Category Manager (Band 7)

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Covid-19 Vaccination

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We encourage and support staff to get COVID-19 vaccine and a booster dose as and when they are eligible.

Please note in order to progress your application, your data will be processed by our 3rd party recruitment providers - North London Partners Shared Service, who conduct recruitment activities on behalf of Whittington Health NHS Trust.

For our current apprenticeship vacancies, please go to https://www.gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship and use Keyword 'Whittington'

By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at saving you time and improving efficiencies within the NHS when your employment transfers.

Job overview

The role of Category Manager encompasses the following:

1. Support the respective Senior Buyers and Buyers, ensuring projects are carried out effectively and responsibly and according to policies;

2. Responsible for managing and developing the PPS contracts work-plan with regard to the category spend allocated in order to drive the category workload and ensure effective contract coverage. Incorporate national and collaborative procurement priorities and contracts into the work-plan, ensuring use of the appropriate sourcing strategy.

3. To identify and deliver savings towards the Partner Trusts' QIPP/ CIP / CRES targets. To ensure savings are recorded regularly and accurately;

4. Work and liaise with all PPS staff to ensure an effective programme for category contract coverage as appropriate for benefit realisation for Partner Trusts;

5. Keep abreast with technology improvements and developments within the category. Develop team members category market knowledge

6. Support PPS staff to apply agreed process management and procedures;

7. Provide advice, expertise and support to stakeholders for category product selection, market testing and other related activities where appropriate;

Please refer to the JD for the rest of the information

Main duties of the job

The role of Category Manager encompasses the following:

1. Support the respective Senior Buyers and Buyers, ensuring projects are carried out effectively and responsibly and according to policies;

2. Responsible for managing and developing the PPS contracts work-plan with regard to the category spend allocated in order to drive the category workload and ensure effective contract coverage. Incorporate national and collaborative procurement priorities and contracts into the work-plan, ensuring use of the appropriate sourcing strategy.

3. To identify and deliver savings towards the Partner Trusts' QIPP/ CIP / CRES targets. To ensure savings are recorded regularly and accurately;

4. Work and liaise with all PPS staff to ensure an effective programme for category contract coverage as appropriate for benefit realisation for Partner Trusts;

5. Keep abreast with technology improvements and developments within the category. Develop team members category market knowledge

6. Support PPS staff to apply agreed process management and procedures;

7. Provide advice, expertise and support to stakeholders for category product selection, market testing and other related activities where appropriate;

Please refer to the JD for the rest of the information

Working for our organisation

Partner Trusts have established the Partners Procurement Service (PPS) in order to improve their combined procurement effectiveness and deliver better value for money.

The participating Partner Trusts are:

Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (MEH)

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust (RFL)

The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust (WH)

The PPS is jointly and equally owned by all Partner Trusts and is hosted by WH. But staff may be employed on any of the PPS sites.

The rationale for the creation of the PPS is to establish a shared service able to improve the quality of a wide range of procurement services, deliver a more cost effective procurement and supply chain solution and enhance the non-pay benefits to each Trust.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The role of Category Manager encompasses the following:

1. Support the respective Senior Buyers and Buyers, ensuring projects are carried out effectively and responsibly and according to policies;

2. Responsible for managing and developing the PPS contracts work-plan with regard to the category spend allocated in order to drive the category workload and ensure effective contract coverage. Incorporate national and collaborative procurement priorities and contracts into the work-plan, ensuring use of the appropriate sourcing strategy.

3. To identify and deliver savings towards the Partner Trusts' QIPP/ CIP / CRES targets. To ensure savings are recorded regularly and accurately;

4. Work and liaise with all PPS staff to ensure an effective programme for category contract coverage as appropriate for benefit realisation for Partner Trusts;

5. Keep abreast with technology improvements and developments within the category. Develop team members category market knowledge

6. Support PPS staff to apply agreed process management and procedures;

7. Provide advice, expertise and support to stakeholders for category product selection, market testing and other related activities where appropriate;

Please refer to the JD for the rest of the information

Person specification

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience in working within a relevant Acute and or Community procurement environment, within the NHS with knowledge of Soft FM, Hard FM and IT category
• Experience and knowledge of acute hospital sector buying and local buying procedures and use of IT system needs.
• Knowledge and experience of EU rules within the NHS context.

