NHS SY ICB - Non-Emergency Patient Transport - Core

Non-emergency Patient Transport (NEPTS) provides pre-planned and on-day (unplanned) transport to support eligible patients to access NHS funded care. NEPTS caters for those patients who are either too ill to get to hospital without assistance or for whom travelling may cause their condition to deteriorate.

The service provides for a wide range of patient mobilities, requiring a variety of vehicle types and levels of care consistent with the patient’s medical needs - including specialist moving and handling or support during transport such as provision of oxygen. Across South Yorkshire, YAS has a fleet of around 90 vehicles operating from 9 stations.

As the long-standing provider of key urgent and emergency care services (Emergency Ambulance, NHS111, NEPTS) YAS is an established partner within the South Yorkshire ICS and a stakeholder in the delivery of SYICB operational priorities and achievement of a balanced system financial position. Within South Yorkshire, YAS NEPTS provides transport to patients who meet the National Eligibility Criteria and are registered with a GP practice within the SY ICB boundary.

The service supports admissions and discharges from NHS care facilities, transfers between care facilities, and day-case and outpatient journeys for NHS funded care. YAS provides core transport for pre-planned appointments between 07:30am and last book ready time of 19:00pm (Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays), and 08:00am to 18:00pm on weekends.

On-day transport operating hours varies by location, starting at 08:00am and finishing at either 19:00pm or 22:00pm. Within this contract, YAS also operate dedicated discharge services in Sheffield, and GP urgent transport for Sheffield.

Non-emergency Patient Transport (NEPTS) provides pre-planned and on-day (unplanned) transport to support eligible patients to access NHS funded care. NEPTS caters for those patients who are either too ill to get to hospital without assistance or for whom travelling may cause their condition to deteriorate.

The service provides for a wide range of patient mobilities, requiring a variety of vehicle types and levels of care consistent with the patient’s medical needs - including specialist moving and handling or support during transport such as provision of oxygen. Across South Yorkshire, YAS has a fleet of around 90 vehicles operating from 9 stations.

As the long-standing provider of key urgent and emergency care services (Emergency Ambulance, NHS111, NEPTS) YAS is an established partner within the South Yorkshire ICS and a stakeholder in the delivery of SYICB operational priorities and achievement of a balanced system financial position. Within South Yorkshire, YAS NEPTS provides transport to patients who meet the National Eligibility Criteria and are registered with a GP practice within the SY ICB boundary.

The service supports admissions and discharges from NHS care facilities, transfers between care facilities, and day-case and outpatient journeys for NHS funded care. YAS provides core transport for pre-planned appointments between 07:30am and last book ready time of 19:00pm (Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays), and 08:00am to 18:00pm on weekends.

On-day transport operating hours varies by location, starting at 08:00am and finishing at either 19:00pm or 22:00pm. Within this contract, YAS also operate dedicated discharge services in Sheffield, and GP urgent transport for Sheffield.

The contract is intended to be awarded following the Direct Award Process C of the Provider Selection regime. The approximate lifetime value of the contract is - £52,909,170.

Based on an annual value of £10,581,834 and a 3 year contract with the option to extend for a further 2 years. The contract will run from 01/10/2025 to 31/09/2028 plus the option to extend for a further 2 year period.

The name and address of the provider is: YAS provide regular quality reporting to the ICB.

This includes sharing a comprehensive monthly Quality report with SYICB and regular meetings between quality leads. The YAS service in South Yorkshire ICB is consistently ‘Green’ rated across all quality metrics, as reported monthly via the Place level PTS Quality Reports.

Experience of care information collated during the lifetime of the contract YAS operates a patient survey programme spanning the NEPTS service.

This informs service operational delivery and developments. Annual data for South Yorkshire shows that in 24/25, 96.9% of patients reported a good or very good experience.

Past data shows consistently positive results. We continue to collect and report 4C’s data, using this to inform service delivery and future developments.

We also have two dedicated Patient Safety Partners; both actively attend governance meetings within PTS and across the Trust. The KPI’s for this service are based on the pre-COVID era and a review of these would be required for the new contract.

To clarify, SY ICB have not asked for an action plan, from YAS, to improve the KPI performance, despite the contract being managed by SY ICB on a regular basis. The shift in demand from Taxis/ Volunteer Car onto Ambulances has put more pressure on the Ambulance ‘fleet’.

The current breakdown of the service provision, 2025/26 year to date, is: Private – 22.8%

Ambulance – 62.5% Taxi – 10.2%

VCS – 4.4% Value – 20%

NEPTS is a fundamental element of the health system, enabling patient access to secondary care and community services, and supporting patient flow through inpatient services. NEPTS enables access to services for those patients whose medical needs would otherwise be a barrier.

The service offers widespread benefits to both the system and patients. These include:

Access: The service has brought in additional capacity to continue to support growing in-year demand, ensuring patient journeys are not disrupted. Multiple routes of access into the service including direct telephone bookings for patients and healthcare professionals, and a 24/7 online booking platform accessible to all healthcare stakeholders.

Timeliness: The service standards for timeliness have improved and are now more aligned with the KPI, despite the background of rising acuity. Regional and national benchmarking of PTS performance is challenging due to the variety of service models/specifications and KPIs currently in use across the country.

Informal Benchmarking across the Northern Ambulance Alliance (which includes NEPTS providers in Y&H, East Midlands, Northwest and Northeast regions) shows that YAS performance is not an outlier. All systems included in NAA community of practice sessions are currently seeing challenges in managing the increasing volume of unplanned/on-day activity required to support patient flow.

Supporting patient flow: The service is responsive to on-day demand, working in partnership with acute trusts to balance flow vs. clinical need. Around 80% of SY on-day discharges are collected within 2 hours of notification and 90% collected within 3 hours

Quality & Safety: the YAS service in South Yorkshire ICB is consistently ‘Green’ rated across all quality metrics, as reported monthly via the Place level PTS Quality Reports Efficiency: YAS have achieved reductions in aborted journeys of the course of the current contracts.

This has been delivered through close working with acute trust partners and technology developments (e.g. 24/7 booking portal, automated patient reminders) Integration, collaboration and service sustainability - Weighting 25%

Service Integration NEPTS supports the delivery of key national and ICB priorities by enabling patient access, improving system flow and improving patient experience.

The service works closely with acute trust partners and healthcare professionals so that NEPTS is integrated with patient pathways and wider system priorities, this has a particular impact on elective recovery, patient flow through timely attendance and hospital discharge and reducing inequalities in access. Collaboration

YAS are a well-established and key system partner, with a long-standing history of working collaboratively with other healthcare providers and the wider system to improve outcomes for patients, Acute Trusts and communities across South Yorkshire. YAS has an area-based management and engagement structure to facilitate ongoing engagement with all levels of the ICS.

As a large NHS trust, our collaborations extend beyond the scope of our relationship with SYICS. Examples of wider collaborations include:

YAS and other Yorkshire based NHS organisations have been working with NHS England on the development of the NHS Climate Adaption Framework for the last two years. This framework features heavily in the Committee for Climate Change’s recommendations to government.

Working with South Yorkshire Police and South Yorkshire Fire Brigade to jointly understand, map out and develop a resilient Emergency Services EV charging infrastructure. ‘Community Partners’ – a program supporting organisations to deliver their own life-saving skills training.

YAS deliver a ‘train the trainer’ course to allow staff, volunteers or students in other organisations to deliver courses within their own organisations or communities. Continued in section VI.3.0.1 below.