Guy's and St Thomas' is among the UK's busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.

Guy's is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas' has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children's Hospital.

Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions.

Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.

In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.

We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King's Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King's College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.

Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of 'good'. Our adult community services achieved a rating of 'outstanding'.

The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.

We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS.

Job overview
• This role plays a vital part in implementing the NHS LPP vision & strategy, approved by the NHS LPP Steering Board, and in delivering the aspiration of the Board to become a world class procurement partner of choice for the NHS and the wider public sector.
• This is a challenging, fast paced and influential role that will lead and drive the delivery and day-to-day operation and strategic leadership of a best in class procurement function.
• The postholder will play a pivotal role in NHS LPP, being responsible for standardisation of best practice procurement processes across all PSS, PBP, Category and Commercial Delivery teams and maintaining a knowledge repository of lessons learned, ensuring knowledge retention and continuous improvement both internally and for the benefit of our members and the wider NHS and public sector.
• They will need to have expert procurement, commercial, stakeholder engagement and leadership skills. They will need to be a proven senior manager with the ability to matrix manage and influence both across the organisation and externally.
• They will play a key role in ensuring partnership working with a number of NHS LPP strategic public sector affiliates, including North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative; aligning to standardised processes with those affiliates as appropriate.

Main duties of the job
• Provide best in class procurement advice and support to member stakeholders and ensure that all team members do the same
• Increase uptake of NHS LPP routes to market by member organisations, ensuring best value across the membership
• Develop and maintain a trusted advisor relationship with all relevant member Trusts stakeholders, ICS stakeholders, regional stakeholders and national commercial and procurement policy teams
• Delivery of savings targets by identifying (and supporting the delivery of) savings opportunities for member Trust organisations
• Ensure customer uptake of the NHS LPP member efficiencies programme and identify and maintain a continuous pipeline of new savings initiatives
• Delivery of customer service targets as demonstrated through various means of customer feedback and satisfaction surveys
• Act as an escalation point for all customer complaints and undertake lessons learned investigations to support continuous improvement
• Ensure standardised best in class procurement processes across all procurement, commercial and category teams
• Deliver standard processes for obtaining relevant third-party legal advice as required across the procurement, commercial and category teams.

Working for our organisation
• Please note that as an organisation NHS LPP has been hosted by Guy's & St Thomas' (GSTT) NHS Foundation Trust since 2012 and provides the legal framework and supporting services under which NHS LPP operates. However, NHS LPP is a membership organisation funded and governed by its members and not GSTT. NHS LPP staff are employed by GSTT.
• NHS LPP develops and manages collaborative procurement projects on behalf of its members including acute, community and mental health trusts, as well as CCGs. NHS LPP has a number of members outside of London. This role requires the postholder to manage collaborative procurement within the normal NHS membership but also working with other public sector bodies, advising and managing their procurement processes to deliver benefit to the wider public sector.
• The organisation will continue to develop as a centre of commercial excellence that delivers significant and sustainable cost and service improvements to all stakeholders primarily in the London NHS economy but also outside London.
• NHS LPP are Proud to be accredited for disability awareness & Investors in People

Detailed job description and main responsibilities
• To lead, develop and manage the strategic direction of the PSS and PBP workstreams in order to implement the NHS LPP strategy and vision.
• To directly manage the PSS and PBP teams and to have matrix management responsibilities across the Category and Commercial Delivery teams.
• To ensure standardisation of best practice procurement and contract management processes across the PSS, PBP, Category and Commercial Delivery teams.
• To integrate best practice contract management principles into best practice procurement processes throughout the procurement lifecycle (plan, define, procure and manage).
• To utilise market intelligence and performance data including benchmarking and horizon scanning to understand competitor standards and make improvements to procurement processes accordingly to remain "best in class".
• To be accountable for procurement regulatory compliance across the organisation, ensuring that NHS LPP is compliant with all relevant statutory and local policies/standards and procedures, relating to procurement and contract management - updating those policies to reflect best practice and change in external legislation and taking a proactive stance in the development of a diverse, inclusive and safety-conscious culture.
• To ensure organisational compliance with all relevant NHSE / DHSC and Cabinet Office (CO) governance processes.
• To develop standard processes for obtaining relevant third-party legal advice as required across the procurement, commercial and category teams.
• To be accountable for the successful attainment of all business critical organisational procurement accreditations.
• To be accountable for the ongoing assurance of supplier compliance under all awarded NHS LPP routes to market, ensuring the roll out and continual delivery of standardised process across the PSS, Category and PMO teams.
• To explore and exploit opportunities for collaborative working both internally and externally.
• To act as a key member of the Strategic Delivery Group / Senior Leadership Team, setting the overall direction and strategy of the NHS LPP and being a role model in support of organisational purpose, vision, values, objectives and behaviours.

Person specification

Knowledge/Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Professional procurement qualification (Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply) or significant and extensive equivalent procurement experience demonstrated through proven delivery
• In-depth knowledge of public sector Procurement and Contract Management legislation demonstrated through proven delivery
• Undergraduate degree or equivalent professional experience demonstrated through proven delivery
• Postgraduate degree or equivalent professional experience demonstrated through proven delivery

Desirable criteria

• Relevant project management experience and / or Qualification, such as, Prince 2

Experience

Essential criteria

• Senior public sector procurement leadership and delivery experience, requiring expert procurement and contract management skills.
• Experience of managing the end-to-end procurement lifecycle (plan, define, procure and manage).
• Expert knowledge of procurement, legislation and regulations.
• Public sector procurement leadership experience at a senior management level.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working in a Trust procurement team
• Experience working for an accredited NHSE framework host

Skills

Essential criteria

• Excellent planning and organisational skills in order to manage conflicting demands
• Creative approach to problem solving
• Presentation/ facilitation/teaching/training skills
• Ability to demonstrate strategic thinking in complex areas and manage complex multi-faceted projects
• Ability to assimilate highly complex facts or situations requiring analysis, interpretation and comparison of a range of options

Guy's and St Thomas' celebrates, respects and values the diversity of its staff and patients. We review our policies, procedures and practices to ensure that all employees, patients and carers are treated equitable according to their needs. We are actively committed to ensuring that no one who applies for a job, works or study's at the Trust, or accesses our services is discriminated against on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, religion or belief, age, gender identity , gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity/paternity, or marital/civil partnership.

Applications are welcomed from applicants with a disability. We can make reasonable adjustments and offer support and advice in a variety of ways throughout the application process. Equality of opportunity is our policy.

As an organisation we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our patients. This means that some staff groups will increasingly be asked to work a more flexible shift pattern so that we can offer services in the evenings or at weekends.

Flexible working

We are committed to supporting all employees to achieve a healthy work life balance and to work in a way that is best for them and our patients. We will consider all requests to work flexibly, taking in to account the individual's personal circumstances as well the needs of the service. We encourage all prospective applicants to discuss their individual circumstances with the recruiting manager as part of the on-boarding process.

Due to recent changes in the UK immigration rules which affect Skilled Worker Visas, Global Business Mobility, Higher Skill Level and Increased Salary Thresholds, please ensure that you are able to meet the requirements to live and work in the UK before applying. Further information about eligibility is available on the UK Government website.

Your e-mail address is important to us - We communicate to all job applicants via the e-mail address which has been provided on the application form. Please ensure that you check your e-mail on a regular basis.

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Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

Documents to download

• JD Director of Procurement & Partnering (PDF, 664.3KB)
• PS Director of Procurement & Partnering (PDF, 96.7KB)
• FRF (PDF, 200.6KB)