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.
This is one of the most uncertain areas of healthcare and a real challenge for PCT. They need to balance the need to separate commissioning from provision; create and manage a more contestable market of community providers; and to move services closer to patients, supported by Practice Based Commissioning (PBC). Apart from advising regularly on how to implement "Transforming Community Services" our experience includes:
- a transfer out of a PCTs provider arm to a for-profit GP cooperative and for another PCT the transfer of a health education joint ventures with the City Council to a community interest company
- the development of Community Foundation Trusts to take over PCT provider arms
- social enterprises
- for profit models
- charitable models
- section 75 arrangements
- dispersal and outsourcing
- joint ventures
- spin out of a mental health FTs income generating social care arm
- an FT on its withdrawal from this market place
Due to our experience in NHS outsourcing and service reorganisations we also have unrivalled knowledge and a practical understanding of the Cabinet Office guidance on staff transfers in the public sector and implications of creating a "two tier" workforce arising from the Code of Practice on Workforce Matters in Public Service Contracts. We offer specialist pensions law advice on the critical issue of staff pension rights in TUPE situations including where not-for-profit organisations may be able to access the NHS Pension 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).