help NHS clients do things better: to save time, resources, provide value for money, and deliver better results. Having worked extensively with a number of NHS organisations and the wider public sector, we have seen the challenges and frustrations experienced by procurement and category professionals and helped to solve them.

Take, for example, our work with Cambridge University Hospitals Trust where we focused on transitioning their outsourced IT contract to a new service provider. Through this project alone, we have generated cost savings of more than £4 million annually, which will be put back into the fantastic work the Trust does for its patients.

NHS Shared Business Services Framework Agreement Supplier

eXceeding has been appointed as a Framework Agreement Supplier on the NHS SBS Consultancy and Advisory Services for Health Framework Agreement under Lot 6 – Finance and Procurement.

 

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The framework offers a host of benefits to contracting authorities, including:

  • One of the most cost-effective frameworks available, focused on the NHS, but accessable to the whole of the public sector.
  • Free access for approved organisations and simple search functionalities that ensure the right match between supplier and the organisation’s needs and budgets.
  • Services available to contract range across finance & procurement, healthcare, IT, HR, corporate governance, and property, among others.
  • The framework agreement gives the freedom, flexibility and ease for all contracting authorities to direct award to their preferred supplier(s).
  • Options for further competition, including provisions for immediate direct awards to preferred suppliers for expedited contracting, resulting in increased value and competitive pricing.
  • Various pricing tiers for different consultant grades to ensure cost-effectiveness and value for money.
  • A broad selection of pre-vetted suppliers, ranging from regional SMEs to well-known national firms.
  • Unified terms and conditions to simplify the procurement process, supported by dedicated advisory services.

Get in touch.

Sometimes it’s easier to discuss your requirements directly. Contact one of our expert consultants now.

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