How we adapt and innovate to support our customers
As part of our #FlexibilityMatters theme for July, we are looking at some of the ways we have adapted and innovated over the years to ensure we remain an industry leading provider of frameworks for the public sector.
In our latest blog post, we look at how we work closely with our partners and stakeholders to make our offering as strong as possible.
In February, we were accredited by NHS England as a Central Commercial Function (CCF) Accredited Framework Host. As of 1st April 2024, all NHS organisations are expected to purchase goods, services and works from the list of accredited framework hosts. Our accreditation means you can have confidence that using our services will meet those expectations, and we are committed to delivering compliance and excellence in what is a changing landscape.
We have long worked closely with NHS England to deliver industry-leading procurement services, ensuring that what we offer to customers is closely aligned with national policies and priorities, such as the new Strategic Framework for NHS Commercial, and ensuring that we reduce duplication across the market.
We are also committed to working closely with our stakeholders, such as you, our customers, to continue to develop procurement frameworks that meet your needs. We regularly host events, such as the Members’ Forum, where we can speak to you, find out more about how you use our frameworks and what services you might require. On top of this, we provide webinars and training on specialist topics that we think are of use to you as customers and suppliers, such as our sustainability and social value webinars and our Tech Talks.
We have also developed a supplier relationship management function, with two people working in this role to continue our strong working relationship with our strategic supplier base and support their development and delivery to you as customers.
We were early adopters of the Health Family eCommercial System (Atamis) and we have worked over the last three years to integrate it into our everyday working practices. You can find out more about how that has supported our tendering and online evaluation activity here.
For several years we have collaborated with the other main NHS procurement hubs in England to reduce duplication of frameworks and simplify the marketplace for customers.
Five years ago, we joined forces with those same organisations and Crown Commercial Service to form the largest public sector procurement partnership in the UK, NHS Workforce Alliance, to offer a singular healthcare staffing portfolio for our customers.
Going forward, we are beginning to forge a stronger relationship with NHS London Procurement Partnership (NHS LPP), so that we can offer an even broader portfolio of frameworks to customers of both organisations, as well as a wider breadth of procurement expertise. Later this year we will be attending the Healthcare Estates and the Healthcare Excellence Through Technology shows, jointly with NHS LPP, so that we can demonstrate to customers that between us we have comprehensive coverage of their procurement needs across estates, technology and beyond.
In recent years, we have invested in extra resources for our support desk, so that we can support you in the best possible way as you use our frameworks and services. The function utilises a ticketing system that efficiently and appropriately directs queries and streamlines processes, such as framework access requests. We have assigned more dedicated support to the initial triage of cases, and this has had a significant impact on improving our service. We respond promptly to all enquiries, and resolve the vast majority of the queries and questions we receive that same working day.
There are many other ways in which we have adapted our services to make it quicker and easier for you to find a solution to your requirements. You can find out more about how we have improved the digital toolkit across our website here.
To find out more about our full portfolio of frameworks and our partnership working, please contact our Support Desk.