Partnership in respect of NHS Professionals LTD (NHSP) (Project Florence)

The Department of Health (DH), acting on behalf of the Secretary of State for Health, is seeking a private sector entity to partner with DH in the ownership of NHS Professionals Ltd (NHSP). DH is a department of the UK Government, with responsibility for overseeing the National Health Service in England. NHSP is a private company incorporated under the Companies Acts and fully owned by the Secretary of State for Health. NHSP is 1 of the largest suppliers of flexible staffing to the NHS, with a bank of over 50 000 workers providing services to 57 client Trusts. It is currently envisaged that DH will sell 74.9 % of the issued share capital in NHSP to the bidder which offers the most attractive proposal to DH. The appointed Partner will have day to day operational and financial control of the business.

Additional information: DH is undertaking an unregulated competitive process in order to appoint a partner. It does not consider that this transaction is subject to the requirements of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 ('Regulations'). DH therefore does not consider itself bound by the Regulations in respect of this process in any way, and is publishing this contract notice on a voluntary basis in order to encourage a fair, open and transparent engagement. DH has identified a process in its documentation which bears some similarity to the competitive procedure with negotiation set out in the Regulations. It does not consider itself bound to follow the process identified, or the competitive procedure with negotiation in any way, and reserves the right to depart from its identified process at any time. DH has indicated the use of the competitive procedure with negotiation at section IV.1.1) due to a mandatory requirement to select a procedure on this form. Further detailed information on the process is set out in the accompanying Pre-Qualification Documentation pack, including information on minimum financial standing requirements. Interested parties should note that all decisions on this process are subject to approval from the Secretary of State for Health.

Link to the Contract Notice can be found here: http://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:408339-2016:TEXT:EN:HTML

This exercise will be completed via the DH eTendering portal (BMS) and candidates wishing to be considered for this (or any other) DH contract must submit their response via BMS.

The BMS reference number for this exercise is 60335.

Suppliers should visit https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health/about/procurement to register and download instructions on how to respond.

If you require assistance, please contact the Supplier Help-desk on 0113 254 5777 or

supplier.helpdesk@dh.gsi.gov.uk This help-desk is available 10:00 to 16:00, Monday to Friday excluding Bank Holidays.