Non Clinical Staffing

All public and third sector organisations can hire a range of quality non-clinical workers through a range of engagement types including fixed-term, temporary positions and contractors. In scope roles include, but are not limited to, admin, clerical, IT, finance, catering, cleaning and maintenance. Roles that require medical qualifications are out of scope.

Description

​​This framework is part of the NHS Workforce Alliance. It is available to all public sector bodies including:

  • NHS contracting authorities
  • central government
  • local government
  • universities
  • charities
  • blue light (emergency) services

Hire a range of quality candidates through a variety of engagement models on a regional and national basis across the UK. Roles include, but are not limited to:

  • administration and secretarial roles
  • finance, accounts and audit roles
  • IT technicians, analysts and technical engineer specialist, digital workers
  • legal secretaries, paralegals and lawyers
  • environmental and scientific roles, for example: EA and senior assistant scientists, technical and clinical coders including health records secretaries
  • caterers, drivers and security
  • estates and maintenance roles including general labour and specialist labour such as, electricians and surveyor

Roles that require a medical qualification are out of scope under the agreement and can be sourced through our Clinical staffing agreement.

Engagement models refer to the way in which you contract or hire workers and can include:

  • traditional agency hires
  • fixed term positions
  • independent contractors

You have the option to hire the roles you need directly from a supplier as and when you need to or you can set up a managed service. If you set up a managed service (MS) the MS provider will manage all of your workforce needs by either filling roles directly or through their supply chain.

You can also arrange for suppliers to manage projects on your behalf, and take responsibility for providing your desired outcomes through output based delivery.

 

Benefits

  • NHS England approved route to market for non-clinical temporary staffing
  • wide range of experienced suppliers including SME’s, specialist niche suppliers and managed solution options
  • maximum agreement rates are fixed and are also limited in line with the NHS England agency price caps
  • achieve larger savings using the built in discounts (you can access discounts for length of placement, by nominating a worker, or by hiring large volumes of workers at the same time)
  • transparent rates and costs for both PAYE and limited company temporary workers, including fixed term appointments
  • we carry out quality assurance audits to make sure worker pre employment checks for NHS roles follow the NHS Employers Check Standards and Skills for Health
  • non NHS contracting authorities can specify what pre-employment checks they need: for example, Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)
  • direct award is available and supported by the NHS Workforce Alliance to enable quick access to workers when needed
  • access a range of tools to help you select suppliers including rate card, award support tool and region/skills matrix
  • free to use: you don’t need a membership and framework fees are collected from suppliers

Carbon Reduction

All suppliers for this agreement have committed to comply with the Procurement Policy Note 06/21: 'Taking account of Carbon Reduction Plans in the procurement of major government contracts' as required. If a supplier is required to publish a carbon reduction plan, you can find it on their individual supplier details page.

Products and suppliers

There are 202 suppliers on this agreement

Lot 1: Admin & Clerical

Expires:

62 suppliers

Lot 2: Corporate Functions

Expires:

109 suppliers

Lot 3: IT Professionals

Expires:

85 suppliers

Lot 4: Legal

Expires:

19 suppliers

Lot 5: Scientific, Technical & Clinical Coding

Expires:

19 suppliers

Lot 6: Estates, Facilities Management & Ancillary Staff

Expires:

65 suppliers

Lot 7: MSP: Master/Neutral Vendor

Expires:

14 suppliers

How to buy

How to buy:

Direct award

This is the recommended approach for hiring single or small groups of workers.

You should direct award if it is clear from the contract documents that there is one supplier who can meet your needs and provide you with the best value for money. Your requirements need to be fully covered by the framework specification.

Use the lot descriptions and our Rate Card and Award Support Tool to identify suitable suppliers.

Our tool will help you match the types of staff you need to the suppliers offering them. You can then rank the suppliers according to their offers and value for money. If you would like to use our tool, email us for a copy.

To direct award you should:

  1. identify suitable suppliers using our simple tool
  2. rank the suppliers by applying the direct award criteria
  3. award your contract using the simplified Short Order Form

 

Further competition

You should use further competition if you want to make adjustments to the specification or terms. You may also achieve better value for money through running a further competition. We also recommend this as the best route when arranging a project through output based delivery.

We do not recommend using further competition for single or small groups of workers. Suppliers may choose to not take part in competitions for smaller requirements.

The NHS Workforce Alliance can help customers to work out their requirements and best route to market. We can offer advice and help to put together a further competition based on your needs. If you would like more help, get in touch.

To run a further competition you will need to:

  1. identify which suppliers can meet your needs
  2. invite all capable suppliers to bid
  3. send further competition documents to all capable suppliers
    1. you will need to ensure you leave enough time for suppliers to return their tenders leaving reasonable time for them to return their tenders.
    2. you cannot introduce new award criteria, but you can make changes to the original award criteria
    3. you will need to let the suppliers know you are doing this
  4. evaluate the returned tenders against the award criteria
    1. you can adjust your evaluation plan and weightings within the range limits to reflect your circumstances and requirements
  5. award to the supplier who can provide the best value for money (the supplier with the highest score)
  6. if the supplier is unable to meet your needs, you should award to the supplier with the next highest score, and so on, until your needs are met

Rate cards

​​There are two versions of the rate card for customers:

  • one is for NHS customers and includes the NHS England price caps
  • the other is for the rest of the public sector to use

You can enter the worker pay rate and the rate card will calculate the full charge for whichever supplier is selected. It will also include all costs for hiring a temporary worker using this agreement.

The rate cards will also provide information on costs for hiring a fixed term worker and costs for transfer fees where applicable.

We have included an award support tool which will help you to find suppliers who can provide different roles in different regions. The tool will rank the eligible suppliers that fulfil the criteria in price order to help you select the tender with the best value for money. Email us for the rate card and award support tool.

Watch this tutorial on how to use the non-clinical staff customer rate card.

Documents