Procurement Profile: Department of Health and Social Care

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is responsible for "leading the nation's health and social care to help people live more independent, healthier lives for longer".

From 2016 to the end of 2021, the DHSC has spent £25.4 billion with private suppliers, making it the 5th largest public sector body by spend.

If you want to do more - or start - business with DHSC it's pivotal to first understand their procurement characteristics: where does the Department spend its money, with whom, and in what ways?

Using Tussell's aggregated market intelligence platform, this blog provides an overview of DHSC's procurement behaviour from January 2016 - November 2021. Skip ahead to read about DHSC's:

• Spend

• Contracts

• Expiring Contracts

• Suppliers

• Sector-Case Studies (IT, Consulting & Facilities Management)

• Frameworks

Find our other Buyer Profiles here:

• Department for Work and Pensions

• Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy

• Ministry of Justice

• Ministry of Defence

• Home Office

• Department for Transport

Tussell's database shows that from January 2016 - November 2021, DHSC has spent approximately £25.4 billion across over 66,000 transactions with private suppliers.

This made DHSC the 5th largest public sector buyer by total invoice value across this period: one place below the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, and one place above the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

As the above analysis shows, the overwhelming majority of this spend came during the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2016 - 2019, DHSC spent £2.9 billion - in the following two years, spending skyrocketed to over £22.5 billion: a 775% increase.

Across the covered period, DHSC largest suppliers by spend were:*

* This excludes Supply Chain Coordination Ltd, which has received £5.79bn.

From January 2016 - November 2021, DHSC has awarded at least 3,346 contracts with a total award value of £34.5bn.

Again, the overwhelming majority of contract award volume and value came with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Total contract award value soared by over 25,000% between 2019 and 2020, from £74.2 million to over £19 billion. Though total award value dipped in 2021 to just over £14 billion, the total number of contracts awarded reached an all-time high of over 1,600.

Unsurprisingly, DHSC's top contract awards across this period are all COVID-19 related:

Before the pandemic,* DHSC's largest contract awards were: 

1. National Institute for Health Research Central Commissioning Facility (May, 2017; £480m; LGC Ltd)

2. National Institute for Health Research Evaluations, Trials & Studies Coordinating Centre, Central Commissioning Facility & Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure (May 2017; £283m; LGC Ltd, University of Southampton)

3. Microsoft Windows 10 ESA (April 2018; £158m; Bytes Software Services Ltd)

4. NHS Business Services Authority - NHS Supply Chain Future Operating Model - Category Towers Procurement Services, Tranche 1 (Oct, 2017; £113m; DHL Supply Chain Ltd, Collaborative Procurement Partnership LLP, Health Solutions Team Ltd)

5. Call off Contract for Public Sector Resourcing (Jan 2018; £55m; Alexander Mann Solutions Ltd)

* Period covered = 01.01.2016 - 29.02.2020

Tussell's platform identified 103 likely-to-be-renewed contracts - with a total award value of £1.47 billion - that are due to expire from 2023 - 2025.*

The spike in upcoming renewals in March 2023 comes from the end of two aforementioned contracts related to the National Institute for Health Research's Central Commissioning Facility (one worth £480 million, the other £238 million)

66 of these contracts - or 64% - were not call-offs from a framework, and are valued at a total of £1.06 billion. 

Excluding the two NIHR Central Commissioning Facility contracts and call-off contracts, the largest of these upcoming potential renewals include:

* "likely-to-be-renewed" is defined as 'services' and 'supplies' contracts

From Janaury 2016 - November 2021, DHSC has awarded contracts to at least 1,180 suppliers.*

DHSC's top suppliers - by total contract award value - include:

The suppliers with whom DHSC awarded contracts most frequently includes:

• Allen Lane Ltd (129 contract awards, valued at £9.33m)

• Robertson Bell Ltd (79 contract awards, valued at £4.71m)

• Methods Business & Digital Technology Ltd (54 contract awards, valued at £10.3m)

• Air Charter Service Ltd (54 contract awards, valued at £212m)

• Hays Specialist Recruitment Ltd (49 contract awards, valued at £2.6m)

* This figure includes subsidiaries.

Below is a breakdown of DHSC's IT, consultancy and FM contract awards from January 2016 - November 2021. This analysis was conducted using CPV codes and keyword searches, meaning the data may include some anomalous results.

IT and Software (CPV: 48000000, 72000000, 42960000)

Since 2016, DHSC has awarded approximately 549 IT and software-related contracts, at a value of £787 million.

Both the volume and value of such contracts jumped considerably in the last two years, with total award value shooting from just under £22 million in 2019 to £247 million in 2020.

