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2013/14 NHS Standard Contract published

The 2013/14 NHS Standard Contract has been published today by the NHS Commissioning Board.

The contract is for use by commissioners when commissioning healthcare services (other than those commissioned under primary care contracts) and is adaptable for use for a broad range of services and delivery models. It reflects the requirements set out in Everyone Counts: Planning for Patients 2013/14. National variation documents will be issued to vary the existing standard contracts that expire after 31 March 2013.

A range of stakeholder organisations were involved in developing the 2013/14 NHS Standard Contract. This has resulted in a document which enables safe, innovative and transformation commissioning and which supports commissioners and providers in their delivery of the QIPP challenge. Developing this contract together has increased the scope for promoting improvement in outcomes, clinical leadership and the involvement of patients and the public in the commissioning of safe, high quality patient care.

For the first time, the Standard Contract is being issued as an eContract to make contracting and the contract management process easier. The launch of the eContract Portal will start on the 4 February 2013 with access to ‘The Learning Zone’, the area of the eContract portal where commissioners can find information to support them in the creation of their tailored contracts. ‘My eContracts’, the secure commission space where commissioners can generate, store and manage their contracts, will be available on 8 February.

A number of documents designed to support commissioners in the use of the contract are also available, including the final versions of the Technical Guidance and a Guide for Clinical Commissioners.

The responsibility for the preparation and publication of the NHS standard contract has passed from the Department of Health to the NHS Commissioning Board. Previously published NHS Standard Contracts are available from the Department of Health website.

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13 comments

  1. Simon@NHS CB says:

    Hi
    Thank you all for your comments. The editable Word version of the Particulars will be available on Friday and will be published on this page.

    Kind regards
    Simon

    Digital Communications Officer
    NHS Commissioning Board

    • Carol-Ann Murray says:

      Just checking what time the word docs will be avaialable today or is there is a delay, I have not seen it as yet.

      • Simon@NHS CB says:

        Hi Carol-Ann
        Thank you for your comment, the Word version has now been published.

        Kind regards
        Simon

        Digital Communications Officer
        NHS Commissioning Board

  2. Roger Hymas says:

    Can you please direct me to the places in the contract which require providers to collect and detail patient quality reports which should be made available to commissioners. What powers, under the contract.,are available for the creation of ad hoc reporting determined by the commissioner? Can CCGs impose their own requirements on providers under this contract.

    Thank you,

    Roger Hymas

    • Simon@NHS CB says:

      Hi Roger
      Thank you for your comment. The reporting of quality and other requirements are contained in the Review clause – General Condition 8 and the Information Clause Service Condition 28. The commissioner can make reasonable requests for additional information which does not duplicate or is a variant of nationally provided information. this is set out in the Information clause Service Condition 28.3 and 28.4. Clinical commissioning groups can request the routine collection of data, this will be agreed with the provider and set out in the information tables as ‘locally requested / locally reported information’ in Schedule 6 Part C.

      Kind regards
      Simon

      Digital Communications Officer
      NHS Commissioning Board

  3. Chrissy Dove says:

    The Technical Contract Guidance (6.2) states the contract is also available as a paper version and it will be possible to tailor this to specific types of services/provider manually. However, the documents on the website are pdf and password protected. How can word versions be downloaded?

    Kind regards
    Chrissy Dove

  4. Gordon @ Hertfordshire says:

    Whilst the PDF version is available here, is there a MS Word version available that can be downloaded please as at the moment, use of the ePortal is not envisaged.

    With a large number of contracts waiting to be drafted, sooner rather than later woudl be helpful noting that timings appear to have slipped by one week…

    With thanks…

  5. Dagmira Humphrey says:

    Could you please let me know where I can find Word documents of the 2013-14 contracts. I presume these are/will be available in the same way as they were for 2012/13

    Kind Regards,
    Dagmira

  6. Simon Bradley says:

    When is a Word version of the Particulars going to be made available?

    Thanks

    • Simon@NHS CB says:

      Hi Simon
      Thank you for your comment. The Word version of the Particulars will be available on Friday.
      Kind regards
      Simon

      Digital Communications Officer
      NHS Commissioning Board

  7. Mary Hawking says:

    Many thanks for providing this in such good time: as a GP I had not realised that negotiating complex contracts only needed a 7 week period.
    Will this apply retrospectively to contracts negotiated and signed off by PCTs before 1.4.13?
    And will CCGs have been expected to have used this for contracts already negotiated (in shadow form) before 4/2/13?
    DOI not on CCG in any capacity.

  8. Chris Highley says:

    Will the e portal be up and runnong tomorrow (5th)?

    • Simon@NHS CB says:

      Hi Chris
      Thank you for your comment. The launch of the eContracts platform commenced this afternoon with access to ‘The Learning Zone’, access to ‘My eContracts’ area will be available on 8 February 2013.

      Kind regards
      Simon

      Digital Communications Officer
      NHS Commissioning Board