Procurement Business Partner - Warrington, United Kingdom - Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust

Description

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Procurement Business Partner working with the Finance and Procurement function. As the successful post holder you will be responsible for providing specialist procurement advice, the post holder will provide procurement advice that ensures value for money, quality of service and continuous improvement in the procurement process.

Contribute to influencing the Trusts non-pay spend identifying savings opportunities and ensuring compliance with EU Legislation, UK Law, Trusts Standing Financial Instructions and client satisfaction.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will work as part of the Procurement Team supporting the Head of Procurement in the provision of an effective procurement service and team. Work with the division to lead on specific/allocated Projects and represent Procurement delivering against agreed timescales and outcomes. Support the Head of Procurement provide a professional lead on procurement for the Trust with responsibility for the development, maintenance and deployment of the Trust's procurement strategy.

Working for our organisation

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

1. Work with the division and lead on a range of procurement projects including planning and
selection strategies; tendering and commercial dialogue. This involves working closely with clinical
and non-clinical staff in order to achieve Project support and sign off of recommendations.
2. To provide professional advice to users in respect of the procurement process, including EU
regulations.
3. Affect the procurement of complex and high value contracts, ensuring appropriate project
management processes are in place, status reports are compiled, and EU/Statutory procurement
requirements are met.
4. Responsible for ensuring of value for money, development of auditable evaluation methodologies
and achieving sign off in respect of all procurement decisions within the division.
5. Determine most advantageous purchasing route for the Trust to follow providing information on
EU and UK purchasing legislation and the Trust's SFO/SFI's.
6. To be a procurement expert for allocated projects within the division. Providing leadership and
advice to project teams to ensure that sound procurement principles are being applied.
7. To advise on the optimum procurement option for each project.
8. To provide expert advice on the appropriateness of procurement strategies including advice on
alternatives.
9. To liaise with the stakeholders and other project representatives to determine precise
requirements in terms of specification and other clinical or user-based requirements.
10. To lead on commercial negotiations with suppliers in accordance with the project timetable.
11. To produce a Contract Award Report for each Project specification and evaluation of project.
26/01/2022
12. Work to solve problems and differences using negotiation and persuasive skills.
13. Provide on-going advice and support to the Procurement Team members and Trusts Procurement
customers and system users.
14. Provide advice on performance and functionality of the Trust's Procurement systems in meeting
user needs. Ensuring the use of Information Technology contributes to improving the processes
employed within the department. Make recommendations that contribute to the improvement
and effectiveness of procurement systems at the Trust.
15. Develop a close working relationship between the Trust and its supplier base, ensuring
performance standards are consistently achieved and remedial action is recommended/ taken
where necessary.
16. To manage relationships with the various external agencies and ensuring their performance realises
mutual strategic aims.
17. Maintain key relationships with Professional (external) and Trust (internal) advisers with regard to
updated and regulatory requirements.
18. Work with other NHS Trusts on behalf of the Trust in order to implement best value purchasing, ecommerce initiatives, best practise solutions, performance measurement, supply chain efficiencies,
training and development initiatives.
19. Identify opportunities within the division for further service development/enhancement and
implement proposals. Lead change to support the continued rationalisation and standardisation of
products and services.
20. Deputise for the Head of Procurement, when necessary.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria