Activists question £185m Suffolk and Essex privatisation

In December, East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) confirmed that the jobs of 1,100 cleaners, porters and other service workers will be outsourced to a private firm, Sodexo. 

The French firm has been given a five-year contract worth £185m which will begin in April.

However, a campaign group, Suffolk Keep Our NHS Public, sent a Freedom of Information request to the trust and said it has received the business case leading to the decision, which claimed having the roles in-house was "the strongest economic option".

A spokesperson from ESNEFT said that the board had made a unanimous decision on the privatisation after considering views from staff representatives and their managers.

The campaign group looked into the trust's business case  (Image: Newsquest) The business case that aided ESNEFT's decision said: “Option 1 (In-house) is the strongest economic option (i.e. delivers best public value to society, including wider social and environmental effects)."

It adds that having in-house roles would be £3.17m cheaper than a private contract, but that this is a "relatively small" amount. 

The report added: "In contrast, the value for money offered by Option 2 (Contract) following the market testing exercise has actually proven to be weaker than was assumed at OBC (outline business case), with less efficiencies offered by the preferred bidder than anticipated along with higher overheads and profit costs.

Workers have been striking against this decision (Image: UNISON) Additionally, while the jobs at Ipswich Hospital have been privatised for a few years, Colchester Hospital services have been provided by NHS.

But the business case also says that audits of cleanliness show “no consistent difference between both sites". 

It also adds that in terms of revenue position, in-house is "marginally better" than the privatised contract. 

A spokesperson for Suffolk Keep Our NHS Public said: "The trust says that it sees advantages to ending the ‘split site’ problems that arise from the different Ipswich and Colchester arrangements.

"But these problems could have been better solved by bringing all services back in-house, especially given they appear to have been performing better than the privately contracted services at Ipswich.

"The answer has to lie elsewhere and the only place to look is the trust’s management capacity and competence – they have realised that they are just not up to the job."

Nick Hulme, CEO of ESNEFT  (Image: Sarah Lucy Brown, Newsquest) In response, an ESNEFT spokesperson said: "The board of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust took the unanimous decision to contract all soft facilities management services to an external partner, moving to a single, consistent approach across all trust sites. 

"These services include catering, housekeeping, cleaning, portering and security.

"Following rigorous scrutiny and discussion, this decision was based on a wide range of factors, including the risks, opportunities and costs of the options presented at a special meeting of the Board on 5th December 2024.

"The board also took into account the views of staff representatives and those managing soft facilities services in reaching a decision which it considers will best support delivery of the benefits and continuous improvement which patients and local people rightly expect."

Previously, calls have also been made by UNISON to get Health Secretary Wes Streeting to block the contract, but these calls were eventually rejected.