RM6397 guidance · 4 of 6
Choosing which of the twelve lots to bid
RM6397 runs to twelve lots and each is a separate decision with its own regulator, its own compliance emphasis and its own competitive field. The suppliers who do badly are rarely the ones who picked the wrong lot. They are the ones who picked too many.
The facts that decide it
- Twelve lots, from nursing and medical staffing through to master and neutral vendor arrangements
- Each lot carries its own regulator and its own evidence expectations
- Every additional lot is another full response inside the same window
- Submissions close 3pm on Monday 21 September 2026
The test is delivered volume, not capability in principle. An agency that supplies a specialty occasionally can describe how it would scale, and an evaluator reading that answer next to one built on two years of actual placements will score the second higher every time. Bid the lots your records evidence.
The second test is compliance depth. The regulatory burden is not evenly spread across the twelve lots. Medical staffing carries a heavier verification and indemnity load than most, clinical lots turn on registration and revalidation currency, and the vendor management lots are assessed on systems and governance rather than on supply. Where your compliance evidence is thin, the response will read thin no matter who writes it.
The third test is arithmetic. Every lot is a full response, written to its own criteria, inside a window that closes at 3pm on 21 September. Three strong submissions beat seven that share paragraphs, because evaluators read a great many responses and recognise recycled material immediately.
The vendor management lots deserve a separate decision. Master vendor and neutral vendor are different businesses from supply, assessed on technology, governance, reporting and impartiality. A supply agency bidding them because they sit on the same framework is usually spending effort that a supply lot needed.
What we do on this
- Run the lot decision against delivered volumes and compliance evidence, and say plainly where a lot is not winnable
- Write each lot to its own criteria rather than adapting one response across several
- Sequence the work so the strongest lots are finished first, not last
The mistake that costs the most
Bidding every lot you could theoretically serve. It converts a winnable submission into several mediocre ones, and mediocre does not get appointed on a competitive lot.
Common questions
How many lots should we bid?
As many as your evidence genuinely supports and your capacity can write properly in the window. For most suppliers that is two to four. The number matters far less than whether each response is complete and specific.
Does bidding more lots improve our chances of getting on at all?
Not in the way people hope. Lots are assessed separately, so a weak response on a lot you should not have bid does not help a strong one elsewhere. It just consumes the time that strong one needed.
We are strong operationally but our paperwork is behind. What now?
Then the priority before writing is the evidence, not the prose. Good operational performance that cannot be evidenced scores as if it did not happen, and the fastest gains are almost always in retrieval rather than in wording.
Reviewed 24 August 2026. The published ITT on the GCA e-sourcing portal is the only authority on any date, threshold or requirement here. Nothing on this page is legal advice.
More on RM6397
Start with the RM6397 framework overview, or go straight to the NHS tender pipeline.
Bidding RM6397?
Tell us which lots you are considering and where you are up to. A director replies with a view, and will tell you if we think a lot is not winnable for you.
RM6397: Choosing your lots
Which lots, and how far along are you?