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New NHS contracts

  • Last modified date:
    22 January 2010

The NHS standard  contracts for Mental Health and Learning Disability,  Ambulance Services, Acute Hospital and Community Services were published on 18 January 2010. 

The contracts support the  NHS Operating Framework for 20010-2011 and should be read in conjunction with the  Principles and Rules for Co-operation and Competition and the PCT Procurement Guide.

The NHS standard contracts cover agreements between PCTs and all types of provider delivering  NHS funded services.  The contract will apply to agreements from April 2010 for:

  • NHS Trusts
  • NHS Foundation Trusts
  • New agreements between PCTs and independent sector providers
  • New agreements between PCTs and third sector providers

.Guidance on each of the contracts is  published to support the implementation and interpretation of the contracts

A model consortium agreement and associated guidance have been updated and are published alongside the contracts.

Select a section

Using the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) payment framework

Frequently asked questions

In this section you can access our lists of frequently asked questions. The lists of questions and answers will be updated regularly with new information being added as the implementation process progresses during 2010-11.

Contracts help

Helpdesk

If there are any areas you feel are not convered in our FAQ section, or if you have any queries surrounding the new contracts please contact us with your query at

Feedback and mailing list

If you would like to join the distribution list to receive the monthly e-bulletin, please fill in the details in the form below and copy and paste them into an email to the address below. We would welcome your feedback or recommendations on the contracts and our webpage.  If you have any other areas of interest that you feel are not being covered here, please also contact us via:

E-bulletin

Current edition

Published: 3 December 2009

The contracts e-bulletins provide updates on the progress of the development,  publication and implementation of the new standard contracts and are distributed with 'the week'.

Back catalogue

Development of new NHS contracts

The need for new NHS contracts was introduced in the Commissioning Framework, in July 2006.  The final versions of the four new standard NHS contracts for acute hospital, mental health, community and ambulance services was introduced through the 2009-10 Operating Framework for both NHS bodies and FTs and published on 10 December 2008.
This section outlines the progress of the new contracts with links to some useful documents published during the course of the developmental stage.

Additional links

Contact us

If you have any queries surrounding the new contracts

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