NHS SY ICB - Non-Emergency Patient Transport - Core

Concepts

• sheffield
• ambulance services
• nhs care facilities
• nhs funded care
• patient access
• patient flow
• patient journeys
• other yorkshire based nhs organisations
• south yorkshire icb
• patient experience

Location

South Yorkshire

Description

Non-emergency Patient Transport (NEPTS) provides pre-planned and on-day (unplanned) transport to support eligible patients to access NHS funded care. NEPTS caters for those patients who are either too ill to get to hospital without assistance or for whom travelling may cause their condition to deteriorate. The service provides for a wide range of patient mobilities, requiring a variety of vehicle types and levels of care consistent with the patient’s medical needs - including specialist moving and handling or support during transport such as provision of oxygen. Across South Yorkshire, YAS has a fleet of around 90 vehicles operating from 9 stations. As the long-standing provider of key urgent and emergency care services (Emergency Ambulance, NHS111, NEPTS) YAS is an established partner within the South Yorkshire ICS and a stakeholder in the delivery of SYICB operational priorities and achievement of a balanced system financial position. Within South Yorkshire, YAS NEPTS provides transport to patients who meet the National Eligibility Criteria and are registered with a GP practice within the SY ICB boundary. The service supports admissions and discharges from NHS care facilities, transfers between care facilities, and day-case and outpatient journeys for NHS funded care. YAS provides core transport for pre-planned appointments between 07:30am and last book ready time of 19:00pm (Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays), and 08:00am to 18:00pm on weekends. On-day transport operating hours varies by location, starting at 08:00am and finishing at either 19:00pm or 22:00pm. Within this contract, YAS also operate dedicated discharge services in Sheffield, and GP urgent transport for Sheffield.

Total Quantity or Scope

The service provides for a wide range of patient mobilities, requiring a variety of vehicle types and levels of care consistent with the patient’s medical needs - including specialist moving and handling or support during transport such as provision of oxygen. Across South Yorkshire, YAS has a fleet of around 90 vehicles operating from 9 stations. … The service supports admissions and discharges from NHS care facilities, transfers between care facilities, and day-case and outpatient journeys for NHS funded care. YAS provides core transport for pre-planned appointments between 07:30am and last book ready time of 19:00pm (Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays), and 08:00am to 18:00pm on weekends. On-day transport operating hours varies by location, starting at 08:00am and finishing at either 19:00pm or 22:00pm. Within this contract, YAS also operate dedicated discharge services in Sheffield, and GP urgent transport for Sheffield. The contract is intended to be awarded following the Direct Award Process C of the Provider Selection regime.The approximate lifetime value of the contract is - £52,909,170. Based on an annual value of £10,581,834 and a 3 year contract with the option to extend for a further 2 years.The contract will run from 01/10/2025 to 31/09/2028 plus the option to extend for a further 2 year period.The name and address of the provider is:Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS TrustBrindley WayWakefield 41 Business ParkWakefieldWF2 0XQ

Award Detail

Award Criteria

CPV Codes

• 85143000 - Ambulance services

Indicators

• Award on basis of price.

Legal Justification

This is a Provider Selection Regime (PSR) intention to award notice. The awarding of this contract is subject to the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. For the avoidance of doubt, the provisions of the Procurement Act 2023 do not apply to this award. The standstill period begins on the day after the publication of this notice. Representations by providers must be made to the relevant authority by midnight on the 5th September 2025. This contract has not yet formally been awarded; this notice serves as an intention to award under the PSR

