ProCure21+ should speed scheme starts

 HEJ editor Jonathan Baillie discussed, with the DH’s senior responsible officer (SRO) and P21+ team leader Peter Sellars, the background to the new Framework’s introduction, the success of its forerunner, and the additional benefits that ProCure21+ (which is backed by organisations incuding HM Treasury, the National Audit Office, and the Office of Government Commerce) should bring to the entire healthcare building supply chain.

Discussing how two years’ hard work by a seven-strong team under his leadership had culminated in last month’s launch of the new ProCure21+ National Framework, Peter Sellars, who is also the Department of Health’s Deputy Director, Gateway Review, Estates and Facilities Division, said he and his colleagues strongly hoped the scheme would build on the considerable success of ProCure21, or, as it widely became known “for short”, P21. The original ProCure21 National Framework was, he explained, launched in 2003, and was one of the first public sector construction frameworks of its kind. It was subsequently used as a basis for similar schemes in Scotland and Wales, while officials from South Africa, China, and Australia considering adapting the Model for use in their own countries had discussions with DH staff. Although use of P21 procurement by the NHS was never made mandatory – a characteristic its successor shares – the much greater speed with which new, publicly-funded healthcare projects could get off the ground than had traditional tendering processes been adopted saw P21 become extremely popular over its seven-year lifetime. Over the period, the DH says 572 schemes were registered, worth almost £4 billion in total. To date, over 400 schemes have already been completed (with a value of £2.2 bn), while a further 90 are currently under construction, and more than 150 are “at earlier stages in the process”. In all, Peter Sellars told me, over 200 NHS Trusts have used P21, under which these “NHS clients” were able to choose from an initial roster of 12 principal supply chain partners, or PSCPs, a figure which reduced to eight over the Framework’s’s lifetime. All were preapproved for major capital schemes by a specifically-established Department of Health ProCure21 team. The chosen PSCPs were carefully selected on the basis of such key criteria as value-formoney; past experience; expertise; reputation; prompt project delivery; good scheme design and management; sustainability credentials, and their ability to complete major projects within budget.

Background to the new Framework