Vaccinate the Interpreter: Britain’s Health Service in RFP Worth Up to GBP 80m
Big numbers again from the United Kingdom, where the famed National Health Service on July 8, 2016, launched a request for proposal (RFP) for interpretation and translation services worth GBP 20–80m over the two-year life of the contract.
The new RFP comes hot on the heels of similar tenders for framework agreements from the nation’s Crown Commercial Service CCS (worth up to GBP 250m), the Ministry of Justice (up to GBP 160m), and a procurement organization for the country’s Eastern Shires (up to GBP 120m).
Even if only a fraction of the promised spend is likely be funnelled through the frameworks, the UK is emerging as a runner-up to the EU in terms of centralized procurement of translation and interpretation.
The RFP totals 74 pages across three documents, with another three vast spreadsheets added for good measure. Bid managers rejoice. Running the tender is the NHS’ procurement arm NHS Shared Business Services (SBS), which is funded by both the suppliers and the participating authorities. According to the bid documents seen by Slator, the Category Manager in charge is a certain Jack Steele.
As with the CCS contract, the NHS deployed the framework model, where a central authority runs the RFPs, chooses the vendors, but then leaves it to them to pitch their services directly to the individual authorities (i.e., the end buyers).