Department of Health

Website of the Department of Health

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

New NHS contracts

  • Last modified date:
    24 June 2009

The standard NHS contracts for acute hospital, mental health, community and ambulance services have now been published.

The contracts published on 10 December 2008 represent Annex D to the NHS Operating Framework for 2009-10 and should be read in conjunction with The NHS in England: The operating framework for 2008/09 Annex D - Principles and rules for co-operation and competition December 2007.

The NHS standard contracts cover agreements between PCTs and providers for the delivery of NHS funded services.  The contract will apply to agreements from 2009-10 for:

  • NHS trusts
  • New foundation trusts and FTs whose existing contracts have expired
  • New agreements between PCTs and independent sector providers
  • New agreements between PCTs and third sector providers

The mental health and learning disability services contract is published initially on a one year interim basis and with a degree of flexibility. The details of this are set out in the mental health and learning disability services contract guidance.

Guidance on each of the contracts was published alongside the Operating Framework last year, together with a model consortium agreement and its associated guidance.

If you are not sure which contract is most appropriate for you to use, please download our comprehensive guide below

Select a section

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

Deed of variation for 2008 NHS standard acute contract

This suite of documents is for those commissioners and providers who entered into the acute services contract that was published in December 2007, who are now working to a document that does not reflect changes brought about by the operating framework for 2009-1010.

The standard deed of variation is designed to vary those existing acute services contracts by incorporating the significant elements of the 2009/2010 standard NHS contract for acute services brought about by the operating 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 into 2009.

Contract implementation workshops

We are holding a second round of workshops around the country to help the implementation process of the new NHS standard contracts.  The workshops will provide an opportunity for participants to discuss each of the four contracts including 11 mental health and community services SHA events, 2 national days for acute services and one national event for ambulance services. 

Scheduled acute workshops cancelled
Please note the acute workshops planned for 17 and 24 February in York and Regents Park London have been cancelled.
Further workshops on specific policy areas i.e CQUIN, PBR will be undertaken by the appropriate policy teams within the department.

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:

Currency and pricing options for community services

Published: 5 January 2009

This document is intended as a resource to be used by commissioners and providers of community services to help create transparent models of funding, through the use of new currencies and better pricing at a local level. New currencies (the units of healthcare for which a provider is funded) and better pricing are key to transforming community services, enabling commissioners to incentivise improvements in quality and value. The use of new currencies with accurate pricing should also lead to more services being available closer to home for patients.

Examples of PCT good practice

Monthly e-bulletin

Current edition

Published: 7 January 2009

The monthly 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

Access keys