Virgin Care in legal action over procurement of children's health services contract

Virgin Care has started a High Court action against NHS bodies and Surrey County Council over a procurement dispute.

The company objects to the circumstances in which it lost an £82m, three-year contract for children’s health services.

It has taken action against NHS England, Surrey County Council and the county’s six clinical commissioning groups after the new contract was instead awarded to Surrey Healthy Children and Families.

The latter is a joint vehicle of Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and social enterprise Central Surrey Health.

A Virgin Care spokesperson said: “During the feedback from the commissioner we became concerned that there may have been serious flaws in the procurement process leading to an outcome that we strongly feel is not in the best interests of either the children and families we support or our valued colleagues.

“Having bid on many contracts over the past decade never before have we been so concerned with the whole process that we have needed to make a challenge of this nature.

“The commissioners have now signed a contract with the new provider and we are disappointed to be saying goodbye to our valued colleagues and the children and families we support. It is our job now to ensure we support a safe transfer on 1 April; so the transition is as smooth and seamless as possible for all involved.

Guildford and Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group, which led on the procurement, has been approached for comment.

Mark Smulian