Develop Consulting wins new NHS England contract
UK advisory firm Develop Consulting has been awarded a significant one-year contract by NHS England, extending its “General Practice Level Support” towards an additional 1,000 GP practices. The work will come as part of the NHS England’s Primary Care Access Recovery Plan.
“Although we work across industries including construction, manufacturing and airport operations, our work in optimising general practice operations is having the biggest positive impact on staff’s daily lives and patient care,” said Steve Boam, CEO of Develop Consulting. “With increasing national attention on primary care resilience, we’re proud to be delivering such an important programme supporting GP teams.”
Develop Consulting was founded in 2018, and deploys lean and agile methodologies to help clients utilise best practices typically utilised in the manufacturing sector. Boam has previously said to Consultancy.uk that this has seen Develop Consulting even take healthcare professionals to Toyota production facilities, in order to illustrate the potential of lean working – and as the firm continues to work with general practitioners across England, this is already having important results.
Max Pardo-Roques, the firm’s commercial director, who manages key contracts such as with NHS England, recently explained to Consultancy.uk that the firm’s impacts have been pronounced enough to catch eyes well beyond the health service. It’s been featured in BBC articles, reported to government ministers, and even mentioned at the dispatch box in Parliament.
The new agreement with NHS England, which began in April 2024, expands on that already-fruitful relationship, and will grow Develop Consulting’s delivery of NHS England’s General Practice Improvement Programme (GPIP). Building on the consultancy’s extensive experience supporting over 2,000 practices over the past five years to implement productivity and workflow improvements, Develop Consulting will now support up to 1,000 more GPs over the coming year.
Pardo-Roques, Commercial Director at Develop Consulting said, “With general practice continuing to face considerable workload and resourcing pressures, there is strong demand for proven efficiency solutions. We are delighted to expand our partnership with NHS England and support thousands more staff and patients through this vital programme.”
As part of NHS England’s Time for Care initiative, Develop Consulting’s team of up to 50 coaches will work directly with practices to analyse operations, design new processes, and upskill staff. Their efforts so far have already unlocked the equivalent of 1.2 million appointment slots across previous programme participants and the new contract allows the team to create even more capacity and appointments in primary care.
