Tribal Group

Tribal Group is a consulting business, which describes itself as "focused on improving the delivery of public services."

It operates in the UK "in partnership with a wide range of organisations across the public sector, including government departments and agencies; the NHS, strategic health authorities, primary care trusts and health providers; schools, colleges and universities; and local authorities." It also operates in 65 countries around the world.

Helping to reform the NHS

Its health practice, which it describes as "at the forefront of health service reform", bought health care consultancy Newchurch in 2009 to create Tribal Newchurch. The new consultancy offers a range of services "from strategy and organisational development to frontline change management."

"Denationalisation of health care"

Tribal Newchurch sees a major opportunity in providing infrastructure for new general practice (GP) consortiums. These consortia are a key proposal of the UK Coalition government's 2010 Health White Paper. The plans would see GPs being handed an £80 billion annual commissioning budget, a policy that has been labeled the "most revolutionary" change in the NHS since it was created.There are fears that the private sector will be invited to take over if consortia slip up.

In a press release outlining Tribal's response to the government's proposals and their implications,Tribal Newchurch's director of business development, Kingsley Manning, said:

"This white paper could amount to the denationalisation of health care services in England... It could result in the biggest transfer of employment out of the public sector since the significant reforms seen in 1980s. As NHS trusts become foundation trusts, this will see the transfer of billions of tax-payers’ assets to employee-controlled businesses... The old certainties are gone: the NHS cannot be protected from economic reality any longer."

However, in an interview published in August 2010, Manning, sounded more cautious: 'It's difficult to see how legislation could ever devolve responsibility for NHS services fully to a private company."