RM6397 Lot 2 of 12
RM6397 Lot 2: Medical Staffing
Locum doctors from foundation level through to consultant, across every specialty and NHS grade. 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 2 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
- Foundation and core trainees, specialty and associate specialist doctors, registrars, consultants across all specialties, and GPs supplying primary care and out-of-hours.
Who should bid this lot
Locum medical agencies, consultant-grade specialists, agencies supplying substantive and fixed-term medical appointments, and providers covering hard-to-fill rotas in psychiatry, radiology, emergency medicine and anaesthetics.
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 2
GMC registration with licence to practise, revalidation and appraisal status, and scope-of-practice evidence per specialty. Medical staffing also carries the heaviest indemnity and pre-employment burden on the framework, and evaluators probe how you verify a consultant's actual recent practice rather than their registered specialty.
What actually scores
Time-to-supply against hard-to-fill specialties is the single strongest evidence in this lot, because it is where trusts feel the most pain and where most agencies are weakest. Evidence rota continuity on long placements, consultant-grade fill rates specifically, and how you handle a cancellation inside 24 hours.
The mistake that loses marks on this lot
Competing on rate. Medical staffing bids that lead on price signal that the agency does not understand what a trust is buying, which is a filled rota and a doctor whose scope of practice matches the role. Lead on supply reliability in the specialties that are hardest to fill and price competitively without making it the argument.
Lot 2 questions
Does the medical lot cover GPs and primary care?
Medical staffing scope covers doctors across grades and specialties, and primary care supply is bought by NHS and public sector organisations through these routes. Confirm the exact scope boundaries in the ITT specification, because primary care and out-of-hours coverage is one of the areas where lot descriptions and buyer practice have historically differed.
How important is agency price cap compliance?
It is a condition of operating rather than a scoring differentiator. Evaluators assume compliance with NHS agency rules and rate caps; what they score is whether you can supply reliably while working inside them. An agency whose fill-rate evidence quietly depends on breaching caps is describing a model the framework will not buy.
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 2? 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 2: Medical Staffing
Which lots are you bidding, and what does your medical staffing evidence look like today?