When drafting and negotiating the contracts between NHS bodies and private sector organisations, we ensure that our clients get the best deal possible and maximise value for money. Our extensive work in this field means that we have a range of precedents to cover most situations and have probably come across most situations before. This allows us to take a commercial and sensible view, reducing negotiating time - and time usually means money.
We have advised on a wide range of outsourcing contracts including full - blown clinical service deliveries such as pathology services and haemodialysis treatment centres; hotel services such as catering and cleaning; professional services such as architects and consultants and joint ventures on car park management and staff accommodation schemes.
The pressure to provide services in a more cost-effective and seamless manner is driving all NHS bodies to explore new ways of operating. Foundation Trusts are looking for opportunities to bid for new NHS services, develop new private services or to mitigate some of the effects of the private patient cap. All this leads to collaboration with other partners, whether public, private or third sector and either through complex delivery vehicles or more straightforward contractual arrangements and corporate structures.
Analysis of the legal issues involved in the setting up and operating of a joint venture arrangements, whether contractual or corporate, involves a number of legal skills, all of which the Bevan Brittan team can provide. These include advice on:
- legal powers to enter partnerships/joint arrangements
- trading and charging powers
- expertise in regulated procurement and financial regulations including the competitive dialogue procedures
- corporate advice on models of delivery including share and guarantee companies, trusts, CICs, IPSs, LLPs and social enterprises
- issues relating to charitable status of JVs
- commercial support on contractual joint ventures
- employment expertise to support TUPE transfers or secondment arrangements
- pensions advice
- tax implications of different delivery models
- ICT and intellectual property support
- banking and finance advice on borrowing, financial models
- insolvency and recovery
- expert property advice when premises are involved in the arrangements
Our team has extensive experience of working with public sector clients and advising private sector providers who operate in the public sector. We are able to bring to the table a full understanding of the commercial reality of the market and advise you on the quality and the effectiveness of the deals you are negotiating.
Solutions to your problems
- In the increasingly complex world of innovative service delivery and amid many different models of operating, we have advised clients on the following types of joint venture arrangements:
- a Mental Health Trust on a contractual model for the provision of an NHS service (tendered by a PCT)
- establishment of a contractual joint venture for the operation of a new private patient unit as part of a Cardiothoracic Centre.
- procurement of a private sector partner to enhance FT’s payroll and HR business
- establishment of an eye hospital in Dubai’s Healthcare City
- an aspiring Foundation Trust on a joint venture to manage its estate under which the Trust's second hospital transfers to the joint venture company, wh ich is responsible for maximising income from void space
- a private sector body on entering into a corporate joint venture with an NHS Trust (to be entered into immediately once it becom es an FT) to operate a hospital
- joint venture research programme between a charity, a n FT and a pharmaceutical company
- joint ventures for the provision of prison health services, diagnostics, intermediate care, exploitation of intellectual property rights and back office functions; joint ventures for delivery of estates
- shared service arrangements between PCTs and the structure of shared services agencies