Other Information

Quality and Innovation - Weighting 25% YAS provide regular quality reporting to the ICB. This includes sharing a comprehensive monthly Quality report with SYICB and regular meetings between quality leads. The YAS service in South Yorkshire ICB is consistently ‘Green’ rated across all quality metrics, as reported monthly via the Place level PTS Quality Reports. Experience of care information collated during the lifetime of the contract YAS operates a patient survey programme spanning the NEPTS service. This informs service operational delivery and developments. Annual data for South Yorkshire shows that in 24/25, 96.9% of patients reported a good or very good experience. Past data shows consistently positive results. We continue to collect and report 4C’s data, using this to inform service delivery and future developments. We also have two dedicated Patient Safety Partners; both actively attend governance meetings within PTS and across the Trust. The KPI’s for this service are based on the pre-COVID era and a review of these would be required for the new contract. To clarify, SY ICB have not asked for an action plan, from YAS, to improve the KPI performance, despite the contract being managed by SY ICB on a regular basis. The shift in demand from Taxis/ Volunteer Car onto Ambulances has put more pressure on the Ambulance ‘fleet’. The current breakdown of the service provision, 2025/26 year to date, is: Private – 22.8% Ambulance – 62.5% Taxi – 10.2% VCS – 4.4% Value – 20% NEPTS is a fundamental element of the health system, enabling patient access to secondary care and community services, and supporting patient flow through inpatient services. NEPTS enables access to services for those patients whose medical needs would otherwise be a barrier. The service offers widespread benefits to both the system and patients. These include: Access: The service has brought in additional capacity to continue to support growing in-year demand, ensuring patient journeys are not disrupted. Multiple routes of access into the service including direct telephone bookings for patients and healthcare professionals, and a 24/7 online booking platform accessible to all healthcare stakeholders. Timeliness: The service standards for timeliness have improved and are now more aligned with the KPI, despite the background of rising acuity. Regional and national benchmarking of PTS performance is challenging due to the variety of service models/specifications and KPIs currently in use across the country. Informal Benchmarking across the Northern Ambulance Alliance (which includes NEPTS providers in Y&H, East Midlands, Northwest and Northeast regions) shows that YAS performance is not an outlier. All systems included in NAA community of practice sessions are currently seeing challenges in managing the increasing volume of unplanned/on-day activity required to support patient flow. Supporting patient flow: The service is responsive to on-day demand, working in partnership with acute trusts to balance flow vs. clinical need. Around 80% of SY on-day discharges are collected within 2 hours of notification and 90% collected within 3 hours Quality & Safety: the YAS service in South Yorkshire ICB is consistently ‘Green’ rated across all quality metrics, as reported monthly via the Place level PTS Quality Reports Efficiency: YAS have achieved reductions in aborted journeys of the course of the current contracts. This has been delivered through close working with acute trust partners and technology developments (e.g. 24/7 booking portal, automated patient reminders) Integration, collaboration and service sustainability - Weighting 25% Service Integration NEPTS supports the delivery of key national and ICB priorities by enabling patient access, improving system flow and improving patient experience. The service works closely with acute trust partners and healthcare professionals so that NEPTS is integrated with patient pathways and wider system priorities, this has a particular impact on elective recovery, patient flow through timely attendance and hospital discharge and reducing inequalities in access. Collaboration YAS are a well-established and key system partner, with a long-standing history of working collaboratively with other healthcare providers and the wider system to improve outcomes for patients, Acute Trusts and communities across South Yorkshire. YAS has an area-based management and engagement structure to facilitate ongoing engagement with all levels of the ICS. As a large NHS trust, our collaborations extend beyond the scope of our relationship with SYICS. Examples of wider collaborations include: YAS and other Yorkshire based NHS organisations have been working with NHS England on the development of the NHS Climate Adaption Framework for the last two years. This framework features heavily in the Committee for Climate Change’s recommendations to government. Working with South Yorkshire Police and South Yorkshire Fire Brigade to jointly understand, map out and develop a resilient Emergency Services EV charging infrastructure. ‘Community Partners’ – a program supporting organisations to deliver their own life-saving skills training. YAS deliver a ‘train the trainer’ course to allow staff, volunteers or students in other organisations to deliver courses within their own organisations or communities. Continued in section VI.3.0.1 below. This is a Provider Selection Regime (PSR) intention to award notice. The awarding of this contract is subject to the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. For the avoidance of doubt, the provisions of the Procurement Act 2023 do not apply to this award. The standstill period begins on the day after the publication of this notice. Representations by providers must be made to decision makers by midnight on the 4th September 2025. This contract has not yet formally been awarded; this notice serves as an intention to award under the PSR.Representations should be sent via email to - syicb-sheffield.syicb.procurement@nhs.netThe award decision makers were - The Informal Executive Board.No conflicts of interest were identified.Key criteria continued from section II.2.14.1 above - Service SustainabilityYAS NEPTS has dedicated Business Intelligence, demand analysis and capacity forecasting expertise to monitor internal service delivery and efficiency and to adapt the service model to take account of system changes and pressures (e.g. rising demand, acuity of case mix, new clinics or sites). This supports optimum use of existing resources and allows the service to highlight potential pressures to the system at an early stage.Improving access, reducing health inequalities, and facilitating choice – Weighting 20% The YAS community engagement team work actively with communities experiencing health inequalities. Our Community Engagement Strategy 2024 – 2026 has the following 5 Community Engagement Principles: Focus on health inequalities – target community engagement activity for communities most likely to need our services now or in the future and those experiencing barriers to accessing services. Partnerships – develop and deliver community engagement with partners, working with those that understand and are trusted by our communities. Anchor organisation – Act as an anchor organisation, seeking to improve life chances through education, training, employment support and building capacity in communities Insight led – Be insight led in our engagement, using evidence to guide who we engage and how we engage them Doing with – Work collaboratively with communities, developing projects together and involving people with lived experience. Social Value – Weighting 10% The service supports recruitment and skills development in local communities across Yorkshire, with a number of apprenticeship pathways available. These provide employment, skills development and career progression opportunities for the communities served by YAS. As an NHS employer, YAS offer a fair pay structure (agenda for change) and automatically enrols all staff into the NHS Pension Scheme. We also offer financial wellbeing support to staff and have a monthly Financial Wellbeing working group which meets monthly to share ideas and the most up-to-date information to support out workforce. YAS are bold in their ambitions to play our role in reducing the impact that the NHS has on the UK and the world’s carbon emissions and are working to eliminate our carbon emissions and create a more sustainable ambulance service for the future. The greener NHS requirements were launched in October 2020, preparing the NHS for a Net Zero future. Current targets aim to eliminate carbon emissions by 2045 from all NHS activities (including the supply chain) and YAS have aligned our Green Plan with these timescales, having a strategic plan to decarbonise before this date.