Temporary Accommodation & Decant Managed Services framework

The framework provides a 24-hour, 365-day managed booking service specifically designed for urgent situations. When accommodation is needed immediately, whether because of a building evacuation, a major incident deployment, or any other unplanned event, you contact the framework supplier with the details: how many people, where, for how long, and any specific requirements. The supplier searches their national accommodation network, identifies available and suitable options, and can place people into hotel or B&B accommodation within hours. For police forces deploying mutual aid officers to another force area overnight, for councils responding to a building emergency, or for NHS trusts bringing in locum staff at short notice, the ability to source vetted accommodation outside office hours through a single phone call is the core value of the managed service. Once the immediate need is met, the supplier works with you to find more appropriate longer-term accommodation if the displacement is going to last more than a few days. The key difference between using the framework and booking reactively through consumer platforms is that the supplier vets the accommodation before placement, documents the process for your audit trail, and manages the placement from start to finish. For organisations where accommodation decisions are subject to governance review or audit, this documented, managed approach provides the assurance that ad-hoc booking does not.

Yes. Police forces regularly need accommodation for officers and staff deployed away from their home force area. Mutual aid deployments, where one force provides officers to support another during major incidents, large-scale events, or public order situations, can require accommodation for dozens or hundreds of officers at short notice. Major investigations that require a team to be based in a specific area for weeks or months also generate accommodation needs. The framework’s 24/7 managed service is designed for exactly these scenarios. The supplier can source accommodation near the deployment location, handle the logistics of booking and managing multiple rooms, and adjust the number of rooms as the deployment scales up or down. For longer deployments, serviced apartments or self-catering accommodation provide a more cost-effective and practical option than hotels, giving officers kitchen facilities and more space during extended stays. The pre-negotiated rates provide better value than last-minute hotel bookings, and the managed service means the force’s logistics team does not have to spend operational time searching for and managing individual hotel reservations. For forces that currently manage deployment accommodation through a mixture of corporate credit cards, travel management companies, and individual officer expense claims, the framework consolidates this into a single, compliant, auditable arrangement.

Government department office refurbishment programmes, whether led by the Government Property Agency for UK government departments, or by the devolved administrations managing their own estates in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, often require staff to be relocated temporarily. This might mean a team of fifty people needing workspace and accommodation near a regional office for three months while their usual building is being refurbished, or a rolling programme of smaller relocations as different floors or wings are taken out of service. The framework provides a managed service that sources accommodation matched to the department’s requirements: proximity to the temporary workspace, suitability for the duration of the placement, kitchen facilities for longer stays, and internet connectivity for staff who need to work from the accommodation. For larger programmes involving multiple waves of relocation over an extended period, the supplier manages the logistics of coordinating placements, handling extensions when building work overruns, and arranging alternatives when accommodation becomes unavailable. The pre-negotiated rates across multiple accommodation types mean the department can choose the most cost-effective option for each phase: hotels for short relocations of a few days, serviced apartments for medium-term stays of a few weeks, and private rentals for longer displacements. This structured approach replaces the ad-hoc arrangements that departments often fall back on, where individual budget holders book accommodation independently with no visibility of total cost or consistency of quality.

Yes. Universities managing halls of residence regularly need to decant students during refurbishment programmes, and the numbers can be significant: hundreds of students needing alternative accommodation for weeks or an entire term while building work takes place. The framework provides a managed service that can source accommodation across multiple types, from serviced apartments and private rentals for longer placements to self-catering lets and campus accommodation at partner institutions for shorter periods. The practical challenges of student decants include maintaining proximity to the campus and teaching facilities, providing accommodation with adequate study space and internet access, accommodating international students who may not have alternative options, and managing the logistics of moving large numbers of people in a short window. The managed booking service handles these logistics, sourcing and vetting accommodation that meets the university’s requirements and managing the placements across the full programme. For universities, consolidating student decant accommodation through the framework also provides cost control and spend visibility that is difficult to achieve when individual departments or residence managers arrange accommodation independently. Contact Inprova’s team to discuss how the framework can be structured for your specific university requirements.

Under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, local authorities are Category 1 responders with a duty to plan for and respond to emergencies. This includes providing shelter and accommodation for people displaced by major incidents such as flooding, building collapse, industrial accidents, or other events that make buildings uninhabitable. The scale can be unpredictable: a few people after a localised incident, or hundreds after widespread flooding. The framework provides a pre-procured, compliant route to temporary accommodation that can be activated immediately when an emergency occurs. Because the procurement has already been completed, there is no need to run an urgent tendering process during a crisis. The 24/7 managed booking service means accommodation can be sourced when emergencies most commonly occur, which is often outside office hours. And the supplier’s national accommodation network means capacity is available even when local options are limited. For local authority emergency planning teams, having a standing framework agreement for temporary accommodation is a practical component of emergency preparedness. It means the procurement route is in place before an incident occurs, the supplier relationship is established, and the activation process is documented and can be tested as part of emergency planning exercises.

