Department of Health

Website of the Department of Health

Please note that this website has a UK government access keys system.

Development of new NHS contracts

  • Last modified date:
    21 November 2008

This page outlines the progress of the requirement to develop new standard contracts for NHS mental health, community, and ambulance services, including the independent sector, as indicated in Health Reform in England: update and commissioning framework (July 2006) and reinforced in Commissioning Framework for Health and Well-being (March 2007).

The need for new NHS contracts was introduced in the Commissioning Framework, in July 2006. The final version of the new standard NHS contract for acute hospital services was introduced through the 2008/09 Operating Framework for both NHS bodies and FTs.

The contracts will be based upon many of the same principles and requirements of the standard acute contract, amended as necessary to take account of the different service and organisational contexts.

The new contracts will be introduced from April 2009.

Select a section

Monthly e-bulletin

This section contains monthly bulletins on the development of new standard contracts for NHS mental health, community, and ambulance services, to be introduced from April 2009. The new contracts will be based upon many of the same principles and requirements of the standard acute contract (introduced through the Operating Framework in December 2007 for agreements between PCTs, as commissioners, and NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts as providers), amended as necessary to take account of the different service and organisational contexts.

The monthly e-bulletins will provide updates on the progress on the development of the new standard contracts and will be distributed with ‘the week’ at the end of each month.

Outline heads of terms

The first draft ‘heads of terms’ documents for ambulance and community services are now available for comment. The outline heads of terms do not represent the contract itself but provide a summary of how we propose each contract will be structured and what will be covered under the main headings in each clause and schedule. 

This first draft represents a work in progress and should not be seen as a fully developed proposal. Work will continue on key issues over the summer, but we are anxious to get your reaction at this stage to the emerging contract. For each clause and schedule the document indicates what is proposed or poses questions on how the issue might be addressed.

Comments on these first draft ‘heads of terms’ documents should be submitted by 30 June 2008.

Feedback and mailing list

Are there any other areas of interest that you feel are not being covered here? Please email the address below with your recommendations. 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 either copy and paste them into an e-mail or add the sheet as an attachment and send to:

Access keys