UK-based recruitment and HR outsourcing firm The Curve Group announced that it has entered into a three-year deal with CivilisedBank to provide them with an HR Outsource solution. The HR Outsource solution includes strategic HR advice, providing dedicated Line Manager support via The Curve Group’s HR Shared Service Centre and a comprehensive Learning and Development programme, as well as undertaking compliance assurance activities. CivlisedBank said it will serve businesses through working capital solutions and cash management and will be funded by SME and retail savings.

The Curve Group also announced that it has renewed and extended its contract with existing partner IESA, a Business Process Outsourcing firm. The Curve Group will provide IESA with RPO solutions for five more years.

Capita, the UK-based provider of business process outsourcing solutions and professional support services, announced that it has won a contract for the Defence Fire and Rescue Project. According to the Financial Times, the deal was first announced in 2015 but delayed.

Unite the Union has criticised the contract win and said it comes at a time when Capita has been forced to borrow over £700 million after racking up losses of £513 million last year. 

“This decision is deeply alarming and entirely wrong-headed. It demonstrates that the government has learnt exactly nothing from the collapse of Carillion,” Unite national officer for the Ministry of Defence Jim Kennedy said. “There is absolutely no business case for these essential and highly dedicated workers to have their jobs outsourced and privatised. The government remains addicted to the failed model of privatising and outsourcing.”

Capita also announced that it secured a contract extension to provide customer management services to npower, a gas and electricity supplier, until the end of 2021, in a deal worth over £40 million over three years.

UK-based medical recruiter Head Medical announced that it has secured a contract to recruit GPs for London. The company is one of a number of recruitment agencies currently recruiting for the NHS England International GP Recruitment Programme, which is aiming to recruit around 2,000 doctors from overseas into English general practice by 2020.

“We were appointed as part of a recruitment framework to fill GP vacancies for surgeries in the north east and south east of London,” the group said. “The contract is our first award from the framework since being appointed towards the end of last year.”

Jim Godsal, Head Medical Managing Director, commented, “The NHS needs more GPs and international recruitment is an effective solution that is mutually beneficial for the NHS in England and overseas medical talent. Foreign nationals make a huge contribution to the health service and several NHS regions around the country are starting to benefit from much-needed capacity from overseas GPs.”

The contract follows an announcement from the Home Office that would scrap Tier 2 visa restrictions for doctors and nurses which would allow the recruitment of more international doctors and nurses.