NHS Procurement Frameworks Explained: SBS, NOE CPC & More

What is an NHS procurement framework?

A framework agreement sets the terms for a group of suppliers chosen through one competition: what they supply, how they price it and how individual contracts will be awarded. The organisation that runs the competition is the framework owner. The organisations allowed to buy through the framework are identified in its notice and documents, and they award contracts under it, known as call-offs, to the appointed suppliers. Our guide to public sector frameworks covers the general model; this one is about the NHS.

A call-off is made in one of two ways: a direct award, where the framework's own terms let the buyer choose a supplier without further competition, or a further competition (often called a mini-competition) between the suppliers on the relevant lot. Under the Procurement Act 2023, in force since 24 February 2025, a framework can normally run for up to four years; our Procurement Act 2023 guide for suppliers covers the wider changes. Frameworks awarded under the old rules, the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, carry on under those rules until they end.

Three things follow for a supplier. A framework place is a right to compete for work, not a contract for any: a framework usually carries no commitment to buy. Most frameworks are closed, so if you miss the tender window you wait for the re-tender. And frameworks are divided into lots by product, service or region, so you bid lot by lot; our guide to framework lots explains how to choose them. For the wider picture on selling to the NHS, read the companion guide, How to Win NHS Contracts.

The main NHS framework owners at a glance

NHS buyers draw on several framework owners. These are the ones most suppliers meet first:

Health care services in England are the exception: they are arranged under the Provider Selection Regime, covered below.

NHS Supply Chain: the route for products

NHS Supply Chain sources and supplies products for NHS trusts and other healthcare organisations, from medical consumables and devices to capital equipment. It runs framework agreements category by category, and the products it awards onto them are offered to trusts through its catalogue, so a trust can order from NHS Supply Chain instead of contracting with each supplier.

For a product supplier, the framework tender for your category is the door. Find out when it is next tendered, read the lots and the product specifications closely, and expect to evidence regulatory compliance and product quality. A listing makes your product available to order; it does not make trusts switch to it. Clinical and procurement staff in each trust still choose between listed products, so your work with trusts continues after the award.

NHS Supply Chain is first and foremost a route for products. If you sell services, the organisations below are usually more relevant.

NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS)

NHS Shared Business Services provides finance, procurement and other business services to NHS organisations, and runs a portfolio of national framework agreements that NHS bodies can use. Its frameworks are grouped into business services, construction and estates, digital and IT, and health.

NHS SBS frameworks follow the usual cycle: a tender window, lots, a fixed term, then a re-tender. Before you bid, check two things in the documents. First, who can use the framework: the access list decides which buyers you can sell to through it. Second, what it costs you: many framework owners fund themselves through a charge on suppliers' call-off sales, often called a levy, management charge or rebate. If there is one, price it in from the start.

NOE CPC and the regional NHS hubs

NHS North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative (NOE CPC) is an NHS-owned collaborative procurement organisation whose members are mostly NHS trusts in the north of England and the Midlands. Its member trusts pool their buying through it, and it runs framework agreements and collaborative tenders for them.

NOE CPC is one of several regional NHS procurement hubs; NHS London Procurement Partnership is another. A hub's frameworks are not necessarily limited to its members: each framework's documents say which organisations can use it, so check them before assuming a northern hub only sells to the north.

For a supplier targeting trusts in one region, the hub those trusts belong to is worth knowing well. Its frameworks are routes your target buyers can use, and its re-tender dates are planning dates for you.

HealthTrust Europe

HealthTrust Europe runs framework agreements that NHS trusts and other public sector bodies use, across products, equipment and services. Unlike the organisations above, it is not part of the NHS: it is a commercial procurement organisation.

For a supplier, that changes less than you might think. The questions are the same as for any framework: which lots fit, who can buy through the framework, what it charges suppliers, and when it is next tendered.

Crown Commercial Service and other routes NHS buyers use

NHS bodies are not limited to NHS frameworks. Crown Commercial Service, the government's central purchasing body, runs frameworks that public sector buyers, NHS organisations included, use for common goods and services; our guide to CCS frameworks explains how they work. NHS buyers also use frameworks from public sector buying organisations such as ESPO and YPO, and trusts run their own tenders too.

The practical point: when you research an NHS buyer, find out which routes it uses for your category. A trust that buys your service through a CCS framework will not find you on an NHS SBS one, however strong your bid was.

The Provider Selection Regime: health care services work differently

Since 1 January 2024, health care services in England have been arranged under the Provider Selection Regime (PSR), set out in the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023 and introduced under the Health and Care Act 2022. It applies when NHS bodies, such as integrated care boards and NHS trusts, and local authorities arrange health care services, including public health services. It does not cover goods, or services that are not health care services, such as facilities management or IT: those fall under the Procurement Act 2023, unless they are bought with health care services in a contract that is mainly for health care and could not reasonably be split.

The PSR gives the authority five ways to award a contract:

Decisions are made against five key criteria: quality and innovation; value; integration, collaboration and service sustainability; improving access, reducing health inequalities and facilitating choice; and social value.

Transparency comes through notices published on Find a Tender. For direct award process C, the most suitable provider process and the competitive process, the authority publishes its intention to award before the contract is finalised, and a standstill period follows in which providers can make representations. The regime also has its own provisions for framework agreements.

How to get listed on an NHS framework

The process is the same whichever owner runs the framework. Our NHS tenders hub covers the main NHS buyers and where they publish; from there, in order:

Missed the window? What happens between re-tenders

Most frameworks are closed: once a framework is awarded, nobody joins it until it is tendered again, and contracts called off near its end can run beyond it. Waiting is not your only option.

Dynamic markets: the route you can join at any time

Under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, a buyer could set up a dynamic purchasing system (DPS): a list of qualified suppliers that stays open to new applicants throughout its life, with contracts competed among its members. The Procurement Act 2023 replaced the DPS with the dynamic market. A procurement started on or after 24 February 2025 cannot set up a new DPS, while those already running carry on under the old rules until they end, and no later than 23 February 2029.

A dynamic market works in a similar way. Suppliers can apply to join at any time while it is open, the buyer must admit suppliers that meet its conditions for membership and are neither excluded nor excludable (it may still admit an excludable one), and contracts are then competed among the members, or among the members of the relevant part of the market. Where an NHS buyer runs one in your category, you do not have to wait for a re-tender to get in.

NHS Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Health is devolved, and each nation organises its health service buying in its own way:

For Scotland in detail, read our guide to Public Contracts Scotland.

Tracking NHS framework tenders

Framework tenders, re-tenders and the award notices that follow are published on the official portals, and which portal carries a notice depends on the buyer's nation and, in England, on whether the procurement started under the old rules. PSIP aggregates the five official UK portals (Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI) into one search. It reads Find a Tender and Contracts Finder hourly through the working day and the other three daily, and its tender alerts run daily, 4-hourly or hourly, by plan, on your keywords and CPV codes. AI scoring is available on request.

PSIP does not read the framework owners' own e-tendering portals, where tender documents are downloaded and bids submitted, so register with those directly.

Frequently asked questions