Official UK procurement notice
Surrey Heartlands Major Service Review
Authority: NHS Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care Board (Central government)·On behalf of: NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (hosted by NHS England)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionNHS Surrey Heartlands initiated work in 2024 to undertake a Major Service Review (MSR) - a long-term programme to ensure that health and care services across the system are organised to meet the evolving needs of the population. The initial focus was the development of a Case for Change, intended to serve as the foundation for future transformation. However, this work was paused following national financial reset announcements that required immediate attention to financial recovery and organisational change.
As the system now prepares to create a new organisation with NHS Sussex, there is a strategic opportunity to reinitiate and align this work with a parallel programme already underway in NHS Sussex, supported by Carnall Farrar. NHS Sussex has completed early stages of their strategic work, including baseline analysis and draft case for change development. Aligning the NHS Surrey Heartlands programme with this existing work will enable a consistent, comparable analytical foundation across the future combined organisation and support the development of a single ten-year strategic financial plan. This shared approach will help us to enter the new organisational form with a coherent strategic narrative, underpinned by agreed financial and analytical outputs.
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedProcedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Direct award
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Notice status
- Awarded without competition
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Direct award (no call for competition)
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 27 Aug 2025, 09:58 BST
- Last source update
- 24 Sept 2025, 16:48 BST
- FTS notice number
2025/S 000-059429- Latest notice
- Contract details notice (UK7)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-058e37Find a Tender
- Why no open competition
- Additional Repeat Extension Partial Replacement
- Published justification
- NHS Sussex ICB has already competitively contracted Carnall Farrar (CF) to deliver the development of its system strategic plan. This includes population health needs analysis, financial modelling, and opportunity identification.
- NHS Surrey Heartlands ICB is now required to undertake the same programme of work, in parallel, as both organisations are merging to form a single ICB from April 2026 covering c.3 million people.
- Appointing the same supplier (CF) ensures:
o Consistency and compatibility: outputs and modelling for Surrey Heartlands must be directly comparable with Sussex to create a coherent merged plan. A change of supplier would create disproportionate technical difficulties in integration, duplication of work, and risk of inconsistent methodology.
o Economies of scale: CF's proposal is costed to deliver the Surrey element at a lower price because work is being delivered once across both systems. Using a different supplier would increase overall cost.
o Time criticality: the joint plan is needed within 2025/26 to underpin the merger and 2026/27 planning round. Running a new procurement would delay delivery and undermine alignment.
- CF also bring unique technical expertise and data access rights (including DARS and NHS data platforms) and have already mobilised for Sussex, which cannot reasonably be replicated by another supplier in the timescales required.
On this basis, the conditions for direct award are satisfied under the Procurement Act 2023 as:
- The services are additional/repeat to those already contracted by Sussex, and a change in supplier would result in incompatibility and disproportionate technical difficulties.
- There is an absence of reasonable alternative suppliers in the immediate timeframe, given the need for joint modelling and alignment with Sussex's live work.
- Risks
Key risks:
Delay to delivery timeline
This is a risk shared by the ICB and it's chosen delivery partner, Carnall Farrar. The ICB will implement monitoring to ensure that any Provider-side delays are minimised. However, it is possible that due to the impact of the impending merger with NHS Sussex ICB and the associated restructure, there may be delays due to the impact of lack of internal resource required to deliver the project for the ICB. In this event the ICB will extend the duration of the contract accordingly.
National strategy changes
This is a risk that changes to the national strategic direction, will impact the scope and timeline of this project. The ICB reserves the right to amend the scope, timeline and contract value accordingly without a further procurement procedure, under the grounds permitted for materialisation of a known risk within the PA 23.
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
10 Sept 2025 → 24 Sept 2025 · 2 dates- Standstill ends10 Sept 2025, 23:59 BST
- Notice published398 days ago24 Sept 2025, 16:48 BST
Notice history
4 events · 3 releases on Find a Tender · since 27 Aug 2025- Transparency notice published27 Aug 2025, 09:58 BSTUK5
- Contract award notice published1 Sept 2025, 11:47 BSTUK6
- Contract signature expected11 Sept 2025, 23:59 BSTscheduled
- Contract details notice published24 Sept 2025, 16:48 BSTUK7
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carnall Farrar Ltd1 Oct 2025 – 31 Mar 2026Options: • Phase 1 (Mobilisation): Focused on scoping, engagement, and building the foundations for future analysis. It will confirm working arrangements, establish governance and working groups, and define a shared methodology and data baseline. This phase will cost no more than £50,000. • Phase 2 (Delivery): Subject to approval, this phase will deliver a full Surrey Heartlands Case for Change, including demand and financial forecasts, strategic financial modelling, and a final strategic plan. It will also identify key efficiency and investment opportunities across the system. This phase is estimated to cost £210,000 and will take place over a period of 12-16 weeks. | £216,667 | 27 Aug 2025 | Awarded |
Contracts
Contract 1 · Carnall Farrar Ltd
- Signed
- 11 Sept 2025
- Value
- £216,667
- Period
- 1 Oct 2025 – 31 Mar 2026
- Status
- active
- Options
- The initial contract for Phase 1 has a value of £49,950 and if required, phase 2 will be enacted by contract variation. The maximum value of £260,000 will therefore only be reached if both phases are enacted. • Phase 1 (Mobilisation): Focused on scoping, engagement, and building the foundations for future analysis. It will confirm working arrangements, establish governance and working groups, and define a shared methodology and data baseline. This phase will cost £49,950. • Phase 2 (Delivery): Subject to approval, this phase will deliver a full Surrey Heartlands Case for Change, including demand and financial forecasts, strategic financial modelling, and a final strategic plan. It will also identify key efficiency and investment opportunities across the system. This phase is estimated to cost £210,000 and will take place over a period of 12-16 weeks. Delay to delivery timeline This is a risk shared by the ICB and it's chosen delivery partner, Carnall Farrar. The ICB will implement monitoring to ensure that any Provider-side delays are minimised. However, it is possible that due to the impact of the impending merger with NHS Sussex ICB and the associated restructure, there may be delays due to the impact of lack of internal resource required to deliver the project for the ICB. In this event the ICB will extend the duration of the contract accordingly. National strategy changes This is a risk that changes to the national strategic direction, will impact the scope and timeline of this project. The ICB reserves the right to amend the scope, timeline and contract value accordingly without a further procurement procedure, under the grounds permitted for materialisation of a known risk within the PA 23.
3 agreed KPIs: KPI 1 - Delivery progress against milestones · KPI 2 - Contract expenditure monitoring · KPI 3 - Quality of outputs delivered
- KPI 1 - Delivery progress against milestones
- KPI 2 - Contract expenditure monitoring
- KPI 3 - Quality of outputs delivered
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
3 public bodies on the noticeOther public bodies
- NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (hosted by NHS England)Beneficiary authority
- NHS South Central and West CSUProcuring entityProcurement support
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- CARNALL FARRAR LTDAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications (3)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Contract details notice Contract details notice on Find a Tender
- Contract award notice Contract award notice on Find a Tender
- Transparency notice Transparency notice on Find a Tender