Using business intelligence to increase visibility of SME participation in London’s NHS supply chain

At a glance 

Service: Business Intelligence 

Partner: London Anchor Institutions Network (LAIN) 

Customers: NHS trusts and ICBs across London 

Focus: Tracking and monitoring SME spend in NHS supply chains 

Approach: Data analysis, supplier classification and regional reporting 

Key benefits: Consistent pan-London reporting, greater visibility of SME spend and improved progress monitoring 

Results: SME spend increased from approximately 9% in 2022 to approximately 13% in 2025. This matters because it supports NHS organisations to increase spend with local SMEs which in turn helps retain investment within regional economies, supporting local jobs, business growth and more resilient communities. This strengthens the wider determinants of health, including employment and financial stability, while helping NHS organisations use their purchasing power to contribute to improved population health and reduced health inequalities. 

The challenge 

In 2022, the Mayor of London challenged LAIN institutions to increase spending with SMEs, diverse suppliers and voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations, with an ambition for 20% of addressable spend to reach these suppliers. For NHS organisations, monitoring progress presented a significant challenge. While trusts could analyse their own spending, there was no consistent methodology for understanding SME participation across London's NHS supply chain. At the same time, SMEs reported a range of barriers to doing business with the NHS, including difficulties identifying opportunities, inconsistent procurement requirements, complex bidding processes and financial requirements that could disproportionately affect smaller organisations. Without reliable data, it was difficult to understand whether efforts to improve SME participation were having the intended effect. 

Our approach 

NHS LPP's Business Intelligence team developed a pan-London methodology that provided a consistent picture of SME spend across trusts and ICBs. The team extracted AP data from the NHS Central Commercial Function's Spend Comparison Service and applied additional analysis to identify expenditure that procurement teams could influence. Supplier records were then reviewed using postcode information to identify London-based organisations. Working with Dun & Bradstreet, NHS LPP matched supplier records against company information to determine SME status. This enhanced dataset enabled the team to produce a regional view of SME spend and report progress through LAIN. By undertaking this work centrally, NHS LPP created a single source of insight for trusts and ICBs across London, reducing duplication and ensuring trusts were working from a consistent evidence base. 

The impact 

The analysis has demonstrated an increase in SME participation across London's NHS supply chain, with addressable SME spend increasing from approximately 9% in 2022 to approximately 13% in 2025. More importantly, the work has provided visibility that individual organisations would struggle to achieve independently. Rather than each trust developing its own methodology, sourcing commercial datasets and analysing supplier records separately, NHS LPP provides a consistent regional approach that enables benchmarking, progress monitoring and informed decision-making. The reporting also helps trusts understand where opportunities exist to strengthen SME participation and track progress against London-wide ambitions. 

What the customer said 

“The annual SME spend analysis provides a valuable and consistent evidence base for understanding our local SME spend and identifying opportunities to improve supplier participation. Having access to the local SME spend benchmark enables us to understand our position, monitor progress and use the data to inform our procurement and social value priorities. The pan-London approach is particularly helpful as it provides a clear and comparable view while avoiding the need for individual trusts to undertake the analysis independently. It is a practical example of how good quality business intelligence can support more informed procurement decisions and contribute to stronger, more diverse, and resilient local supply chains.”

Mahroof Anwar, Head of Sustainability and Social Value, Manage & Enable, North West London Procurement Services   

"Creating a more diverse and resilient supply chain starts with understanding where we are today. By bringing together data from across London and applying a consistent methodology, we're helping NHS organisations measure progress, identify opportunities and make informed decisions about supplier diversity."

Michelle McCann, Chief Sustainability & Innovation Officer, NHS LPP 

Why it matters 

SMEs play an important role in local economies, innovation and employment. Increasing their participation in NHS supply chains can help create a more resilient supplier market while supporting wider economic growth across London. By providing a single, trusted source of business intelligence, NHS LPP helps NHS organisations measure progress once at a regional level rather than asking individual trusts to undertake the same analysis independently. This creates a more efficient approach to reporting while giving decision-makers better insight into the collective impact of NHS spending across London. 

Find out more  

As an NHS organisation, we have access to business data from the NHS and its suppliers which our Business Intelligence team can cleanse, categorise, analyse and provide back to trusts without the data leaving the organisation. 

The complexity of the health service sometimes makes it difficult for trusts to quantify what they are spending – we make sense of it for them and where appropriate, we connect trusts across London so they can work together, avoiding duplication and ensuring best practice. We work with members and customers to identify business needs and agree baselines, then present the data back in an easily digestible way, ensuring it can be used to facilitate improvements across the health landscape. If you need help with a data analytics challenge, please get in touch with our team at gstt.BusinessIntelligence@nhs.net.