Education and Qualifications

Essential criteria

• A comprehensive understanding of the Procurement Act 2023 and other relevant UK public procurement legislation.
• CIPS Certified
• Educated to degree level or equivalent experience.

Other requirements

Essential criteria

• Commitment to learning and self development
• Strong identity with the core values of the public service and the NHS
• Ability to deal with pressurised situations in terms of peak work-load periods
• IT Literate with working knowledge of key MS packages

Skills and Abilities

Essential criteria

• Capable of undertaking analytical tasks and manipulation of spreadsheets
• Good and effective interpersonal and communication skills to enable effective team working
• Team player with the ability to contribute effectively at junior management level.
• Capable of demonstrating negotiation skills

SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN AND ADULTS

To comply with the Trust's Safeguarding Children and Adults policies, procedures and protocols. All individual members of staff (paid or unpaid) have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults This will require you to:

• Ensure you are familiar with and comply with the London Child Protection Procedures and protocols for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children and young people.

• Ensure you are familiar and comply with the London Multi Agency Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Pan London Procedures.

• Ensure you are familiar and comply with local protocols and systems for information sharing.
• Know the appropriate contact numbers and required reporting lines.
• Participate in required training and supervision.
• Comply with required professional boundaries and codes of conduct

Whittington Health is committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Your application form -

1. Provide only business email address for your referees - we are unable to request references from yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail accounts.
2. Make sure you to include all evidence of where you meet the essential requirement on the jobs description as this forms the base of our shortlisting criteria.

Our processes -

1. Closing dates are given as a guide; we are within our right to close adverts early so please ensure you submit your application as soon as possible to avoid delay.
2. If you do not hear from us up to 3 weeks after the closing date of the job unfortunately this means you have not been successfully shortlisted for interview. If your require feedback on your application please contact the appointing manager detailed in the body of the advert.
3. Please check your emails regularly as all correspondence from us will be via trac.systems - occasionally these emails will go into your Junk folder.
4. Employment at Whittington Health is offered subject to successful completion of a 6 month probationary period for all staff with the exception of GMC Registered Doctors.

Other important information -

• Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. Before submitting your application and to avoid disappointment please check that you are eligible under the UKVI points based system.
• Applications are welcome from people wishing to job share or work flexible patterns. We are committed to equal opportunities.
• In submitting an application form, you authorise Whittington Health NHS Trust to confirm any previous NHS service details via the Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process should you be appointed to the post.

If you are offered a role with one of the NLPSS partner trusts, as part of pre-employment checks your identity and right to work documentation will be verified remotely (in most circumstances), using a certified identity verification service provider TrustID. You will be asked to capture an image of the relevant documents as well as a "selfie" using your smartphone/tablet (if available) for facial matching. TrustID will also perform a digital address check using Trunarrative and Equifax, which is a soft check and does not leave a footprint on your credit rating. For more information, visit www.trustid.co.uk

Please note that during the recruitment process your Identity Documentation (i.e. passport, driving licence, visa, etc.) will be scanned using a device which recognises UV, Infrared and Machine Readable Zone security features of the documents provided

The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.

We would welcome applications from individuals who are from underrepresented groups in the organisation

For further support on submitting an application please refer to the NLPSS Applicant Toolkit: https://royalfree.pagetiger.com/cuuomnr/1

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Application numbers

This vacancy may close early if it receives a high number of applications. Please complete and submit your application in good time to avoid disappointment.
Documents to download

• Category Manager (PDF, 208.4KB)
• Whittington Probationary Policy (PDF, 298.0KB)
• Whittington Employment Promise (PDF, 22.4KB)