Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 17
17
Accepted
Interim assessment contracts shift healthcare professional recruitment responsibility to contractors.
Conclusion
The Functional Assessment Services contract will see a new set of contractors providing functional health assessments on behalf of the Department from 2024 to 2029 as an interim service until the Health Assessment Service is delivered in 2029. We asked the Department about the distinction between the Functional Assessment Service and the Health Assessment Service. The Department explained that the interim service would be “very similar to what it does at the moment” but will involve a single contractor delivering both health assessments for PIP and Work Capability Assessments within each geographic region rather than two contractors delivering one type of assessment in each geographical area.30 The NAO’s report found that the Department struggled to recruit healthcare professionals to support its health transformation areas and that it intended to alter the contracts for the functional assessment services so that contractors were responsible for providing the healthcare professionals required to deliver the service.31 The Department believed that it has built sufficient flexibility into the functional assessment service contracts to allow it to bring the contractors in to support the expansion of transformation areas, however this would need to be separately negotiated.32
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation and states that the Functional Assessment Service (FAS) contracts contain specific contractual levers and mechanisms to enable the supplier involvement required to support transformation.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 4.2 The Functional Assessment Service (FAS) contracts contain specific contractual levers and mechanisms to enable the supplier involvement required to support transformation. This includes test and learn activity and the expansion of the new Health Assessment Service (HAS). Suppliers are incentivised strategically by being a partner in the development of future services, and through mechanisms such as gainshare where suppliers share the rewards that transformation drives. 4.3 Competitive advantage by incumbent suppliers can never be completely overcome, but the department will mitigate this through market transparency and robust procurement processes to encourage competition and increased participation. The department has demonstrated the ability to achieve this in the recently awarded FAS contracts, with two new suppliers. 4.4 The department’s future health commercial strategy will be developed from 2024, putting the department in a strong position to replace services in 2029 and commence transformed services. The strategy will follow Sourcing Playbook best practice, considering the department’s role and interaction with the Market, through application of a delivery model assessment. It will focus on understanding the role of suppliers in the transformed HAS, including whether any element would be best delivered directly by the department; development of the right marketplace for those services, transparency of information with that market as the department continues to develop HAS, the opportunity for market input to the development of services in readiness for procurement, and how best to procure future services. 4.5 The strategy will also explore new contracting mechanisms offered by new UK Procurement Regulations that the department expects to provide more flexibility for contracting authorities in such complex procurements.