Sue Ryder has become the largest member the Hospice Quality Partnership, a group of health charities which drive down costs by sharing procurement and revenue generation.
The charity will become the 72nd member of HQP, which was set up in 2014 to help hospices and other organisations save money through shared procurement and data, as well as collaborating on revenue generating activities.
While most of the social enterprise’s members are shareholders, Sue Ryder will be an associate partner.
With Sue Ryder joining, the partnership will control more than £550m in spending – which it expects will drive pricing down, improve the quality of supply and help to mitigate risk, with group benefits that are not available to individual organisations.
Tracey O’Keefe, HQP managing director, said: “In the current challenging climate of reduced government funding, a highly competitive market for voluntary income and rising demand and costs of care, the sector must pull together to maximise its resources.
“Sue Ryder has demonstrated great leadership by joining forces with our partners and we look forward to working ever more closely in the coming years.”
O’Keefe declined to tell Civil Society Media how much organisations pay to be members of HQP but said most saw a return on investment.
She said: “One of our partners saved £40,000 this year. On average our partners save 10 to 15 per cent on each category of spend.”
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Alan Bowers, finance director at Sue Ryder, said by joining HQP the charity hoped to make “significant” cost reductions across the hospice sector.
He said: “By saving money in this way we can divert more money into our services so we focus on giving every person the hospice care and support they need to spend the time they have left in the way they choose.”
While set up to support hospices, HQP has some members from other industries and is open to the wider public and third sectors.
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