NHS - Shared Business Services

Since 2005 NHS Shared Business Services has pioneered the concept of shared services for the NHS.

This unique joint venture between the Department of Health and Steria has led the way in developing and providing finance, accounting, payroll and procurement and payroll solutions to all types of NHS organisations, not only saving money but delivering real value to Trusts across England.

Our services enable NHS Trusts to focus on business improvement activities and strategic decision making, and support the release of resources back to frontline care.

With over 100 clients NHS Shared Business Services is able to demonstrate both the principle and the benefits of shared services, making NHS SBS the preferred choice for NHS Trusts seeking to modernise their back office processes:

• Through our focus on operational excellence, NHS SBS is able to offer clients substantial benefits such as high quality management information, fast paperless transaction processing and substantial savings in procurement.
• Our commitment to customer service means that NHS SBS clients are confident they have the support they need and are able to access expert advice when required.
• NHS Shared Business Services provides a wide range of comprehensive, innovative and reliable services. Our experience of working with NHS clients to support their strategic objectives, developing future-proofed solutions and investing in new services really sets us apart.

The facts and figures:

• We employ over 1000 people in the UK and India, with expertise and experience of the NHS, finances and accounting and payroll
• We are a joint partnership with Steria – Steria has a revenue of €3billion.
• NHS SBS processes £18 billion cash per annum
• We recover £10 billion of NHS debt per annum
• £6 billion of orders are processed through our e-Procurement solution each year
• We process over 2 million payslips per annum
• We process 3-4 million AP/AR transactions per annum
• 30,000 trained users are registered on the NHS SBS Oracle system
• We consistently exceed contractually agreed service levels

Awards

NHS Shared Business Services has been delighted to win several prestigious awards and accolades. 

• NHS SBS was the recipient of the 'Outsourcing Service Provider of the Year' award at the National Outsourcing Association Awards in 2007. The NOA chose NHS SBS for its exemplary public-sector outsourcing model, which is regarded as a successful template for redirecting resources to frontline services - as required in the Gershon Review.
  
  
• Everyone at NHS SBS was also honoured to receive the 2007 Excellence in Information Integrity Award.  Explaining why NHS SBS won the award, the IIC stated that: 'NHS Shared Business Services improved the Information Integrity of the services provided by streamlining and standardizing the processes and bringing them onto a common technology platform. This improved the quality and the efficiency of the services, enhanced the controls within the operations and improved the accuracy, reliability and timeliness of the information available to the management and other stakeholders.'
  
  
• NHS SBS client Bromley PCT won the Health Financial Management Association's Financial Management Award at the 2007 HFMA awards. The awards recognise best practice in healthcare management with an emphasis on finance.  The PCT was commended for significant improvements in its efficiency and financial management by implementing and embedding a major change in financial culture across all levels of the organisation. Bromley were one of the first PCTs to join NHS Shared Business Services in July 2005 and this partnership was instrumental in the achievements recognised by the award.