Carillion, Taywood, Balfour face chop

Plans to ditch three of the 11 NHS ProCure 21 contractors are in the pipeline. Firms in the firing line are Balfour Beatty, Carillion and Taylor Woodrow. The move follows recent meetings between all 11 principal supply chain contractors (PSCPs) and the NHS ProCure 21 management team, led by Peter Woolliscroft.

The PSCPs were asked to discuss strengths and weaknesses of the ProCure 21 framework initiative, prior to a wide-ranging review ordered by the Depart-ment of Health’s Commercial Directorate (CJ 17 August).

A source said: “We and others made it very clear that there are far too many PSCPs.
“The ideal number is six and that is what we will be calling for in the review.”
However, CJ understands the ProCure 21 management team has just three firms in its sights
so far. 

Carillion, Balfour and Taywood have all had trouble securing enough ProCure 21
contracts to justify the cost of framework membership, currently running at £170,000 p.a.

But all three firms insisted this week that they have no plans to leave ProCure 21 and refuted any suggestion they had been asked to leave. Nonetheless, Taywood acknowledged some firms could go.

A spokesman said: “We are not considering leaving ProCure 21, on the contrary, we are committed. However, we are aware of the review of ProCure 21 that will report in October and perhaps there will be some winners and losers at that stage.”

Balfour framework manager Gary Madelin said: “We have not been kicked off and we don’t intend to be kicked off. But we are having internal discussions because it is costing us a lot of money and we are not getting much out of it.”

Balfour is planning to refocus its ProCure 21 team. “We have been approaching it as a
building contractor rather than a healthcare-providing company and that is something we need to address,” he added.

Shaun Carter, director of Carillion’s ProCure 21 team, said: “We have no plans to leave and we haven’t been asked to leave.”

One contractor commented: “The ProCure 21 team do not want to be seen to be kicking anybody off. What they are trying to do is work out a mutual exit strategy with some firms, to limit damage to the reputations of both sides.”

Another PSCP member commented: “These cuts are well overdue. I think the review has galvanised the ProCure 21 management team to do something before they are asked why they haven’t tackled this problem before.”