GP IT and Corporate IT services

Somerset Integrated Care Board on behalf of their organisation, and NHS Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board (BSW ICB), are seeking to directly award GP IT and Corporate IT services, and NHS Dorset Integrated Care Board (Dorset ICB) are seeking to directly award Corporate IT services, under Regulation 41 direct award justifications, s13/s14 set down within Schedule 5 of the Procurement Act 2023.

In June 2025 NHS England formally approved the clustering of BSW, Dorset and Somerset Integrated Care Boards.

In addition, it was announced that NHS Commissioning Support Units would be disbanded.

In line with these changes to the NHS landscape, the incumbent supplier of GP IT and Corporate IT services for Somerset and BSW ICBs will cease to be provided.

Dorset ICB GP IT services are provided by Trusted Technology Partnership and Dorset ICB Corporate IT services are provided inhouse in the short term.

Noting that Infrastructure provision is being moved inhouse to the Cluster ICB's to ensure Desktop Support and Service Desk services can be migrated / novated in the future if required without increased supplier lock-in.

The decision to directly award is due to:

• Insufficient time to conduct a robust procurement process as the Cluster ICB's need to work at pace to mitigate a service gap or material operational disruption.
• Some of the services being delivered are subject to NHS Regulation Operators of Essential Services (OES) as such Cluster ICB's are required to ensure that there is continuity of these critical health services.
• Due to the clustering arrangements a single solution is sought for technical reasons which will provide parity of provision across the new geographic structure, this will also lead to shared resources across the GP IT and Corporate IT service structure.
• Trusted Technology Partnership has a contract and presence within the cluster currently and is experienced at delivering GP IT services.

The Cluster ICB's have considered the risks associated with not being able to do this direct award which include but not limited to:

• GP IT infrastructure and support service lines fail due to the complex nature and timescales required to move these to new arrangements
• Impact on patient care should GP IT support services be impacted
• Management of the Corporate IT services for Cluster ICB's would impact wider health service delivery
• Cyber risks

The contract duration is deemed to be the minimum necessary to address the urgent requirement with a contract period of 24 months (2 years) to stabilise services.

During this contract term a compliant procurement process will be undertaken.

The Cluster ICB's will be seeking to initiate market engagement during Spring 2027.

Estimated contract core contract value for 24 months is circa £3,700,000 excluding VAT.

In addition, there are Statement of Works (SOW) requirements, including transition, with an estimated value of circa £2,800,000 excluding VAT.