NHS LIFT bid period rises to 15 months

The bidding period for the fourth wave of NHS LIFT contracts has been extended to 15 months after experience in the first three waves showed that the original 12-month deadline was too short.

The revised timetable was revealed in the National Audit Office’s glowing report Innovation in the NHS: Local Improvement Finance Trusts, which concluded that NHS LIFT was “an effective and flexible procurement mechanism” preferable to alternatives such as third-party development or PFI.

NHS LIFT’s strengths are its long-term strategic approach to local health provision and its mix of national support and local control, said the report. It was good at meeting local needs and better suited to smaller schemes than traditional PFI.

The Department of Health was praised for the “well managed” way it set up the initiative.
Initial deals were described as “robust”, providing “clear long-term benefits” to both the public and private sector, and “value for money”.

The report also praised the selection process for private sector partners, which it said had produced “robust competition from at least three credible shortlisted bids in all LIFT areas”.

Teething problems identified included the lack of regular monitoring of the local use of enabling funds with some schemes not using funds in a timely manner, while the 12-month procurement timetable was “too ambitious”; the quickest, Ashton, Leigh and Wigan, was completed in 13 months.

NHS LIFT consortia welcomed the report. Equion managing director Richard Weston said: “We believe it is the way forward, particularly on smaller-value schemes, providing a cost-
effective and much quicker procurement route than traditional and PFI methods.”