ISFE contract extended

Details of the extension of ISFE from 1 April this year to 31 March 2024 were set out in a tender document published on 16 April. The ISFE, which is provided by NHS Shared Business Services – a joint venture between the Department of Health and Social Care and Sopra Steria – is used by commissioners to prepare consolidated accounts and deliver other core financial processes such as accounts payable and receivable, general ledger and financial accounting.

The tender document said the extension, which is worth around £59m, is required as the re-procurement project is large and complex. Also, there have been delays due to short-term uncertainties over the NHS England group structure, while Covid-19 has diverted the project team’s attention to ensuring critical business processes are maintained.

Time will be needed to ensure there is a robust governance and procurement process, and enough time for design and implementation, the notice added. The tender for the new finance system is due to go live in July.

‘There are a number of reasons why a new procurement process has not been possible until now, including the national pandemic which has diverted resources. Clearly a new procurement process is needed but requires sufficient time to plan for the next contract, run a new compliant procurement and then, once a new supplier is awarded the new contract, time to transition and implement the replacement contract,’ it said.

'A change of contractor at this stage would cause significant inconvenience and have substantial duplication of cost implications as in order to compliantly replace the contractor now would require two concurrent procurement processes to be run for the same service. It would therefore be both impractical and uneconomic. The total value of this modification does not exceed 50% of the original contract value.’

Last October, the NHS in England invited IT firms to assess the viability of introducing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. This could integrate electronic staff record and finance systems, with functions potentially including finance, planning and budgeting, recruitment, payroll, learning and talent management, and procurement. It is unclear whether this option is being pursued.

The notice said: ‘The new ISFE re-procurement project is a large and complex project, which we expect will deliver a transformed service when compared to the current service.'