What is the NHS Provider Selection Regime (PSR)?
The NHS Provider Selection Regime was introduced on January 1, 2024. Many NHS tenders and contract opportunities have been released under the Provider Selection Regime (PSR) structure. The PSR is a new statutory process which details and provides a framework around the public bodies should manage the procurement process when procuring healthcare services in England.
The process and structure has been adopted by all of the statutory and government bodies across England including the NHS England, NHS Trusts and NHS Foundation Trusts across the UK, a broad range of local authorities who provide health related services to the community and the Integrated Care Boards.
It is therefore critical that from a bid and tender perspective, if you want to win healthcare bids in the UK, you need to understand the procurement process and also keep in mind, when writing the bid or tender, the reason for it being put in place.
The overall intention of the PSR is to:
- Put the patients first and create a flexible and also proportionate method and procurement process for selecting healthcare service providers.
- Promote integration across healthcare systems. This is important as when you write your NHS bid, you need to ensure that you propose a solution that accommodates / supports this point.
- Reduce costs and administration time in procurement. This generally means the being selected to a NHS Provider Selection Regime opens a long term opportunity and sometimes multiple opportunities to service the NHS / an NHS contract.
There is a strong focus on flexibility and collaboration through the regime and it is generally geared towards the local population.
The three procurement processes and how we can help you tender and bid for NHS contracts through these processes
The NHS Provider Selection Regime introduces three procurement processes:
- Direct Award: NHS organisations can award contracts directly. It isn’t the most common form of procurement but it is possible, especially for highly specialised areas. From a proposals and bid perspective, you need to do a good job of detailing your speciality and showcasing that you are the most suitable provider.
- Competitive award: This is the normal competitive bidding process and involves you writing a bid and participating in the tender process. All the usual bid writing methodologies apply here and you need to beat your competition to be successful.
- Direct award (with competition call): These occur when NHS organisations award you the tender response, however, they then invite other suppliers and businesses to submit proposals.
When you are writing your bid or tender, or if you engage one of our experts to write it for you, you will need to be mindful of the five key criteria the authorities need to consider when deciding on and selecting a supplier for the NHS contract. These include:
- Quality and innovation: Write about your robust quality assurance procedures and how you have a culture-focused on quality. Talk about the benefits of any innovative services you can offer and how you are a thought leader in your field (the health field or another field).
- Value: Quantify any value you deliver to ensure that you demonstrate how you will provide value. Where you provide additional services or highly quality services than your competition, talk about and explain this in your bid. Show that you are delivering value for money to the local community and patients.
- Integration and collaboration: You need to show that you are open to collaborating with other partners and stakeholders. This generally needs to be a win-theme throughout your tender.
- Access, inequalities and choice: Focus on and evidence that you are a good corporate citizen committed to equal opportunity and provide a profile of your business in the bid where possible.
- Service sustainability and social value: Read our blog which specifically addresses social value. You need to put forward quantified and measurable social value initiatives and a realistic and practical approach to sustainability.
One of the key pillars of the NHS Provider Selection Regime is transparency. IT has been designed so that there is transparency in healthcare and public health services across the UK and this is positive for businesses looking to win NHS contracts and other healthcare and health services bids. It ensures there is a level playing field for winning and our bid writers in London, Manchester and Birmingham help businesses across the UK secure new contracts.
Strategies and tips to win NHS and healthcare contracts advertised under the Provider Selection Regime
- Writing to the criteria – You need to be mindful of and integrate the five criteria above into your bid or tender. The authorities are bound to consider these factors. What is important is that you read between the lines of the tender and if you have a gut feeling the NHS trust or other authority is particularly concerned about a specific criterion, ensure you cover that criteria thoroughly. In order to win healthcare bids you also need to spell out to them how you meet the criteria and make it clear to the reader it is that criteria you are addressing. This makes it easier for them to award you marks.
- Transparency – The focus on transparency can really work in your favour. That is because all of the decision-making processes are kept on file and recorded in internal records. Any conflict of interests are published. When you seek feedback on an unsuccessful bid, take this information into account and ensure you act on it to improve future bids.
- It is possible to challenge decisions. This is through submitting a representation to the PSR Review Panel. You can generally be relatively certain that procurement personnel take a thorough, methodical and unbiased approach to scoring and it’s up to you to write a winning bid, tender or proposal to win.
There are some additional requirements and regulations that have been introduced around framework agreements. Firstly, our team has lots of experience writing Framework applications and agreements. We complete approximately one framework every fortnight for clients in different industries including the health industry. Under the PSR, frameworks are generally limited to four years and they need to be concluded using competitive processes. There is some scope for contract modifications although this is limited.
What health care services are covered by the NHS Provider Selection Regime
The new NHS Provider Selection Regime applies to a wide range of health care services across the UK. Our professional healthcare bid and tender writers have strong experience writing bids and tenders in all these services. Tsaks Consulting UK provides:
- Tender and bid writing for hospital services contracts (these include many different areas such as surgical, medical, obstetrical, rehabilitation and other services carried out in hospitals).
- Tender and bid writing for medical practice services (general practitioners and dentists). We have a track record of winning contracts for our clients prior to the NHS PSR including dental contracts across the UK.
- Tender and bid writing for other health services such as nurses, home medical treatment and midwives. Again, we have strong experience in this area and find similarities between the current procurement process and previous pre 2024 RFPs and ITTs for these bids.
- Tender and bid writing for clients providing pharmaceutical services.
- Tender and bid writing for medical assessment, analysis and imaging services. These can be both community-based services and others. We have written imaging and other services in conjunction with the equipment supply bids and other product supply bids. We also have experience in alternative medical services bids.
How you can win more NHS and health sector contracts through the Provider Selection Regime
Our team employs, and recommends you employ, the following strategies to help you win:
- Showcase your services and how they address each focus area.
- Clearly articulate how your service aligns with the authorities objectives
- Ensure you keep compliance records – and have them ready during the standstill period in case they are requested.
- Take an active approach to networking and businesses development in order to support your tendering strategy. It’s a good idea to attend events, participate in webinars and attend outreach programs to make yourself known and to gain insights into opportunities.
- Make sure you demonstrate and make it obvious that you that your proposal aligns to the PSR objectives.
- Put forward a comprehensive transition plan and ensure you comply with current and previous regulations. I.e. demonstrate and detail how your offer or proposal complies with both.
Benefits if you are an incumbent
Under the new PSR, there is significant scope for incumbents to retain existing contracts without having to go through the competitive tender process. We recommend that current providers explore putting forward an unsolicited bid or proposal prior to the completion of current contracts in certain situations. Speak with our bid writers for more guidance.
How we can help you win
Contact us to discuss how our team of professional bid writers in London, Manchester and Birmingham, as well as remotely across the UK, can help you win your next NHS PSR contract. Our team will assist you to:
- Research the opportunity
- Write the bid
- Create supporting documentation
- Manage the tender response process
- Identify new opportunities