NECS543 Crisis Text Service for North East and North Cumbria

About the buyer

NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board commissions health and care services as an NHS integrated care board, formed from a merger of local clinical commissioning groups. Procurement and payment services run through NHS Shared Business Services, whose Supplier Portal suppliers use for invoices and payments. NHS SBS delivers this through framework agreements open to the NHS and the wider public sector. Supplier invoicing runs separately through the Tradeshift platform. Existing contracts are managed through the commissioning representative named in each contract.

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 North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board's contract awards have been in health and social work, software and information systems and IT services.