About the job

Job summary

We are the biggest public procurement organisation in the UK.

With over 900 employees, we help thousands of public and third sector organisations save time and money when buying common goods and services. We currently manage more than £35 billion of spend every year across the public sector including for:

• schools
• universities
• hospitals
• housing associations
• councils
• charities
• central government departments.

Our culture is all about our people. The development of our people is key and though we’re all driven by different aspirations, we share the same commitment to quality and delivering value for our customers. Our people make up our family: the CCS Family!

The work we do is carried out to a very high standard in an exciting environment where success is celebrated. The expertise we offer our customers is all down to the people who work here. We realise that together we can achieve more.

Our purpose

We deliver commercial benefits for the UK central government, arms-length bodies and the wider public sector. We do this by establishing and managing outstanding customer-focused commercial agreements for common goods and services and through our category expertise and procurement capability so that our customers can buy as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Our values, and the behaviours they require, allow us to create a positive workplace culture.

Our values

Our culture is one of inclusivity and care, where we respect each other and our differences. It’s one that supports collaboration, teamwork and innovation and one that embraces difference. We support everyone having a voice so that our people feel valued and empowered to bring their ideas and whole self to work.

We listen, respect, collaborate and trust in order to deliver with confidence.

Job description

In this role you will lead and own commercial and procurement processes on behalf of CCS, as well as on behalf of a number of critical partnerships between CCS and other buying organisations. You will contribute to delivering commercial excellence for CCS and its partnerships, through management of activity across the procurement lifecycle. You will provide a customer-focused service, understanding the business need and stakeholder drivers, with the aim of becoming a trusted commercial advisor. You will also develop relationships with key partners and suppliers, driving value for money and risk management excellence across the category, or categories.  

Activities could vary from developing joint market strategies for Government, to delivering complex commercial agreements to being accountable for some of CCS’s most high-profile stakeholder relationships, all whilst ensuring compliance with the changing procurement legislative framework.  

You will be managing a team, building their confidence and commercial capability to drive performance and manage setbacks. The role will also require you to use your commercial expertise to identify opportunities for improvement and implement these changes at a local level by working with affected parties to identify and overcome challenges.

Locations

The successful candidate(s) will be able to agree a contractual workplace from those locations listed in this advert. When selecting your location listed in this job advert please be aware that this will be your contractual base location with a requirement to spend a minimum of 60% of your working time in this organisational workplace.

Your time spent on official duties at workplace locations other than your contractual office such as supplier, customer or partner locations required to perform your role is included in the 60% attendance.

This requirement will however take into consideration any reasonable adjustments agreed upon appointment for people with a disability, flexibilities agreed for those with specific caring responsibilities, or other similar temporary flexibilities.

Person specification

• Strategic delivery and management of the Non-Clinical Staffing and Supply Teachers sub-categories:

          - Developing category strategies for all relevant expenditure

          - Coordinating spend data and insight within the category and owning demand management across the category

          - Ensuring category management processes are in place that enable the assessment of the market capabilities to meet the needs of users and the business

• Leading Commercial input to understand relevant procurement options, delivering positive outcomes through the procurement process in collaboration with other internal functions, e.g. Procurement Operations, CXD, and Policy:
  
  - Finalising and approving commercial arrangements, including price and rate card activity

         - Preparing, developing and commissioning business cases, where necessary, to demonstrate the value, benefits and risks of sourcing activity

         - Leading across the NHS Workforce Alliance and Supply Teachers partnerships to ensure a high quality and joined-up approach

• Ensuring effective Commercial Contract and Supplier Management within the category: 

         - Ensuring spend across the sub-categories is controlled and critical contracts are continually analysed in order to develop and drive value adding initiatives. 

         - Responsible for the SRM process within the sub-categories to drive supplier performance and ensure commercial rigour, quality of service and continuous improvement and innovation. Also leading on Strategic SRM relationships with key suppliers on behalf of the partnerships 

         - Ensuring legal compliance and risk mitigation of contracts

• Building and maintaining key relationships across CCS and with important external stakeholders: 

         - Developing and owning relationships, building detailed knowledge of stakeholder needs in order to deliver value through sourcing and procurement activity 

         - Providing procurement leadership and market insight to ensure maximum value for sub-category spend

         - Understanding and incorporating the policies within the Government’s Sourcing Playbook, the NHS England Agency Rules and Commercial Efficiency Programme Standards to support departments and wider public sector organisations to deliver on their requirements and achieve best value for money

         - Developing relationships with commercial and policy colleagues in key organisations (e.g. NHS England, Department for Education, Cabinet Office/Government People Group) and a network of contacts with other public sector bodies and wider industry to help deliver our service effectively

         - Working closely with Finance Business Partner in effective budget management, spend and income forecasting and financial planning. Creation, management and tracking of commercial and change benefits.

         - Working with customers across the NHS, schools, Local Authorities and Central Government, driving growth & retention. Management of pipeline opportunities against current products:

         - Playing a leading role as part of the leadership of the NHS Workforce Alliance and Supply Teachers partnerships. Leading across boundaries, particularly in the areas of procurement and customer engagement, to enable the success of the partnerships and a collaborative, supportive relationship with the partners in their delivery of workforce solutions.

• Working with customers across the NHS, schools, Local Authorities and Central Government, driving growth & retention. Management of pipeline opportunities against current products:
  
  - Supporting a range of customers in their requirements. Providing complex commercial advice to shape customer requirements, support and, where necessary, additional help in the production of their specification and call off competition documentation
  
  - Bringing the best of the external market to the department through leveraging industry best practice, market insights and knowledge 
  
  - Ensuring all commercial activity represents best value for money via the delivery of commercial benefits.  Overseeing creation and maintenance of monthly reports /dashboards to track savings, KPIs, commercial benefits and performance feedback. Overseeing provision of data for ad hoc and ministerial/regulator requests

• Playing a leading role as part of the leadership of the NHS Workforce Alliance and Supply Teachers partnerships. Leading across boundaries, particularly in the areas of procurement and customer engagement, to enable the success of the partnerships and a collaborative, supportive relationship with the partners in their delivery of workforce solutions.

Benefits

As a valued employee of the Government Commercial Organisation (GCO), you will have access to all the benefits the centre has to offer; including flexible working, generous benefits, Career Coaches, Mentors, L&D, a Commercial College, active talent management and, most importantly, access to commercial projects that will far exceed the scale and complexity on offer elsewhere in the UK.

Please note that any move across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018 may have implications on an employee’s ability to carry on claiming childcare vouchers.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Experience and Technical skills.

Please be advised that the Virtual ADC is taking place on 2nd September 2024 and will require a full day's attendance.

If you are invited to attend a virtual ADC, but for any reason are unable to meet the date outlined then please get in touch with the team at commercialresourcinghub@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible. The ADC is booked and paid for in advance by departments, therefore it is only in certain circumstances we are able to accommodate alternative dates.

Details of schemes available are attached in the advert.

For full details of our process, and a likely timeline, please read the explanation provided in the attached candidate pack.

Throughout our selection process, we will make decisions about your capability to do the job, based on evidence you provide against the essential criteria for the role which are detailed in the attached Candidate Pack.

Your application will be reviewed by a panel and should you be successful at sift we will invite you to attend a Virtual commercial Assessment and Development Centre (VADC). The panel will review results of the VADC and determine which candidates will go through to a subsequent final panel interview.

IMPORTANT: If you do not receive an acknowledgement of your application within 2 working days please contact: commercialresourcinghub@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.