RM6397 Lot 3 of 12
RM6397 Lot 3: AHP, HSS and Emergency Services
Allied health professionals, healthcare science staff, and emergency and ambulance service personnel. Part of the £2 billion excluding VAT (£2.5 billion including VAT) NHS Workforce Alliance framework, which replaces RM6281 (clinical and healthcare staffing) and RM6277 (non-clinical staffing).
Submissions close 3pm on Monday 21 September 2026 (11 days remaining). Clarification questions close 3pm on 2 September 2026.
Lot 3 at a glance
- Framework
- RM6397 Clinical and Non-Clinical Temporary and Permanent Staff
- Buyer
- Government Commercial Agency, for the NHS Workforce Alliance
- Submissions close
- 3pm on Monday 21 September 2026
- Clarifications close
- 3pm on 2 September 2026
- Framework value
- £2 billion excluding VAT (£2.5 billion including VAT)
- Term
- Four years from February 2027
- Portal
- CCS/GCA Bravo Solution (Jaggaer)
- Supplier numbers on this lot
- Indicated as unlimited
- Staff groups in scope
- Physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, dietitians, radiographers and sonographers, operating department practitioners, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, biomedical and clinical scientists, paramedics and emergency care assistants.
Who should bid this lot
AHP specialist agencies, healthcare science suppliers, ambulance and emergency service staffing providers, and therapy-focused agencies supplying physiotherapy, occupational therapy, radiography and pharmacy.
The general rule across RM6397 is to bid the lots you can evidence rather than the lots you would like to hold. Evaluators score depth of evidence per lot, not breadth of ambition, and providers who bid three lots properly consistently outperform those who spread thin across eight.
The compliance discriminator for Lot 3
HCPC registration for the regulated professions, GPhC for pharmacy, and profession-specific competency evidence. This lot spans more regulators than any other, and a submission that treats it as one homogeneous group tends to expose that it has not supplied across the range it is claiming.
What actually scores
Depth per profession beats breadth across professions. Radiography and sonography supply in particular is a chronic NHS shortage, so demonstrable capability there is disproportionately valuable. Evidence named trust contracts by profession, and how you assess competency for roles where registration alone does not establish it.
The mistake that loses marks on this lot
Claiming the whole lot on the strength of two professions. Evaluators read the professional range you evidence, not the range you list, and a submission naming eleven professions while referencing contracts in physiotherapy and radiography only reads as overreach. Bid the professions you can name contracts for.
Lot 3 questions
Is this lot worth bidding if we only supply two or three AHP professions?
Usually yes, and specialist depth is often a stronger position than claimed breadth. Trusts buy therapy and healthcare science supply profession by profession, so an agency that clearly evidences strong physiotherapy and radiography capability is a useful supplier. Overclaiming range is what damages scores, not having a focused offer.
Does this lot include ambulance and paramedic supply?
Emergency services personnel fall within this lot's scope alongside AHP and healthcare science staff. Ambulance supply carries its own driving, vehicle and clinical governance requirements that differ materially from therapy supply, so evidence those separately rather than folding them into a general clinical compliance narrative.
Lot names, the framework value and the timetable were last reviewed on 21 August 2026. Published summaries of RM6397 differ on the submission date and on the term commencement, so treat the ITT on the CCS/GCA Bravo Solution (Jaggaer) portal as the only authority. See the full RM6397 guide for the detail on those discrepancies.
The other eleven RM6397 lots
Most providers bid more than one. Each lot has its own regulator, evidence expectations and characteristic failure mode.
See also the RM6397 framework guide, the NHS tender pipeline and the NHS Workforce Alliance overview.
Bidding Lot 3? The evidence is the work
Getting fill rates, compliance audit outcomes and named contract references out of your operational systems and written to the published criteria is what decides the score, and it is the part providers start too late. Call 020 3668 5488 or send us the deadline and we will come back with a Teams time.
RM6397 Lot 3: AHP, HSS and Emergency Services
Which lots are you bidding, and what does your ahp, hss and emergency services evidence look like today?