Contract for the provision of (ST0385) Level 5 Operations / Departmental Manager (with Mary Seacole) Apprenticeship to South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit

About the buyer

NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit is a healthcare buyer, an NHS commissioning support unit that runs procurement for integrated care boards, NHS trusts and healthcare providers. A healthcare procurement team runs end-to-end tendering for clinical services. Tenders are advertised through the In-Tend portal, where suppliers register to bid. A Dynamic Purchasing System covers commonly sourced goods and services such as orthodontics, consultancy and IT solutions. Purchase-to-pay processes and catalogues run through a transactional procurement service for member organisations.

UK health spending has nearly quadrupled to £241.8bn in 2024/25, £20bn up on the year before. £140.6bn of that went to procurement, the biggest sector of UK public spending and the fastest-growing.

Over the past 5 years, most of NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit's contract awards have been in software and information systems, IT services and education and training.