Daily Insight: The merger millions

The work on the merger of NHS England with NHS Digital, and the imminent addition of Health Education England, will not stop when they all start using the same branding on their letterheads and email signatures.

Would that it were so simple as rearranging some chairs and ordering some more stationery.

The amalgamation of the three arms-length bodies is going to trundle on for months to come. At least another 12, according to a recently published contract notice with PA Consulting.

They were brought in back in October to work for 18 months on supporting “implementation activities in directorates and regions”, providing “specialist skills of managing change at scale and implementing designs”.

They are getting paid up to £13m for this, in addition to £2m for a previous contract last year laying the ground work for this one.

And there is much to do, with NHSE earmarking £100m for voluntary redundancies and associated costs as it tries to cut 30 to 40 per cent of its workforce.

This is the latest in a line of contracts awarded to consultancies as they help NHSE prepare for a new look future.

A cure for procurement

A former senior civil servant has spoken candidly about the state of procurement in local NHS bodies.

Edward James told HSJ that local NHS bodies were “notoriously bad” at managing contracts, with under-investment in teams meaning unscrupulous suppliers could take advantage of the lack of scrutiny.

“Nobody in the NHS really does [contract management] to a great extent,” he said.

Mr James, who was head of procurement at DHSC during the pandemic and received an MBE for services to healthcare, is now hoping to fix that in Yorkshire and the Humber by leading a merger of three trust procurement teams into a single service.

He played down any suggestion that the merger would lead to redundancies, telling HSJ the trusts needed “more people, not less” in procurement, pointing to large numbers of contracts that had expired or were up for renewal.

By having more negotiating power and the ability to invest in more specialised roles, a business case for the plans reckons this could generate nearly £30m in savings by year five.

Will the numbers add up in practice? The former top civil servant was bullish, insisting they were based on “conservative” estimates and could be achieved.