Homerton Hospital will continue its partnership with ISS for soft facilities management until September 2026, following an extension of the current contract. This decision was revealed during a meeting of the Health in Hackney Scrutiny Commission on Tuesday, 14 October 2025.
Soft facilities management includes services such as catering, portering, cleaning, and security.
Lei Wei, Chief Finance Officer, Homerton Healthcare, provided an update to the commission, stating that the Homerton Trust Board decided in January against bringing the soft FM services in-house. This decision followed an options appraisal and engagement with local NHS organisations and the local authority. According to Wei, written responses indicated that none of these organisations were able to take on the additional financial and operational risk to run these services.
The specific financial and operational risks that prevented local NHS organizations and the local authority from taking on the soft FM services were not detailed in the meeting, but the Homerton Trust Board determined that these risks were too significant for those organizations to absorb.
Following an options appraisal, Homerton Trust Board has taken the decision in January this year not to insource the soft FM services,
said Lei Wei. This decision was informed by internal assessment of a financial and operational feasibility engagement with our local NHS organisations and the local authority with written responses received indicating that none of this organisation are actually able to take on additional financial and operational risk to run these services.
Given this, the trust board has agreed to proceed with a fully compliant procurement process utilising the NHS Soft FM framework under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 to identify a new provider. This procurement will consider alignment with the NHS terms and conditions through both qualitative and quantitative elements to the evaluation in response to the concerns raised by key stakeholders, especially from the staff side and this committee.
While the specific qualitative and quantitative elements to be used in the evaluation process were not disclosed due to the early stage of procurement and commercial sensitivity, Lei Wei assured the commission that staff terms and conditions would be an important part of the evaluation criteria, with ongoing conversations planned with staff side representatives throughout September to early December.
The re-procurement process will include engagement with key stakeholder groups, including the council of governors and staff side representatives. Lei Wei assured the commission that feedback and suggestions from these groups would be integrated into the procurement framework, and that the committee would be updated as needed.
Tom Nettel, Deputy Chief Executive, Homerton Healthcare, added that there are benefits to outsourcing in terms of scale, resilience, and access to a larger group of professionals. He clarified that offering the same terms and conditions as in-house staff would not automatically lead to insourcing, as the outsourced option provides advantages in scale and resilience. Nettel stated that ISS provides benefits in terms of scale and resilience, and being able to draw on a much larger group of professionals that can provide services that outsourced offerings provided.
