FOI 2026/1674

I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from your organisation related to NHS wheelchair services. Please may you provide me with an answer to the following:

Commissioning arrangements

1. Are your wheelchair services commissioned on an ICB-wide basis, or are they commissioned separately at a sub-ICB (place or locality) level? If the latter, please answer all subsequent questions separately for each individually commissioned area, identifying the geographic footprint in each case.

Current wheelchair services contract

2. Who is the current provider(s) of NHS wheelchair services commissioned by your ICB? Please provide the organisation name(s) and, where applicable, the sub-ICB area in which they are commissioned.

3. What is the total annual contract value for wheelchair services?

4. What are the contract start and expiry dates? If the contract is currently operating under an extension, please confirm the original expiry date and the current extended end date.

Procurement history

5. When was the most recent competitive procurement exercise for wheelchair services conducted (i.e. when was the most recent contract award decision published)?

6. How many organisations submitted a compliant bid in that most recent exercise?

Future procurement

7. Does your ICB have plans to reprocure its wheelchair services contract? If yes, what is the anticipated start date of the procurement process and the anticipated contract commencement date?

Service activity and performance

8. How many referrals were received for wheelchair services commissioned by your ICB in the most recent complete financial year (please state the year)?

9. What is the current average waiting time (in weeks) from referral to first wheelchair provision for (a) standard/powered wheelchairs and (b) complex/specialist wheelchairs, where these are recorded separately?

10. Has your ICB issued any formal performance or improvement notice to the current wheelchair services provider in the last three years? If yes, please state the number of notices issued (no further detail is required).

Contact

11. Who in your organisation is responsible for commissioning wheelchair services? Please provide their name, job title, and contact details where possible.

1. Commissioned at Locality level.
2. NHS Greater Manchester (NHS GM) commissions wheelchair services from NHS Acute providers as follows:

• Bury Locality via the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust
• Bolton Locality via Bolton NHS Foundation Trust
• Heywood, Middleton & Rochdale via the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust
• Manchester Locality via Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Salford Locality via the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust who commission Salford Adult Social Care to deliver wheelchair services via a Section 75 Agreement
• Stockport Locality via Stockport NHS Foundation Trust
• Trafford Locality via Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Wigan Locality via Wrightington, Wigan & Leigh NHS Foundation Trust

For Oldham and Tameside localities, wheelchair services are provided by the following independent sector providers as detailed below:

Ross Care Limited for Oldham and Tameside localities.  Please note that services can be found on our website.  We have included a link below to assist you –

Lists and Registers.

3. For those wheelchair services which are delivered via NHS Acute Hospital providers, the cost of the service is art of an overarching fixed value of the contract and so it is not possible to provide this information.

For those services delivered via the independent sector, please see contract values below:

• Oldham – £632,267
• Tameside – £568,755

4. For those wheelchair services which are delivered via NHS Acute Hospital providers, the overarching contracts for Acute and Community services are from 1st April 2026 to 31st March 2027.

For the independent sector providers, the duration is:

• Oldham – 01/02/25 – 31/03/26 (1 year contract)
• Tameside – 01/04/22 – 01/03/24 extended by 2 years to 31/03/26 (2+2 years)

5. Oldham – Current contract = 1 year direct award

Tameside – Current contract was awarded pre-ICB under Public Contract Regulations

6. N/A
7. Tameside Locality in collaboration with Oldham locality intends to undertake the process for procurement of its wheelchair service in 2026/27.
8. For wheelchair services delivered under an NHS Acute Contract, the requestor would need to contact the provider direct.

NHS GM does not hold the information requested; it will be necessary for you to contact the Provider Trusts commissioned in Greater Manchester for the information you seek.  To assist you, please find below links to their websites with information about how to make a Freedom of Information request.

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust – Freedom of information – Bolton NHS FT (boltonft.nhs.uk)

Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust – Freedom of Information Requests :: Northern Care Alliance

Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust – Freedom of Information – Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (mft.nhs.uk)

Stockport NHS Foundation Trust – Freedom of Information – Stockport NHS Foundation Trust

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – WWL Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | FOI Disclosure Log

For those providers commissioned under a separate contract, activity data is detailed below:

• Oldham – 677 referrals 01/03/2025 – 30-04/2026
• Tameside – 605 referrals 01/03/2025 – 30-04/2026

9. NHS GM does not hold the information requested; it will be necessary for you to contact the Provider commissioned in Greater Manchester for the information you seek. To assist you, please find below link to their website with information.

Contact | Ross Care

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust – Freedom of information – Bolton NHS FT (boltonft.nhs.uk)

Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust – Freedom of Information Requests :: Northern Care Alliance

Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust – Freedom of Information – Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (mft.nhs.uk)

Stockport NHS Foundation Trust – Freedom of Information – Stockport NHS Foundation Trust

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – WWL Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | FOI Disclosure Log

10.No

11. Katherine Sheerin, Chief Commissioning Officer has overall responsibility for the commissioning of healthcare services for NHS GM

Email – gm.icp@nhs.net (please mark for the attention of Katherine Sheerin in the subject field).