NHSE publishes contract for ‘tiger teams’ to support EPR delivery

NHS England has published a contract notice for “an experienced, multi-skilled, rapid response intervention service”,  known as a tiger teams service to support the delivery of electronic patient records (EPRs) across England.

It states that the contract, worth an estimated £13.3 million, will be “an expansion to an existing comprehensive support offer available to providers, designed to support the national demand for resource, expertise, and information necessary to successfully rollout EPRs”.

The notice explains “notoriously complex” nature of EPR implementation and the fact that the digital, data and technology workforce across the country is varied, with different levels of experience and skill sets.

“Often during EPR delivery, there is a requirement for either a planned, or unplanned, specific, time-bound skill set, capable of providing a set of deliverables, problem rectification or other specialist intervention for an element of the EPR programme,” the notice reads.

It adds: “Trusts are finding it increasingly challenging to obtain good quality, skilled short-term resources, both from the recruitment and contingent labour market.”

To support trusts to alleviate this issue, NHSE explain, this service will provide tiger teams to “deliver a time-boxed service on behalf of the trust where other attempts to fulfil the requirement have been unsuccessful”.

Tiger teams services should also possess “organisational working knowledge of best practice of EPR design, delivery, optimisation” and provide “knowledge transfer and retention within the NHS, including working with and alongside staff using a buddying-style approach” to create a more sustainable resourcing model.

Those bidding for the contract will also need to have the “ability to build up a cohort of operators with specialist knowledge that can be deployed across the system on similar tasks, thereby enabling and accelerating the setting up of a virtual centre of expertise”.

The contract notice adds that the frontline digitisation programme is working with provider organisations to support them in reaching a minimum level of digital capability and to have an EPR in place by the end of March 2026.

It says that despite the “wealth of support” the frontline digitisation programme provides, it does not include resources to support trusts with “hands-on, ‘boots-on-ground’ interventions”, which is why tiger teams are required.

The contract notice, published on 24 October 2024, follows the prior information notice that was published on 19 January 2024.

It will begin on 1 April 2025 and end on 31 March 2026, with the potential for 12 months in extension periods.

The deadline to receive tenders and requests to participate is 20 November 2024.