Conclusion 16

NHS Property Services inherited over 2,400 separate facilities management arrangements, some of which were provided in-house and some of which were outsourced. It has rationalised these arrangements down to fewer than 50 suppliers and aims to rationalise them further.31 We raised concerns about whether NHS Property Services should be involved in facilities management, or whether it would be better to let the local tenants organise these services. NHS Property Services stated that it can achieve national economies of scale, either through letting national contracts or by operating on a national standards model and can drive costs down. It noted that it makes insourcing or outsourcing decisions by looking at each type of service to see what the most cost-effective solution is, and that if a tenant thinks it can achieve better value elsewhere, they are not obliged to use the services provided by NHS Property Services.32 NHS Property Services and NHS England and NHS improvement cited examples where local NHS bodies are in the process of taking control of the property that they currently rent from NHS Property Services.33 25 C&AG’s Report, para 1.2 and Figure 13 26 Qq 105–106 27 C&AG’s Report, para 2.17 28 Qq 26–29, 75 29 Qq 32–37; written evidence from Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust (NPS0004) 30 Written evidence from NHS Clinical Commissioners (NPS0005) 31 Q 39; C&AG’s Report, para 2.23 32 Qq 39–42 33 Qq 69–72 12 NHS Property Services Providing a level playing field