Inside the re-procurement of London’s SHL e-service
When public money and people’s health are at stake, procurement must be more than a box-ticking exercise — it has to be rigorous, transparent and focused on outcomes. Sandra Milburn, procurement lead for the Sexual Health London (SHL) e-service re-procurement, led exactly that kind of process. Here she explains how the team built a fair, robust competition that prioritises value for councils, and most importantly, service quality for the people who use the service.
“We had a big responsibility - it’s public money”
“As the procurement lead for the SHL e-service, my job was to re-source the supplier as the existing contract ends in August 2026,” Sandra says. “We couldn’t extend the contract, so we had to go out to market and find the best provider for the next phase.”
Sandra stresses that procurement in healthcare carries legal and ethical obligations. “There’s a lot of legal compliance within healthcare and the public sector. We have a big responsibility with public money — we must achieve best value, while delivering quality services to the public. The principles of fairness, openness and transparency are key; we need to ensure that bidders have a level playing field to give them all the best opportunity to be successful in their bid for the contract.
She gives a clear example explaining that it would be highly inappropriate to change weightings mid-process without informing bidders. “You can’t do that — you’ve already told bidders what the evaluation criteria and weighting is, and they have compiled their bids based on this information. If you change things like that, you must inform the bidders and allow them time to amend their bids accordingly.”
Collaboration, clarity, and a strong evaluation framework
“This has gone very well,” Sandra reflects. “We’ve had a strong team working on this. Everyone’s been enthusiastic and engaged — we worked as a team to create the specification, set evaluation criteria, and conduct the assessments. I think we’ll have a good outcome: savings and an expanded service.”
The SHL market is specialist and limited, she explains, and that clarity seems to have helped attract serious bidders. “We had a good response from the market. Suppliers know whether they can deliver or not — they worked hard to answer tough questions.”
Service users at the heart of decision-making
One of the most notable features of this procurement was the active inclusion of service users — an approach Sandra describes as “unusual and a really positive step.”
“We engaged service users early to understand what they wanted from the service. Their input shaped the questions we asked, and after receiving evaluator training they took part in the assessment of the bids. Their insight has been very valuable and it’s a great opportunity for them to get involved, too.”
This isn’t token involvement, Sandra makes clear: service users helped shape the specifications and directly influenced the outcome.
Open to scrutiny — and proud of it
The procurement team knows the stakes are high. “We’ll announce the winning bidder in early January and then start mobilisation,” Sandra says. “Due process is critical and we have to be totally confident we’ve done everything right.”
To further ensure that confidence they’ve invited external, independent experts to review the whole process. “We want external experts who are completely new to the process and have no prior interest. The external review verifies the process and reassures the councils we work on behalf of — and it reassures the bidders that the process we followed is fully compliant with the regulations under which we operate.”
A job well done — and a pragmatic, user-focused view
“How does it feel?” Sandra laughs. “There’s an element of relief — we’re almost there. I’ve loved every minute of it. For me, procurement is about understanding what’s needed and finding a way to achieve that compliantly. Procurement teams are often seen as blockers, but they should be the ones that make things happen.”
This procurement for the SHL e-service shows how public-sector commissioning can be thorough, user-centred and transparent - and still deliver savings and improved services. With a robust specification, meaningful service-user involvement, independent external review and a committed team, Sandra and colleagues have built a process that other public bodies can look to as an example of best practice.