Delivering NHS England’s most complex non-clinical technology procurement ever

How do you procure the best technology to transform healthcare through data?

NHS England continues to harness the power of data to improve the way it plans services and manages care for millions of people. A new Federated Data Platform is at the heart of this mission, joining up the data held separately by over 200 NHS organisations countrywide. Procuring the software to enable this ground-breaking innovation represents NHS England’s largest and most complex non-clinical technology procurement ever.

The £500-million procurement was conducted under intense public scrutiny and with the involvement of several government departments and direct interest from senior ministers. The stakes were high. A successful procurement would lay the foundations for better care and services for generations to come. One that fell short would mean that the immediate opportunity to transform care and services would be lost.

Stepping up to the challenge

The Baringa team entered this testing programme as the commercial partner, charged with planning and leading the series of complex procurements that underpin the new data platform. We brought a raft of expertise to the challenge, from areas including government and healthcare, commercial and procurement, digital and data, business case development and programme management. Throughout the engagement, we applied this whilst working shoulder to shoulder with professional and NHS England partners, forming a single team laser-focused on delivering the programme within the challenging timeframes.

The competitive dialogue process chosen to ensure a fair procurement can be notoriously complicated and drawn-out. Our deep experience enabled us to cut through complexity to deliver the procurement at pace in just nine months.

Given the highly confidential and sensitive data involved, our procurement strategy separated the contract to supply the FDP and associated services with the contract to supply robust data protection services. This optimised data security and privacy for the FDP.

Transformative impact for years to come

This successful procurement depended as much on our human qualities as our geeky passion for our specialist disciplines – our natural ease in working collaboratively with clients and partners, our determination to stick at and resolve difficult challenges, our ability to act as a critical friend, highlighting opportunities to do things in a better way. With contractors appointed, and platform development and roll-out underway, the Baringa team has enabled NHS England to start building the data backbone that will unlock better health services and care for people in England for years to come.