| Lewisham and Greenwich Trust has rejected a bid from Serco to provide its procurement services after concluding that it would not provide value for money, following more than a year of negotiations. HSJ understands that there was a gap between the savings Serco outlined in its final proposal and those it predicted earlier in the process. Serco did not have to enter a tendering process because it runs Anglia Support Partnership, under which it has a framework agreement to deliver support services to five NHS bodies. Any NHS trust can ask Serco to put together a proposal for services. What was then Lewisham Healthcare Trust began talks with Serco in November 2012, leading the company to submit a proposal in April 2013. This was rejected because it “fell significantly short” of the level of savings a January 2013 report by South London Healthcare Trust’s special administrator indicated was possible. In July Serco submitted another proposal that projected greater savings than the administrator had envisaged. The trust board concluded “it was unlikely” an in-house team could match them. This proposal guaranteed 20 per cent of the projected savings and asked for 20 trust staff to transfer to Serco. Serco began its due diligence work and submitted another revised proposal in December. This final proposal was rejected because the board concluded the bid “did not represent value for taxpayers’ money”. Instead, the trust plans to do the work in-house, “at lower cost than the Serco proposal”. Serco business development director Samantha Bond said the initial savings projection was based on “the high level procurement information provided” but analysis resulted in “the level of benefits assessment [being] downgraded”. |