NHS trusts regularly bring in locum consultants, agency nurses, and other temporary clinical staff to cover vacancies, provide specialist skills, or manage demand peaks. These staff often need accommodation near the trust’s facilities, particularly for assignments in areas where they have no existing connection or where the local rental market is expensive or limited. The framework provides a managed service that sources accommodation matched to clinical staff requirements: proximity to the hospital, suitability for the assignment duration, kitchen facilities for longer placements, and secure parking where needed. For locum consultants on three or six-month assignments, a serviced apartment or private rental through the framework is significantly more cost-effective than a nightly hotel rate, and provides a more practical living arrangement that supports staff wellbeing and retention for the duration of the assignment. For trusts and health boards managing multiple locum placements concurrently across several hospital sites, the framework consolidates what would otherwise be separate ad-hoc arrangements into a single managed service with consistent pricing and reporting. The spend is visible, auditable, and reportable, which matters where temporary staffing costs are subject to board scrutiny and oversight from your national health body, NHS England, NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, or Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland.

Building works and refurbishment programmes rarely run exactly to schedule. A three-week repair becomes a six-week repair. A refurbishment programme runs two months behind. Phased works overlap in ways that were not anticipated. The framework is designed to handle these changes as part of the managed service. Extensions are managed by the supplier, who checks availability at the existing property, negotiates the extended stay, or sources alternative accommodation if the original property is no longer available. Cancellations are processed in line with the terms agreed at call-off. Changes to requirements, such as needing a different location or a larger property, are handled by the supplier sourcing a new placement that meets the updated requirements. The practical benefit is that your team does not have to manage the relationship with the accommodation provider directly. You tell the supplier what has changed, and they manage the logistics. For organisations running large relocation programmes where dozens of placements are active at any time, this is a significant reduction in administrative overhead compared to managing each booking individually through consumer platforms or direct arrangements with hotels and landlords.

The framework provides pre-negotiated rates across six accommodation types that were commercially evaluated during the tender process. These rates are consistently lower than ad-hoc booking, particularly for emergency placements where the last-minute premium on hotel rooms can be substantial. For longer-term placements, the savings are more significant still. Staff or other occupants placed in a serviced apartment or private rental through the framework will typically cost substantially less per night than the equivalent period in a hotel booked at rack rate. Beyond the nightly rate, the managed service reduces hidden costs: the staff time spent searching for and booking properties, the time spent managing extensions and cancellations, the cost of placements in unsuitable accommodation that have to be moved, and the financial risk of overpayment when bookings are made urgently without price comparison. For organisations that currently manage temporary accommodation reactively, the framework provides both direct savings on accommodation cost and indirect savings on the administrative overhead. The spend is also consolidated and reportable through a single contract, which gives finance teams visibility of temporary accommodation cost that is often invisible when bookings are spread across multiple credit cards, expense claims, and departmental budgets.

Yes. Multi-agency emergency responses, such as major flooding events, large-scale public order situations, or extended search and rescue operations, bring together personnel from multiple organisations who all need accommodation near the incident. Police officers from mutual aid forces, fire crews from neighbouring brigades, military personnel supporting the response, and local authority staff managing the coordination all need somewhere to stay, often for several days or weeks. The framework can be used by any UK contracting authority, so the lead agency coordinating the response can procure accommodation for its own personnel through the framework, and other participating agencies that are also contracting authorities can do the same. The 24/7 managed service means accommodation can be sourced and scaled as the response develops, with rooms added or released as the operation grows or winds down. For emergency planners, knowing that a procurement route for temporary accommodation is already in place and can be activated by a single call removes one of the logistical challenges of managing a multi-day, multi-agency response. The supplier’s national network means accommodation can be sourced even in areas where a major incident has reduced local availability.

Placing vulnerable people in temporary accommodation carries specific safeguarding responsibilities, regardless of which public sector organisation is making the placement. The location, type, and quality of accommodation all affect the welfare of the person being placed. The framework’s managed service addresses these considerations systematically. When you provide the supplier with the person’s requirements and circumstances, the search and vetting process takes safeguarding factors into account alongside practical requirements. Accommodation is vetted for suitability before placement, and if it turns out to be inappropriate, the supplier arranges an alternative. Services are delivered in line with your organisation’s policies and procedures, which can include GDPR requirements, occupancy policies, gender-specific requirements for shared accommodation, and any other safeguarding measures you specify. This policy-led approach ensures that your organisation’s standards are applied consistently across every placement, rather than depending on the judgment of whichever staff member happens to be arranging accommodation at the time. For local authorities placing people under emergency planning duties, for healthcare providers arranging accommodation for patients’ families, or for any organisation relocating people with specific needs, the documented vetting and placement process provides the evidence of due diligence that governance and safeguarding reviews require.