The Bevan Brittan Health team has been advising the NHS since its inception in 1948 and has been ranked by Chambers UK Guide as number one in Healthcare for more than a decade. Over the past year, our 146-strong team has worked with over a third of all NHS bodies, the Department of Health, national regulators including the Healthcare Commission and the Commission for Social Care Inspection (now CQC), local authority social services departments and independent sector healthcare providers. We are also on the NHSLA panel and are approved on the standing panels of legal advisors authorised to act for Central Government departments and non-departmental public bodies.
Put simply, we understand the issues facing our clients better than any other law firm and provide a fast, efficient and value-for-money service.
As the NHS moves more towards patient-centred quality services, so patient expectations and healthcare standards are being continually raised. We can expect to see increasing regulation of health providers and the creation of a level playing field between NHS and independent sector providers in the determined drive for quality. For the first time, we are seeing the registration and approval of primary care providers. Our experienced lawyers take a pragmatic approach to advising on the governance, risk, process and exception management issues that underpin an organisation’s response to the quality agenda. We understand the policy drivers behind “World Class Commissioning” and advise on the improved procurement and contracting that support it.
The increasing commercialisation of the health service, coupled with the need for greater efficiency, is resulting in complex legal relationships and sophisticated, performance-managed contracting. We are advising on joint working with local authorities, regional procurement of specialist services, joint ventures with universities and the independent sector. Our ability to innovate and to devise solutions that can be rolled out nationally is well recognised and is evident in our highly original and successful work on Equitable Access to Healthcare, where we act for in excess of 30 Primary Care Trusts commissioning new GP-led health centres and have acted on 90 of the 250 national projects. We advised on the establishment of LIFT, acting as central advisors to Community Health Partnerships, PUK and the Department of Health in the creation of the overall structure for the scheme.
We are at the forefront of development of the Retained Estate Solution Model (also known as Strategic Estate Partnerships or the Strategic Estate Development Model). In addition, we are heavily involved in LIFT Express (the expansion of LIFT into non-LIFT areas).