APMS Special Allocation Service (SAS)

Clinical Commissioning Groups are required to ensure provision of essential medical services to all people normally resident within their CCGs geographical area. This includes people who have been removed from their mainstream GP practice list as a result violent of behaviour or behaviour which led to the practice staff fearing for their safety. Care for this group of patients is provided under the Special Allocation Scheme (SAS) (also known as the Violent Patient Scheme). SAS Services have historically been provided on an individual CCG basis with consequent significant variation in service specification and provision In order to help address this variation, NHS England included guidance on the commissioning of a robust SAS in its November 2017 Primary Medical Care Policy and Guidance Manual (PGM). The guidance includes a detailed draft specimen specification. The detailed nature of the new national guidance would seem to lend itself to supra-CCG arrangements i.e. to commission services at STP level and this has now been agreed across the 3 London STPs involved in this procurement. The Authority is therefore seeking to appoint a single provider of SAS services in each of the NCL, NEL and SEL STP areas. The current contracts for the provision of SAS in the 3 STP areas are due to expire on 3rd November 2019.