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Senior Purchasing Specialist

Employer
BWPC
Location
Bristol
Salary
43,742 - 50,056
Closing date
5 Oct 2023
View more categoriesView less categories
Specialist Area
Purchasing, supply (main)
Job Level
Specialist
Sector
Healthcare
Contract Type
Permanent
Hours
Full Time
CIPS Membership
Non CIPS member
  • A fantastic opportunity to join BWPC as a Senior Purchasing Specialist
  • Offers agile/hybrid working approach

About Our Client

The team at Bristol and Weston NHS Purchasing Consortium (BWPC) delivers procurement services to the two large acute NHS Trusts in Bristol, North Bristol NHS Trust & University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust. This includes the development and delivery of their procurement strategies, offering professional advice and delivering cost savings through sustainable procurement on an annual spend of circa £600m.

BWPC are proud to feature amongst their clients two of the largest NHS Acute Trusts in the UK, with a combined total of over 2,300 patient beds, 21,000 staff and offering over 100 different clinical services. The team at BWPC work closely with clinical facing colleagues and strive to develop collaborative working partnerships to help clinical colleagues deliver great patent care through robust procurement of goods and services.

Job Description

The Patient Care category team is one of the two clinical category teams within BWPC. Their remit primarily focuses on high volume, low value ward-based consumables such as Bandages, Syringes and Infusion Products, however they also support our trusts with the procurement of a number of High Value and complex products and services, such as Pathology and, Beds Mattresses & Trolley's.

The team is made of 8 procurement professionals, lead by the Category Manager who offers leadership, direction and strategy as well as the first route of escalation for any challenges encountered by members of the team. The Senior Purchasing Specialist role, which we are currently recruiting for, is a key member of the team and integral to the success of the individual members and of the team as a whole.

In addition to typically running 2 or 3 complex high value procurements, the Senior Purchasing Specialist acts as a deputy for the Category Manager during periods of annual leave or unavailability, in both internal and external meetings as well as ad hoc queries that may arise. In normal day to day working the Senior Purchasing Specialist should also expect to support in leading the team as well as offering advice and guidance on specific procurement projects and activities.

Continuing the development of the category team is a key objective for the next 12 - 24 months. The current team are highly motivated and enthusiastic but will further benefit from the addition of Senior Purchasing Specialist, with procurement experience and a willingness to support the development of others.

This is an excellent opportunity to develop your specialist skills, managing large scale complex strategic procurements to both organisational and patient facing services. This role is suitable for an experienced individual looking mentor and support an established team whilst also providing specialist advice and support to a wide range of customers.

Senior Purchasing Specialists are also expected to build and maintain stakeholder relationships with a variety of role across the trusts. Day-to-day activity will include attending stakeholder working groups and meetings on behalf of the consortium, either via 'teams' or in person, progressing projects against agreed timeline and specific actions, and feeding back to management as necessary.

BWPC are a commercial function embedded in acute healthcare setting, strong communication skills are required when working with clinical colleagues to interpret procurement theory, legislation & process so that they see the benefit in working with procurement colleagues and how procurement adds value to their role, objectives, and the delivery of patient care.

Lastly, ensuring compliance to policy and regulation is another key part of the role. This includes compliance with the trusts Standard Financial Instructions, Public Contract Regulation, Social Value & Net Zero, as well as observing and enforcing purchasing ethics.

The Successful Applicant

  • Record of realising sustainable financial savings and cost reduction together with evidence of leading procurements which result in tangible business change
  • Proven negotiation and influencing skills, both with external supply base and internally with key client stakeholders.
  • A strategic thinker with effective planning skills with the ability to translate procurement strategy into deliverable operational results.
  • Have experience in analysing data to proactively search and identify opportunities and be able to interpret and present the opportunity to influence decision makers and gain buy-in.
  • Have knowledge of PCR 2015 and demonstration of proactiveness in keeping up with the latest legislation for public sector procurement.
  • Experience in managing contracts throughout the whole contract lifecycle, monitoring both supplier and trust performance.
  • The successful applicant will be able to coach and mentor more junior members of the team to help develop the procurement skill within the category, please note the successful applicant will not line manage the junior members of the team.
  • Be comfortable speaking and feeding back to the wider BWPC team and management at internal meetings.
  • Competent in identifying suitable reporting metrics, setting up reporting schedule & presenting reporting outcomes meaningfully.

What's on Offer

The NHS offer a generous range of benefits to employees:

  • Salary between £43,742-£50,056
  • Competitive pension scheme.
  • 27 days annual leave minimum plus bank holidays.
  • Agile / Hybrid working approach - Based out of our Southmead office (indicative requirement to be on site 1-2 days per week)
  • There is a relocation package on offer to successful candidates
  • North Bristol NHS Trust who host Bristol and Weston NHS Purchasing Consortium have a strong wellbeing culture. Staff are encouraged to ensure that you are looking after your own wellbeing as well as that of your colleagues. This is strongly reflected in BWPC.
  • Staff extracurricular activities - Southmead charity events.
  • Access to the NHS Childcare Salary Sacrifice Scheme.
  • Access to many NHS discount opportunities.
  • Cycle to work scheme.

*We will aiming to run face to face interviews at Southmead Hospital, Bristol on Tuesday 26th September


Where specific UK qualifications are required we will take into account overseas equivalents. All third party applications will be forwarded to Michael Page.


Ref Code: MPYC0820236167863Z

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