Ther best place to start in helping us tailor our approach to meet your specific needs is with an initial conversation with a food account manager. That takes us through to negotiating contracts and pricing with your category buyer before, finally, providing seamless delivery of products to your trust.
We are a dedicated team of experts committed to delivering measurable savings and tailored solutions that meet your unique requirements from the outset. We provide you and your trust with dependable support as a seamless extension of your team. Our goal is to become your trusted advisors and long-term partners.
Our approach
Greg Archer, NHS Supply Chain: Food’s directs category team lead says: “We recently worked with an Integrated Care System (ICS) in the South West. The challenge was looking at a new sandwich range to enable cost savings whilst still ensuring the quality of the products on offer.
“The majority of the trusts in the ICS were already working with the SME supplier, the only one of its kind in this region. We were able to share our market knowledge with that supplier to improve their cost basis. They have now changed their supply base, supplier relationships and the way that they buy.
“Our category buyer advised them and benchmarked their prices. We then shared that with the trust. This shows how we adapt for the trust, whether it be the framework we suggest, or whether a large wholesaler or regional supplier might work better.”
We help you choose the right route to market by identifying your priorities and tailoring our approach. These priorities could be cost, local produce, or something else. We take time to understand your trust and your needs, looking at other suppliers and what they offer in terms of product and cost.
Our selection process
Anna Gibson, category buyer at NHS Supply Chain: Food explains how we make the right choice for you. She said: “Firstly, the food account managers visit the trust to review the current supply base, prices, and products. They discuss any additional needs such as aligning with trust sustainability goals, local suppliers, or consolidating deliveries.
“Then our account managers and buyers will recommend the best framework option and route to market. This could, for example, suggest a competitive tendering among pre-approved suppliers via the Fresh Food DPS Agreement, or whether using the Multi Temperature Solution Framework would be advantageous.
“Building on this initial review, the food account manager will then take a deeper dive into their trust’s specific priorities, such as performance requirements from a supplier, interest in a more local specialist supplier, or a wholesaler model. This insight helps shape the most suitable route to market, ensuring the trust’s operational and strategic needs are fully aligned with the recommended framework.
“Procurement are then brought in to find the best solution. If it’s a wholesaler the trust needs, we’ll look at our NHS Supply Chain Catalogue Multi Temperature Distribution and Multi Temperature Food Solutions frameworks. We will work to find an SME supplier solution for the trust if it is focused on locality or wants a more specialised supplier, such as one who can do a range of products and pack sizes, or a meat supplier who can offer them specialist cuts.”
Route to market options
We use a Fresh and Food-To-Go Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS), where we go out to the market and ask suppliers to enter a ‘mini competition’ if they wish to submit a bid. This also offers a compliant route to market for the trust every time.
We can rank the suppliers on four criteria – financials, social value, sustainability, and food sampling (social value is mandatory). The trust can adjust the weighting of this depending on its priorities.
That’s our formal procurement exercise, and goes out to market. After suppliers are scored and ranked, our food account managers present the results of the mini competition to the trust against its agreed criteria so that it can award business.
Another option benchmarks suppliers for the trust. If it is already working with a supplier directly and wants to know if it’s getting the most competitive prices, we can do benchmarking exercises to provide transparency and confidence that the pricing is fair. If this shows non-competitive pricing, we will advise the trust on the best course of action.
Ensuring quality
We also offer trusts product sampling on-site in hospitals. The category buyers attend trust meetings with the food account managers to check the quality of products to help the trust should it wish to change supplier.
For more specialist categories, NHS Supply Chain: Food Operations Team is brought in to support the process, whether that is ensuring the correct nutritional values or making sure the product is fit for purpose operationally with our culinary or dietetic experts. When we suggest a product switch they make certain the new product matches or betters the nutritional value of the existing one.
A tailored service
Greg Archer adds: “Each trust is an individual customer to us, with individual needs, and we really impress this upon our suppliers when we work with them. Through our food account managers, we take time to really understand your wants and needs.
“We then apply the right route to market and identify the right saving methodology to be proposed. We do bring trusts together in collaborations as well if they are in the same region with the same needs, to drive greater savings. We adapt our offer according to your needs. Each trust gets a tailored approach as we look at alternative ways for you to purchase your food and explore how we can make you savings, ensuring you get the right offer from us every time.”
Get in touch
If you would like information on our frameworks and services, or just to have a chat with us about your options, email us at: food@supplychain.nhs.uk