Award-winning East Cheshire NHS and arvato partnership expanded

East Cheshire NHS Trust has expanded its HR outsourcing partnership with arvato UK to include new services, following an award-winning start to the relationship.

The expansion follows a major transformation of the Trust’s HR services which is set to save in excess of £1.5 million, freeing up funds to be directly reinvested into patient care. The project has also boosted customer satisfaction with 99% of employees who took part in a satisfaction survey, rating the HR service as “excellent” or “good”. This included nurses, health care assistants and consultants.

The four-year agreement, established in April 2013, has been extended to include two new services.

All Trust employees will soon be able to easily access policies and guidelines on risk management, data protection and all safety procedures online, thanks to the forthcoming introduction of “Governance Direct;” a new central governance information portal. East Cheshire will use the platform to allow employees and managers to self-serve on up-to-date governance information, freeing up capacity of the Trust’s internal governance teams to focus on key performance areas and strategic priorities.

Additionally, a new workforce analysis service has been commissioned. It includes workforce information development and reporting which will enhance the service’s performance by identifying opportunities for staff training, sickness absence reductions and process improvements. It will also heighten analytical support for several projects which are critical to delivering the Trust’s workforce strategy over the next three years.

The partnership’s success in transforming HR delivery was recognised by The Health Service Journal (HSJ), winning the Value and Improvement in Outsourcing category at last year’s prestigious HSJ Value in Healthcare Awards. The HR team also achieved the Customer Service Excellence (CSE) accreditation – a government standard – in October 2014 for demonstrating a close, attentive approach to customer service, significantly improving staff satisfaction and making HR tasks simpler and easier to complete.

Rachael Charlton, Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development, East Cheshire NHS Trust, commented: “HR departments across the NHS are under intense pressure to negotiate budget reductions while delivering better, more efficient services for employees. Our partnership with arvato has provided major improvements which have delivered the necessary cost savings and benefitted people in Cheshire by allowing us to reinvest in patient care. The expansion of the contract is testament to the progress made since 2013, and we look forward to continuing the delivery of our HR function together.”

Sally Campbell, Director, Health, arvato UK said: “As NHS organisations are having to fundamentally rethink how they provide their back-office functions, shared services continue to prove integral in transforming HR to deliver the required efficiency savings.

Marking the second anniversary of our partnership, the expansion is a great recognition of the benefits delivered to Trust so far.”

Under the initial agreement, arvato acquired East Cheshire’s HR shared service centre to provide high quality, efficient professional and transactional services to the Trust, including Electronic Staff Record, employee relations, learning & development and HR consultancy.

The deal also includes a comprehensive framework agreement under which arvato maximises the centre’s potential for growth by procuring additional outsourced work from the NHS bodies including: hospital trusts, Clinical Commissioning Groups and Commissioning Support Units. The contract enables HR services to be purchased without going through a lengthy and costly tender process.

arvato is one of the world’s leading business process outsourcing companies with over 50 years’ experience in the sector. In addition to its highly successful partnerships with councils such as Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council, Chesterfield Borough Council and Slough Borough Council, its clients also include leading international businesses such as Renault, Bosch and Toshiba.