RM6397 Lot 10 of 12
RM6397 Lot 10: Permanent Recruitment
Permanent and fixed-term appointments across clinical and non-clinical roles for NHS and public sector employers. 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 10 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
- Substantive clinical appointments including consultants and senior nursing, executive and board-level appointments, corporate and technical permanent roles, and fixed-term appointments across all groups.
Who should bid this lot
Executive search firms, permanent recruitment agencies, international recruitment providers, and agencies running campaign-based hiring for NHS employers.
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 10
International recruitment ethics is the distinguishing issue in this lot. Adherence to the UK code of practice for international recruitment of health and social care personnel, including the red and amber country lists, is scored rather than assumed, alongside sponsorship handling and the pre-employment check regime for substantive NHS appointments.
What actually scores
Retention at twelve and twenty-four months, not placement volume. A permanent appointment that leaves inside a year has cost the trust more than the vacancy did, and buyers know it. Evidence retention rates, time-to-hire for hard-to-fill substantive posts, and campaign outcomes with named employers.
The mistake that loses marks on this lot
Selling on candidate volume or database size. Permanent NHS hiring is a retention problem dressed as a supply problem, and the agencies that win here are the ones presenting retention evidence. A submission built on reach and speed with no retention data answers a question the buyer is not asking.
Lot 10 questions
How is international recruitment treated in this lot?
It is legitimate and widely used, but it is governed by the UK code of practice for international recruitment of health and social care personnel, which restricts active recruitment from listed countries. Evaluators expect an explicit account of how you apply the code, how you check the country lists, and how sponsorship and pastoral support are handled. Treating it as a routine sourcing channel without addressing the ethical framework is a scoring risk.
Do permanent placement fees sit within framework rate rules?
Permanent recruitment is priced through the framework's own commercial mechanism rather than through temporary staffing rate caps. Price your submission from the published pricing schedule in the ITT and do not carry assumptions across from your temporary supply rates, because the two are structured differently.
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 10? 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 10: Permanent Recruitment
Which lots are you bidding, and what does your permanent recruitment evidence look like today?