“Anything that encourages greater competition and rewards innovation is welcome. So having a framework to support this is far better than rolling over contracts. 

“However, it’s crucial that those who are procuring new solutions have the right information easily available to make fully informed choices. Purchasers and suppliers will need to understand how this relates to the other 36 routes to market recommended by NHS England, and crucially, we need to publish information about what really matters to end users. That means much greater transparency on user feedback, utilisation and how solutions support improved outcomes. 

“We know, for example, that NHS England currently collects a huge amount of information from suppliers about services on the DFOCVC framework. However, that information never sees the light of day. If we are serious about empowering patients and those procuring new solutions to improve services, then key metrics from that information should be published at practice level.”