Why did NHS give £1m to f inancial consultants who can’t even f ile OWN accounts on time?
A TINY consultancy firm has been paid more than £1 million to advise the cash-strapped NHS on how to save money.
Bold Revolutions was awarded contracts to help two Scottish health boards introduce efficiencies and savings.
The latest was agreed last week – just as the firm was fined for failing to file its own annual accounts on time.
Last night, critics complained it was wrong for the NHS to try to cut costs by paying private consultants.
They also queried how the firm secured such lucrative contracts without undertaking any formal tendering process.
Bold Revolutions, registered at a house near Bolton, Lancashire, has five shareholders –
David Thomas, his wife and three of their children.
Yesterday, NHS Borders and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGCC) defended the contracts, saying Bold Revolutions had managed to save the health service ‘millions’.
But a spokesman for the GMB union said: ‘Staff are basically propping up the NHS after a decade of austerity and they will be outraged at sevenfigure sums getting thrown at unproven consultants.
‘You can’t resolve the chronic problems of the NHS with the sticking plasters of private consultants.’
Bold Revolutions was sent in to NHS Borders last March after a £10 million emergency bailout by Scottish ministers.
The board’s then chief executive, Jane Davidson, giving evidence to the Scottish parliament’s health and sport committee last March, said the firm was ‘providing turnaround support to us’ and would ‘help us to identify savings’.
Records showed £284,000 was paid to Bold Revolutions.
Last week, NHS Borders said it ‘remains on course to achieve £7.1 million in recurring savings in 2019-20’.
In 2018-19 NHSGGC paid the firm almost £640,000 to help ‘achieve long-term financial balance’. The board previously said there had been no time for a procurement process.
A spokesman said: ‘Due to time constraints and the need for urgency, our director of finance, working with the Scottish Government, identified a suitable and available candidate to work with NHSGGC.’
Last week, Bold Revolutions was handed a second deal by NHSGGC to save money and cut waiting times.
The contract states it was awarded without a public tender because of a need to move quickly – and the company already had ‘experience and knowledge’ of the situation.
Calling for ‘full transparency’, Scottish Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘The SNP are treating the people of Scotland like fools when it comes to the use of private firms in NHS Scotland.’
Bold Revolutions, established in 2014, states on its website: ‘We work jointly with your board, executive and senior teams as an external partner, trusted adviser and often as a critical friend to co-create and deliver effective turnaround programmes.’ The firm’s accounts were due to be filed by December 31 but Companies House states they are overdue. Firms who file late are fined £150, increasing to £375 after a month.
Bold Revolutions director David Thomas, 50, said: ‘I don’t usually prepare the accounts, my accountant does that.’
He declined to discuss his work with the NHS.
The main shareholders are Mr Thomas and wife Kathryn, 48. Their children Emma, Lucy, and Charlotte also hold shares.
Social media profiles for Lucy, 22, describe her as a ‘management consultant’ and
‘Health service staff will be outraged’
‘junior consultant’. Her LinkedIn profile states she completed a professional skills course with the Open University.
In February 2016, her occupation was listed on Facebook as ‘cashier at Tesco’.
NHSGGC said: ‘With the support of external consultants... the Board achieved £42.2 million of recurring savings. The investment in external support represented value for money.’
The Scottish Government said: ‘This company has experience of providing financial quality improvement support to clients in the UK health sector... and has been engaged to work with the NHS in full compliance with due diligence procurement regulations.’