Again, this jump can largely be accredited to COVID-19 related contract awards: namely, the Test & Trace programme. The spike in award value seen in 2018 came with £158 million Microsoft Windows 10 ESA contract, awarded to Bytes Software Services Ltd for the provision of "c. 1 million W10 licenses".

The largest suppliers in this sector - by total contract award value - includes Bytes Software Services Ltd (£158m), IBM UK Ltd (£81.7m), Terrafix Ltd (£56.7m), PA Consulting Services Ltd (£35.7m) and Bjss Ltd (£35.5m)

The largest contracts in this period included:

Marketing, Recruitment, Consultancy (CPV: 79000000)

Since 2016, DHSC has awarded approximately 1,100 contracts - worth £1.87 billion - for marketing, recruitment and consultancy related services.*

Again, the volume and value of such contracts rose alongside the COVID-19 pandemic: the spike in value in 2020, for instance, came largely from a Managed service provision of workers to support the national testing Programme contract - worth £350 million - to Medacs Healthcare PLC. This was followed by a £259 million contract for a Testing Contact Centre in 2021, awarded to Teleperformance Ltd.

The largest suppliers in this sector - by total contract award value - include Medacs Healthcare PLC (£350m), Deloitte LLP (£328m), Teleperformance Ltd (£288m), Ipsos Mori UK Ltd (£67.5m) and Alexander Mann Solutions Ltd (£55.1m).

The largest contracts to private suppliers in this period - excluding the two mentioned above - included:

* This search excludes the following terms: "quarantine", "facilities management", "print", "logistics", "packaging", "hardware", "software", "testing sites", "ventilator".

Facilities Management

Since 2016, DHSC has awarded approximately 17 FM-related contracts, with a total value of £411 million.*

A large bulk of this value originates from contracts to manage COVID-19 testing facilities.

The largest suppliers in this sector - by total contract award value - include Sodexo Ltd (£225m), G4S Facilities Management UK Ltd (£57m), Serco Ltd (£57m), Mitie Security Ltd (£32m) and Emcor Group UK PLC (£22.1m).

The largest contracts awarded in this period include:

Some other notable non-COVID-19 related FM contracts have included: Construction Management in connection with the Lighthouse Ultra High Throughput (Nov 2020; £1.86m; Mace Group Ltd), McKinsey Refurbishment Programmes (Aug 2020; £593k; McKinsey & Company) and Quarry House Refurbishment (June 2020; £459k; Willmott Dixon Construction Ltd)

* This search was conducted using a combination of several dozen keywords, such as "facilities management", "hard fm", "soft fm", "estate mangement" etc.

Of the 3,346 contracts awarded by DHSC from January 2016 - November 2021, 1,419 - or just over 40% - were call-offs from a framework.

Using Tussell's frameworks analytics, we can see that the total value of these call-offs sat at approximately £7 billion and spanned 91 different frameworks.

By total value of identified call-off contracts, DHSC's most valuable frameworks were:

• Lateral Flow Testing Kits (£1.58bn)

• Contact Centre Services RM3815 (£1.13bn)

• Pathology & Point of Care Testing, Associating Equipment, Instruments, Consumables and Accessories and Managed Services (£1.1bn)

• National Microbiology Framework: Lot 1: Diagnostic Goods and Services (£479m)

• RM3711 Multidisciplinary Temporary Healthcare Personnel Framework Services (£351m)

By count of identified call-off contracts, DHSC's most utilised frameworks were RM6160 Non Clinical and Temporary Fixed Term Staff (464 call-offs), Management Consultancy Framework 2 - Phase 1 Lot 1 & Lot 2 (171 call-offs), G-Cloud 12 (151 call-offs) G-Cloud 11 (95 call-offs) and RM3786 General Legal Advice Services (85 call-offs).

Across this period, DHSC operated 52 frameworks of its own, with a maximum potential value of £15.7 billion.

*

DHSC's procurement profile has been fundamentally altered by the COVID-19 pandemic, turning a once comparatively lower-spending government department into a major spender.

This profile only covers the surface of what Tussell's aggregated data platform can tell you about the public sector. With Tussell, you can analyse spend, contract awards, favoured frameworks and more across the public sector, helping you make more informed decisions and strategies when selling to the public sector.

Book a personalised demo with our team to see how Tussell can unlock public sector insights and opportunities for your business.

Find our other Procurement Profiles here:

• Department for Work and Pensions

• Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy

• Ministry of Justice

• Ministry of Defence

• Home Office

• Department for Transport