Considerations

Before sharing wired or wireless connectivity with another organisation there are a number of areas to understand first, and considerations to address. Looking through these considerations will help you understand if this is the right approach for your organisation’s needs.

This section looks at how the relationship between the organisation that owns the commercial relationship with the supplier providing the connectivity service and the partner organisations sharing that connectivity should be governed.

Commercial and contractual arrangements between the lead organisation and connectivity supplier are not in scope of this guidance.

When entering into shared services, an agreement will be helpful in defining how the shared services will operate. This agreement should clearly define the responsibilities of each party and the processes to be followed in the management of those services. This approach will be helpful in preventing disputes, encouraging good neighbour behaviour and in limiting liabilities.

We strongly recommend that NHS organisations considering the use of shared services seek appropriate advice from their own Legal, Commercial and Finance teams.

The following is a list of areas to consider before drawing up any agreement between parties:

• the term (duration) of the agreement and any extension provision(s)
• cancellation and early exit provisions, including any termination costs
• roles and responsibilities
• understand your key risks, for example, continuity of service in the event of change of circumstances for you or a partner
• understand how costs are to be apportioned
• make sure you understand the degree of financial exposure (contract length by value and conditions for early exit) and your appetite for risk
• financial arrangements including billing, how you apportion and pass on charges to partners and how they will make payment to you
• if charging changes in contract, how will these changes be agreed and implemented across organisations
• service management including how will other partners have a say in this or access management information and how will incidents be reported and managed across organisations
• how often will there be review points for the commercial arrangements, to factor in changes of cost and provision to your agreements
• how will you manage limited contractual provisions, for example a fixed number of moves and changes
• how will moves and changes be allocated between organisations if a limited number are available, how will charging for additional requirements be agreed and split, should changes that benefit all partners be prioritised, do you need a change board to determine this
• how will you ensure you are regularly reviewing contracts for value for money (VFM) and meeting key performance indicators (KPIs) in the shared contract model

Before entering into any commercial or contractual agreement you will need to define and agree the roles and responsibilities of the organisations, most importantly who will act as the lead organisation and own the connectivity.

There will be a single lead organisation for each shared service, one organisations name will be on the bill who will have ultimate responsibility for the contract with suppliers.

Considerations and responsibilities

Considerations and responsibilities for the lead organisation include:

• contracting and management with supplier(s)
• how will you share supplier communications updates and service notifications to partners
• how will you manage and communicate service requests, moves and changes and complaints for other partners to the supplier
• acting as the escalation point for partners

Management and governance

Management and governance responsibilities with:

• supplier – contractual management, billing, changes, and service levels
• between the partners – allocating charges, escalations, service issues

There will be any number of partner organisations, who have entered into agreement with the lead organisation to use part of their infrastructure to provide connectivity to their staff.

Considerations for partner organisations

Considerations for partner organisations include.

Who is responsible, within their organisation and at the lead organisation, for technical, commercial, and service management?

How do you escalate issues or report incidents for each of these areas? There should be a clear process with named job titles or roles rather than individual's names and key roles should have appropriate contingency and cover in place in case of absence.

Is there a clear dispute resolution process in place? Has a third party organisation, such as an ICB, been agreed to act as an arbitrator if there is a disagreement between partners?

Charging, including how are charges agreed and passed on? What happens in the event of late payment of bills by an organisation which impacts partners? How will service credits from the supplier be managed?

If partnering with organisations outside of your region speak to your ICB to understand if this adds any complexity, for example in governance, reporting or finance.