#EfficiencyMatters Blog: Following processes ensures your procurement runs smoothly
This month we're looking at #EfficiencyMatters. As part of this topic, Natalie Ledger, Procurement Operations Manager, reflects on how her team works to make things simpler for our customers and suppliers.
A key aim of NOE CPC is to make our processes run as efficiently as possible, recognising the challenges that exist across public procurement and enshrining our organisational values of integrity and simplicity.
The Procurement Operations team, which I lead, was established in 2018, and since its inception we have put in place a series of processes to ensure procurement projects run smoothly and align to the systems we use.
These processes help us deliver bespoke projects, put new framework agreements in place and support customers to run further competitions under our frameworks.
By establishing new, more efficient processes, our team has increased the number of projects it has delivered year on year, particularly those above the Public Contracts Regulations (PCR) threshold.
A lot of that is to do with us having an internal governance process in place. We plan those projects and work closely with the category lead to deliver them.
Regardless of whether it’s a procurement project for a customer, or a project to put a new framework or Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) in place, or a bespoke piece of work, we follow the same process, in terms of assessing market risk and sustainability and social value opportunities, and preparing a business case and a project plan.
Atamis roll-out
NOE CPC was one of the early adopters of the Health Family eCommercial System (Atamis) and we have supported the roll-out of the system over the last three years.
All procurements on behalf of NOE CPC are evaluated and moderated within the portal and we actively encourage this approach when supporting our customers, meaning we are more efficient with our time and resources.
We have supported members in transitioning to Atamis, providing ad-hoc training where required, and we run the Atamis Health Family Forum every quarter, which is proving very successful for those customers starting out on their Atamis journey.
For suppliers, who previously had to maintain numerous logins across various electronic tendering systems, it is a much more efficient approach.
Changing landscape
It’s a pivotal moment in the NHS for the way it handles procurement. NHS England has just launched its Strategic Framework, which aims to bring together the efforts of our colleagues across NHS procurement, leverage collective NHS buying power and provide clear guidance on how to contract with the NHS.
NHS England is rolling out its accreditation process for framework hosts, and subsequently individual frameworks.
The Provider Selection Regime was introduced at the beginning of the month, and we will have new requirements for suppliers under the Carbon Reduction Plan from April.
As a region, we will be coming under Cabinet Office Spend Controls from the summer, and then in October, the Procurement Act will come into force, and we will be operating under a transition period from April.
All of this will have a massive impact on us, and we will have to review our internal processes and make sure that they align to national strategic objectives.
We have established a project group looking at the various legislation and initiatives that will be launched in the next 12 months and we are putting in place a timeline of activity to review and amend our current processes to reflect the changes.
We have always strived to stay ahead of the curve with any new procurement policy note, for example, we have already begun to implement the new Carbon Reduction Plan requirements into our procurement activity, in advance of the requirement from April 2024.
We will be going through a process of educating our staff members, and then we will be working with our Training and Events team to provide that education and support to our customers. We are very much aware that this is not just about us understanding the new legislation and policies, but that we are also a customer-focused organisation, and our customers are going to be looking to us as a procurement hub to support them.
We will continue to make sure that all the relevant information is provided via the fileshare area of our website, allowing our customers to self-serve.
We are also working closely with our supplier relationship managers to increase the information that is available on our website for the suppliers we work with.
Accreditations
Last year, we gained our Commercial Continuous Improvement Assessment Framework accreditation from the Cabinet Office. We were one of the first procurement hubs to gain that status, achieving a ‘Better’ rating, and we will be working over the next six months to ensure we have a continuous improvement strategy in place and focusing on how we can improve as an organisation.
We also achieved ISO9001, a quality management system standard, and ISO27001, an information security management standard. The ISO9001 standard helps to identify inefficiencies and encourages continual improvement, leading to reduced waste and cost savings.
These accreditations are testament to the hard work and dedication of our colleagues and their desire to continue to improve our offering, which I know will continue throughout 2024 and beyond.
If you have any questions about our accreditations, frameworks or any of our other services, please contact our Support Desk.