Outsourcing specialist Serco Group has signed an agreement to operate the Anglia Support Partnership (ASP), which includes six partnering NHS organisations.

As part of the establishment of the strategic partnership Serco will acquire the assets of Anglia Support Partnership from the partner, for which it will pay about £9m in 2012. The annual revenue to Serco of the current contracts is around £30m.

The new four-year agreement is the group's first shared services proposition in the emerging market for middle and back office support to the UK health sector. It enables, among others, all National Health Service (NHS) organisations in the new Midlands and East Strategic Health Authority to access services equivalent to around 25% of total NHS spend.

In a statement, Serco said: "Under the ASP framework, Serco will now be able to address much of the sizeable NHS 'shared services' market, offering member organisations both improvements in service quality and substantial cost savings.

"We are combining our breadth of skills and ability to transform public services to build a leading health platform, and this represents a significant milestone and early success for our newly created Global Services division."

NR

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