The NHS and Steria case study final

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The NHS and Steria
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Efficiency through sharing
Challenge summary
When you are a healthcare provider managing costs
efficiently can literally be a life saver.
The challenge
Employing over 1.3 million people to deliver healthcare to
all residents England, the National Health Service (NHS)
is the world’s largest publicly funded healthcare provider.
For such a large organisation, being highly efficient is vital
for maintaining the world-class standards it aspires to. Set
against the need to treat around one million patients every
36 hours, the dangers of not achieving this become all too
apparent. With radical change now on the agenda driven
by the need to find efficiency savings of £20 billion and a
45% reduction in management costs by 2014, the focus
on efficiency is even more important.
Key points
NHS is the world’s largest publicly funded health
authority
NHS SBS is the market leader in business support
services for the NHS
It is a unique and profitable public sector shared
business services joint venture between the NHS and
Steria
Delivering around £224 million worth of savings over a
ten-year period
Each Trust typically makes cost savings of 20% to 40%
NHS SBS is the leader in Information Governance and
data security in the NHS
95%* of Finance and HR Directors would recommend
NHS SBS
(*Voice of the Customer, 2010)
NHS SBS named UK Central Government Supplier of
the Year in March 2011
Our solution
In 2005 the NHS turned to Steria for help in achieving
significant operational improvements. This resulted in the
creation of NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS), a
unique and beneficial 50:50 partnership between Steria
and the NHS. Based on sharing services with NHS trusts,
this joint venture has established an innovative model for
the delivery of public sector business processes and has
targeted areas such as Finance and Accounting, Payroll,
HR, Family Health Services and NHS Procurement.
NHS SBS is now the market leader in business support
services for the NHS and now procures a wide range of
services that embrace the usual back-office processes, as
well as services that are specifically designed for the
health sector, such as Family Health Services and
Commercial Procurement Solutions. This powerful
combination has allowed it to deliver excellence despite
the on-going economic challenges. With the aim of
achieving savings of between 20% and 40% for NHS
trusts, NHS SBS now employs over 1,400 people,
processing more than £36 billion of payments per annum.
In fact, over 40% of NHS organisations are now NHS SBS
clients, and that number is continuing to rise.

How we worked together
With a combined focus on operational excellence and
continuous improvement, NHS SBS put in place a robust
programme of activity that included investment in systems
and the development of additional value-added services.
Although reducing costs is an important objective in
improving efficiency, the team ensured that this did not
translate into cutting quality to achieve it, focusing instead
on rethinking the way finance functions are carried out and
redesigning processes to meet the needs of patients more
effectively.
Core to the success of the partnership has been the
retention of NHS professionals in the team, bringing a
wealth of expertise and experience and enabling it to meet
its promise of delivering ‘from the NHS to the NHS’. By
listening and learning, Steria has designed effective ways
of operating and achieving continuous improvement,
whether transferring NHS employees to NHS SBS in 2005
or establishing client user forums and special working
parties to meet the changing needs of financial
management in the NHS. By creating an environment with
high levels of personal ownership and empowerment it
has encouraged NHS employees to improve the
processes they are responsible for and take pride in what
they’ve achieved.
The joint venture also works closely with Oracle and is its
single biggest customer. This has ensured that every NHS
Trust has access to safe, quick and secure technology
solutions across the common platform.
Results and benefits
Although the achievements of NHS SBS are not just about
numbers, the figures certainly speak for themselves as
measures of efficiency and performance. Economies of
scale have been achieved through the introduction of: e-
Procurement; new and innovative ways of working;
sharing of best practice; and access to improved
management information and world-class technology.
NHS SBS is now on target to deliver around £224 million
of savings over a ten-year period. This is equivalent to
12,500 extra nurses, demonstrating the advantages of a
collaborative approach to cost management. NHS SBS
now recovers more than £12 billion of NHS debt for its
NHS clients, money that can be channelled back into
providing vital front-line health services. In June 2010 the
joint venture presented a royalties cheque for more than
£1 million to the Department of Health to be shared
amongst NHS SBS clients. This is in addition to the
operational efficiency and substantial cost savings already
achieved by existing NHS Trust clients – delivering real
value to the NHS.
NHS SBS has made huge progress since it was created
and has changed the perception of shared services and
outsourcing in the public sector. The business is regularly
benchmarked against leading companies in the private
sector and has been acknowledged as World Class for the
second year running by benchmarking specialists, the
Hackett group.
Sharing services really does mean saving lives as well as
money.
“The move to NHS Shared Business Services has not only transformed the management of the service
through the application of technology based solutions, modernised processes and quality improvements
but it will also deliver savings of around £3 million which could be reinvested in frontline care.”
Sally Gorham, Chief Executive – NHS Waltham Forest
Contact
If you would like to find out more about what's involved in moving to NHS Shared Business
Services, please contact:
Tel: +44 (0113) 3071500
Fax: +44 (0113) 3071666
http://www.sbs.nhs.uk/
About Steria
Founded in 1969, Steria works across 16 countries, has offices in Europe, India, North Africa and SE Asia and a 2010 revenue of €1.69 billion. 20%* of
Steria’s capital is owned by its employees. Headquartered in Paris, Steria is listed on the Euronext Paris market.
(*): including the Employee Shares Trust in the UK