RM6397 Lot 1 of 12
RM6397 Lot 1: Nursing and Midwifery
Registered nurses, midwives, healthcare assistants and specialist nursing across NHS trusts and the wider public sector. 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 1 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
- Registered general nurses, mental health and learning disability nurses, midwives, theatre and critical care nursing, paediatric and neonatal, community and district nursing, healthcare assistants and nursing associates.
Who should bid this lot
Nursing agencies, framework incumbents on RM6281, specialist nursing providers covering theatre, ITU, paediatrics, mental health and community, and agencies supplying healthcare assistants at volume.
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 1
NMC registration and revalidation tracking is the discriminator here in a way it is nowhere else on the framework. Evaluators want to see how you evidence live registration status rather than annual checks, how lapsed registrations are caught before a shift, and how mandatory training and Care Certificate progress is recorded against each worker.
What actually scores
Fill rates broken down by specialty rather than a single blended figure, time-to-supply for urgent and same-day requests, escalation handling when a shift cannot be filled, and audit outcomes from trust-side compliance checks. Named trusts with contract values and referees carry far more weight than volume claims.
The mistake that loses marks on this lot
Presenting one blended fill rate across all nursing. Trusts buy by specialty, and a 96 percent blended figure that hides 70 percent on theatre reads as either evasive or as evidence you do not measure at the granularity the buyer manages. Break it down, including where it is weak, and explain what you are doing about the weak line.
Lot 1 questions
Do I need to hold RM6281 to bid the RM6397 nursing lot?
No. RM6397 is a fresh competition and prior framework membership is not a condition of bidding. Incumbency helps only because your fill-rate and compliance performance data under RM6281 is verifiable evidence a new entrant cannot produce, but a well-evidenced challenger with named trust contracts competes on equal terms.
Can an agency bid nursing and healthcare assistants together?
Yes, both sit within the nursing and midwifery scope. The question worth asking is whether your evidence supports both at the depth the evaluator wants. An agency strong on healthcare assistants and thin on registered nursing usually scores better presenting that honestly with a credible development plan than claiming uniform capability it cannot reference.
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 1? 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 1: Nursing and Midwifery
Which lots are you bidding, and what does your nursing and midwifery evidence look like today?