Health care procurement

The Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023 (PSR Regs 2023), SI 2023/1348 are key part of changes introduced by the Health and Care Act 2022 to amend the National Health Service Act 2006 (NHSA 2006) to facilitate greater integration in care commissioning between all the ‘relevant authorities’ (RAs) involved in planning, purchasing, and delivering health and care services to work together to agree and address shared objectives, irrespective of who is the provider. Where an RA procures relevant health care services for the purposes of the health service in England, whether alone or as part of a mixed procurement, they must follow the provisions of PSR Regs 2023.

PSR Regs 2023 statutory guidance explains why the regime has been introduced:

‘…the PSR has been designed to introduce:

  1. a flexible and proportionate process for selecting providers of health care services (so that all decisions can be made with a view to securing the needs of the people who use the services, improving the quality of the services, and improving the efficiency in the provision of the services)

  2. the capability for greater integration and

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DfE publishes research report on professional time spent developing and issuing new EHCPs

The Department for Education (DfE) has published a research report examining the amount of professional time local authority staff spend developing and issuing new Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). The findings are based on survey data from 859 professionals across 100 local authorities in England, covering 2,577 EHCPs. Respondents recorded the hours spent on the last three plans they worked on, across five statutory stages of the process, including the EHC needs assessment and finalising plans. The report estimates that between 56–68 hours of local authority professional time are spent on average per new EHCP, depending on the degree of overlap between roles. It highlights significant variation between cases, noting that children and young people with more complex needs can require substantially higher levels of professional input. Educational psychologists and principal educational psychologists each spent an estimated average of 17.4 hours per plan, primarily reflecting their statutory role in the Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment stage. Special educational needs and disability (SEND) case officers spent an average of 11.3 hours per plan, driven largely by their central responsibility for drafting and finalising EHCPs. SEND managers spent an average of 9.9 hours, with involvement spanning all stages of the process, while social workers reported an average of 4.8 hours, reflecting more variable involvement depending on individual case needs.

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