The NHS Standard Contract is mandated by NHS England for use by commissioners for all contracts for healthcare services other than primary care, and the Contract (in full-length and shorter-form versions) has now been updated for 2023/24.

In 2022/23, we made a set of changes to the Contract which mean that the Service Conditions and the General Conditions no longer need to be exchanged between the parties as part of their local agreement. Rather, the Service Conditions and the General will exist solely in their up-to-date online form, as published by NHS England on the NHS Standard Contract page. The Contract Particulars are also published on this page, and the Contract Technical Guidance etc. is published below. For more information, please refer to s33 of the Contract Technical Guidance.

A summary of the changes we have made to the Contracts can be found in section 3 of the Contract technical guidance and in the Response to the consultation feedback document.

If you have a query on the NHS Standard Contracts, please email england.contractshelp@nhs.net

If you would like to be added to our stakeholder list to receive updates on the NHS Standard Contract, please email your contact details to england.contractsengagement@nhs.net.

To view the slides and recordings from our webinars, please go to the NHS Standard Contract – FutureNHS Collaboration Platform (please register for a FutureNHS account).

NHS Standard Contract 2023/24 technical guidance

• NHS Standard Contract 2023/24 technical guidance

Model collaborative commissioning agreements

• Model collaborative commissioning agreement (single contract option)
• Model collaborative commissioning agreement (multiple contract option)

Varying the 2023/24 Contract

• Guidance on the mid-term variation process and on updating multi-year contracts which extend beyond 31 March 2023

NHS sub-contracts 2023/24

• NHS Standard Contract 2023/24: sub-contracts

Other Schedules to the full-length and shorter-form Contract

• Schedule 2L (Schedule 2L (Provisions Applicable to Primary Medical Services)) (full-length Contract)
• Schedule 7 (Fair Deal for Staff Pensions) (full-length Contract) and guidance
• Schedule 6E (Schedule 6E Provider Data Processing Agreement) (shorter-form Contract) 

Other publications

• System collaboration and financial management agreement
• Model individual placement agreement
• Alliance agreement toolkit (please register for a FutureNHS account)
• Proforma contract management forms and change in control notification

Changes to the Contract for 2023/24

Comparison documents showing the changes made from the NHS Standard Contract 2022/23 (published in March 2022) to the NHS Standard Contract 2023/24 (published in March 2023).

Comparison documents showing the changes made from the draft NHS Standard Contract 2023/24 (published for consultation in December 2022) to the NHS Standard Contract 2023/24 (published in March 2023).

Consultation – December 2022 (consultation now closed)

• Draft 2023/24 NHS Standard Contract for consultation (both full-length and shorter-form versions).