If your organisation provides clinical services, healthcare equipment, or managed health solutions to the NHS, NHS Shared Business Services is likely one of the most important procurement routes available to you. NHS SBS manages over 40 framework agreements covering a wide range of clinical and corporate goods and services, and its health frameworks in particular span an impressive breadth of categories. The challenge for most suppliers is not whether NHS SBS has a relevant framework; it almost certainly does. The challenge is identifying exactly which one fits your service, and understanding what it takes to win a place on it.
This guide walks through the principal NHS SBS health framework categories, what each one covers, and the factors that should shape your decision about where to apply.
Why NHS SBS matters for health sector suppliers
NHS SBS framework agreements have been designed to ensure competitive pricing, help drive savings and improve efficiencies. They offer a compliant route to market, providing a comprehensive choice of suppliers and excellent geographic coverage.
For suppliers, the practical advantages are significant. NHS SBS frameworks manage approximately £1 billion of NHS spend annually and offer typical savings of up to 15%. With 1,696 NHS and wider public sector organisations registered to use their agreements, the potential buyer audience is substantial.
Critically, NHS SBS is one of just 18 accredited framework hosts under the NHS England Framework Accreditation Scheme, which means its frameworks remain compliant routes to market under the NHS Standard Contract.
For any supplier looking to build a sustainable pipeline of NHS work, getting onto the right NHS SBS framework is a strategic priority, not just a commercial nice-to-have. Understanding how NHS frameworks are used in practice is the essential starting point before you commit to any application.
The NHS SBS health framework categories
NHS SBS groups its health frameworks under a dedicated category covering clinical services, specialist equipment, and related managed solutions. Here is a breakdown of the key frameworks and what they mean for suppliers.
Insourcing of Clinical Services
This is one of the most strategically significant NHS SBS health frameworks, particularly given the ongoing pressure on NHS waiting lists. The framework supports the use of insourcing support services across the NHS, enabling trusts to secure extra clinical capacity and help meet increasing demand. It is a short to medium term solution that allows trusts to retain capacity planning in-house and ensures that patients can be seen within the trust.
The framework spans the entirety of elective specialty services, including:
- ear nose and throat (ENT)
- rheumatology
- ophthalmology
- orthopaedics
- cardiology
- urology
- gynaecology
- colorectal surgery
- endoscopy
- dermatology
- general surgery
- plastic and reconstructive surgery
It is important to understand what insourcing actually means in procurement terms. Insourcing refers to the delivery of medical specialty, consultant-led surgical or clinical services, which are deployed to a participating authority within existing structures to use spare, out-of-hours capacity, typically at weekends and evenings. It is not a temporary staffing arrangement; suppliers must be able to deliver a complete end-to-end clinical service. The supplier must have the specialist capabilities required to deliver an end-to-end service, including clinical oversight and governance, and must be Care Quality Commission-registered for the duration of the call-off contract.
This framework is right for you if your organisation delivers consultant-led clinical services and can operate within NHS premises using existing trust infrastructure.
Clinical Managed Services
Where insourcing focuses on additional clinical capacity, the Clinical Managed Services framework takes a broader managed services approach. The framework can provide a managed service that includes products, maintenance, supporting services, and staff to operate devices to help increase the volume of patients that can be seen. It is a comprehensive framework with a choice of suppliers across a range of key clinical spend areas.
This is the right route for suppliers who offer an integrated solution combining equipment, staffing, and ongoing management, rather than simply providing one element in isolation. Diagnostic imaging is a strong example of the kind of service that fits this model: a supplier providing imaging devices, training, maintenance, and the clinical staff to run them.
Acute and Community Health and Social Care Equipment
This framework offers a broad range of medical products and services across seven lots, including the provision of beds and mattresses for both acute and community settings, wheelchair products and services, continence home delivery, daily living aids, and moving and handling equipment including lifts and hoists.
The breadth of this framework makes it relevant to a wide range of medical equipment and assistive technology suppliers. The lot structure is detailed, so it is worth mapping your product range carefully against the available lots before applying. This is both to ensure you apply to the right ones, and to avoid missing lots where your products would qualify.
Advanced Wound Care and Lymphoedema Products and Services
This framework allows the NHS to benefit from the expertise of awarded suppliers in selecting the most economically advantageous solutions for wound care and skin care. It covers a specialist but significant area of NHS expenditure, and competition for places reflects that. Suppliers in this category need to demonstrate both product quality and a clear understanding of clinical outcomes. Evaluators will want to see evidence of effectiveness, not just a product catalogue.
Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism Services
This framework supports access to suppliers and voluntary community and social enterprises (VCSEs) that offer a wide range of mental health, learning disability and autism services, helping organisations to reduce waiting times and increase capacity.
This is one of the areas where the PSR (Provider Selection Regime) is most relevant. Suppliers considering this framework should review the PSR compliance requirements carefully, as the regime changes how NHS organisations procure certain healthcare services. NHS SBS provides specific call-off guidance to support buyers and suppliers navigating this.
AI, Imaging and Radiotherapy Equipment
Healthcare AI is a fast-moving part of the NHS SBS framework portfolio. The existing AI, Imaging and Radiotherapy Equipment and AI Software in Neuroscience for Stroke Decision Making Support frameworks are being merged into a new agreement. NHS SBS has confirmed that it will develop a new Healthcare Artificial Intelligence Solutions framework to combine the two. We cover this in more detail in our guide to the NHS SBS stroke AI framework and its Healthcare AI Solutions successor.
For stroke AI, diagnostic imaging, workflow optimisation or wider healthcare AI suppliers, this makes category mapping particularly important. The replacement framework is expected to have a broader lot structure, so suppliers will need to think carefully about whether their solution fits radiology and diagnostic imaging, pathology, predictive analytics, operational efficiency, research and development, or specialist AI support.
Other health framework categories
Beyond those covered above, the NHS SBS health portfolio also includes frameworks for decontamination services, contrast media and associated products, orthoses and prosthetics, online sexual health services, drugs of abuse and point-of-care testing, patient transfer services, and radiopharmaceuticals. If your service falls within any of these areas, it is well worth reviewing the specific framework terms directly on the NHS SBS health frameworks page.
How buyers call off from NHS SBS health frameworks
Understanding how NHS trusts actually access suppliers through these frameworks is as important as winning a place on them. Buyers can directly call off from a framework agreement or run a further competition. NHS SBS offers different levels of support, including SME advice and robust templates for organisations to easily run their own process, or additional support to design and run a further competition on their behalf.
The implication for suppliers is that your visibility and positioning matter after the award, not just during the application. Suppliers who proactively engage with NHS buyers, keep their service offer current, and respond quickly and compellingly to further competitions are the ones who convert a framework place into actual contract wins. Getting onto a framework is step one. Winning work through it requires ongoing effort.
Common questions about NHS SBS health frameworks
Do I need to be CQC-registered to apply?
It depends on the framework. For service-based frameworks such as insourcing and mental health services, CQC registration is typically a requirement. For product or equipment frameworks, the relevant accreditations relate more to product standards and quality management systems such as ISO 9001 and ISO 13485. Always check the specific qualification requirements before investing time in an application.
Can I apply to more than one health framework?
Yes, and in many cases it makes sense to do so, particularly if your organisation operates across more than one clinical area. However, each application must be completed to the same standard. Spreading effort too thinly across multiple frameworks is a common mistake. It is better to submit two strong applications than four mediocre ones.
What if the framework I need is currently closed?
NHS SBS frameworks have fixed terms, typically running for four years. If a framework is currently closed to new suppliers, track it via the NHS SBS framework search and monitor Find a Tender for when a new iteration is procured. Being well-prepared in advance of the next opening puts you in a significantly stronger position than rushing an application together when the window arrives.
How competitive are NHS SBS health framework applications?
Competition varies by category and lot. Some lots attract a large number of applicants; others are more specialist and see fewer bids. Either way, the standard of evidence required is consistently high. Weak case studies, generic quality responses, and incomplete compliance submissions are the most common reasons applications fall short.
Getting the category fit right matters
The worst outcome (and a surprisingly common one) is spending weeks on a framework application only to realise your service sits in a different lot, or a different framework entirely, to the one you applied for. Category mapping is not glamorous work, but it is foundational.
Our bid planning and strategy service starts exactly here: with a clear-eyed view of where your offer fits in the market, which frameworks represent the best route to NHS buyers, and how to position your application to stand out. It is the kind of thinking that saves significant time and resource further down the line.
For suppliers working across the NHS health landscape, our healthcare tendering expertise means we understand both the commercial landscape and the clinical context that evaluators bring to every assessment.
Ready to apply for an NHS SBS health framework?
NHS SBS health frameworks represent one of the most direct and compliant routes to NHS contract opportunities across clinical services, equipment, and managed solutions. But the application demands care, specificity, and a thorough understanding of what each framework is designed to do.
At Bidding, we have helped organisations of all sizes secure places on NHS SBS frameworks, from specialist clinical service providers to equipment manufacturers entering the NHS market for the first time. If you are considering an application, or want to understand which framework is the right fit for your service, get in touch with our team to talk it through.
