When commissioning healthcare services, Integrated Care Boards are required to follow the Provider Selection Regime (PSR), which was introduced following the Health and Care Act 2022. PSR came into force on 1st January 2024. See NHS England’s Provider Selection Regime statutory guidance for more information.
To comply with this requirement, NHS Frimley ICB (referred to from this point as 'NHS Frimley' or 'the ICB') has developed an accreditation process to ensure that providers requesting to be accredited for a contract under PSR route Direct Award B are assessed against qualifying criteria and local requirements to ensure that the providers are able to meet their statutory and mandatory obligations to service users, commissioners and NHS England.
Any provider wishing to express an interest in providing a healthcare service to NHS Frimley under the NHS Standing Rules via PSR Direct Award B and Patient Choice legislation should read the following information carefully in the first instance.
Overview of Process
Step 1 – Interested providers should complete the Expression of Interest (EOI) form and submit to
Step 2 – NHS Frimley will review the expression of interest to determine whether this is a service that is already commissioned, or intend to commission, and whether it is in scope of PSR Direct Award B / Patient Choice criteria. The decision of whether the EOI is in scope will be communicated to the interested provider at the earliest opportunity.
Step 3 – If in scope, the ICB will determine whether the service specification and required information are available to send to the provider. If this information needs developing, the ICB will use reasonable endeavours to do this within the required timeframe. If the information is already available, it will be sent promptly to the interested provider via Atamis. The information will consist of as a minimum:
- The NHS Standard Contract particulars that the ICB would offer including the service specification, quality, payment and reporting terms.
- The ICB’s standard supplier qualification questions
- The ICB’s service specific qualification questions
Step 4 – The provider reviews the information and decides whether they can meet the qualification criteria and local requirements determined by the ICB.
Step 5 – If the provider wants to proceed to assessment, they must submit the required accreditation questionnaires alongside any necessary evidence. The receipt of this information constitutes the formal request for assessment by Frimley ICB.
Step 6 – NHS Frimley will review the information and evidence sent by the provider and determine that the provider has met the qualifying criteria and can deliver the service required. This process will be completed within 6 weeks of receipt of Step 5.
Step 7 – If successful, the provider will be offered a contract via Direct Award Process B under PSR. If the provider has not passed all the requirements necessary, this will be communicated to the provider with feedback with reapplication possible once the provider feels that all requirements have been achieved.
Further Guidance:
Providers wishing to provide services to Frimley ICB must be able to demonstrate they would be able to satisfy the requirements of the NHS Standard Contract including all applicable general and service conditions: NHS England » NHS Standard Contract
There will also be several local criteria, including quality and reporting requirements, the details of which will be dependent on the specific service. NHS Frimley has local commissioning policies and providers should ensure that they are able to demonstrate their ability to be compliant with any policies related to the service for which they are expressing an interest. These policies can be found on the NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit website.
To complete the accreditation process, interested providers will need to be registered on the Atamis Health Family Single eCommercial System.
All providers subsequently awarded a contract must also have an ODS code.
All providers should also be capable of submitting to the relevant applicable Commissioning Data Sets for the services in which they are expressing an interest.
Frimley ICB is receiving a high volume of interest in accreditation from Providers – we respectfully request that Providers only submit an expression of interest if fully committed to completing the accreditation process set out above within a reasonable timeframe. This will ensure limited commissioning resources are put to best use in assessing responses.
Please be aware that Frimley ICB regularly reviews the service specifications and pathways with any information sent during Step 4 remaining valid for a period of 8 weeks. If a provider is unable to proceed to assessment within this timeframe, they should check that this information remains current for this service before assessment can commence.
Where a provider does not hold a valid qualifying contract and is unsuccessful in accreditation, any activity delivered for Frimley ICB services users will be non-chargeable.