Following a competitive procurement process run under the Crown Commercial Service framework, MCL Medics has been appointed to provide a fully integrated Occupational Health and Health Surveillance service to Bromford Flagship LiveWest (BFL).
BFL is a place-based affordable housing provider for almost 300,000 customers and around 5,500 employees across the south west, central and east of England, and is the UK’s largest provider of new affordable homes, delivering 3,000 new homes a year. The new contract covers the full breadth of clinical and wellbeing services that a workforce of that scale requires, and has been designed around the practical realities of housing delivery, where employees are spread across offices, customer homes, scheme sites and front-line teams.
The award follows a thorough two-stage evaluation that combined a written tender with a presentation and operational review. We are proud to have come through that process with the highest evaluation score and to have been chosen ahead of a strong field of national providers. We are equally aware that the rigour of the procurement reflects the seriousness with which BFL takes the wellbeing of its workforce and we have taken that as the standard the contract must continue to meet.
What the contract covers
From go-live, MCL Medics will deliver the full range of Occupational Health services that BFL employees need to remain healthy, productive and well supported at work. Management referrals will be triaged within one working day and seen by an Occupational Health Advisor or Physician through the most appropriate channel for the individual, whether that is in person, by telephone or by secure video. Reports will be returned to managers within 48 hours of the consultation, written in plain English and structured to support practical decisions on adjustments, return to work and ongoing support.
Pre-placement and onboarding health checks will be delivered through our online questionnaire, with same-day or next-day clinical review and a clear fit-for-work outcome that integrates into BFL’s recruitment workflow. Statutory health surveillance will be aligned to the organisation’s risk profile under HSE guidance, including audiometry, lung function, skin assessments and any role-specific monitoring required by the work. Ill-health retirement assessments under the relevant pension scheme will be carried out by Occupational Health Physicians who specialise in scheme-compliant reporting.
Mental health is treated as a clinical specialism within the Occupational Health service rather than as an add-on. Cases involving stress, anxiety, low mood and more complex presentations will be managed by Occupational Health Advisors and Physicians with specific mental health expertise, with clear pathways into onward primary care and specialist support where that is the most appropriate route. Outside the immediate scope of this contract, MCL Medics also offers a wider portfolio of dedicated wellbeing products, including an Employee Assistance Programme, a Wellbeing App, mental health first aid training for managers and direct counselling and physiotherapy pathways. These sit on the partnership roadmap and are available for BFL to consider over time, should the organisation wish to extend its in-contract wellbeing offer in the future.
All activity flows through our Medics OH digital platform, with management information presented to BFL through Power BI dashboards. The BFL leadership team will have a live view of activity, performance against contractual service levels, absence trends and the outcomes of clinical recommendations, and will use that view jointly with our account team in regular reviews.
A team built for housing
Day-to-day delivery of the contract will be led by Helen Connelly, our Director of Client Services, supported by Melanie Bankes as Operational Support Lead. Clinical governance is provided by Lucy Taylor, Director of Nursing and Clinical Governance, and by Dr Lisa Harper, our Medical Director of Occupational Health. Commercial oversight sits with Martin Hughes, Chief Commercial Officer.
The same team has mobilised comparable national contracts in housing, infrastructure and the public sector, and we will be using the same disciplined approach for BFL. The mobilisation plan is hosted on a live, RAG-rated Monday.com workspace that the BFL project leads have full visibility of, so that every milestone, owner and dependency is shared rather than reported on after the fact.
Comment
Richard O’Donnell, Chief Executive Officer at MCL Medics, said: “We are very pleased to be partnering with BFL. Housing associations carry a real responsibility for the people they employ as well as the people they house, and the colleagues delivering that work deserve a service that is genuinely responsive, clinically rigorous and easy to use. Our job over the coming months is to earn that trust and to make this partnership feel, from day one, like the team they wish they had had all along.”
Lisa Collen, Group Director of Culture & Organisational Design at BFL, said: “The wellbeing of our colleagues is fundamental to everything we do. Every day, they support thousands of customers and deliver services that enable people to thrive. That’s why it’s so important that they have access to high-quality, responsive support when they need it. MCL Medics shares our commitment to making occupational health support accessible, practical and centred around people, and we’re pleased to be working together.”
About MCL Medics
MCL Medics is a SEQOHS-accredited national provider of Occupational Health, Health Surveillance and wellbeing services. The business has been trading for more than two decades and supports clients across infrastructure, energy, the public sector and housing. We hold ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 27001 and ISO 22301 certifications, are a Real Living Wage employer and are Great Place to Work certified. Our digital platform Medics OH, our Power BI reporting and our Monday.com governance environment together give clients the visibility they need to manage workforce health proactively rather than reactively.