Senior Procurement Specialist

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Joining #TeamNELFT means you'll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We're CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for three consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.

Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video

Job overview

We are looking for a Senior Procurement Specialist to manage defined expenditure categories and run procurement processes to deliver a portfolio of contracts. The successful candidate will support the Procurement Business Partner to manage strategic and operational procurement activities to deliver against business objectives and associated deadlines.

The Senior Procurement Specialist will also deputise in the absence of the Procurement Business Partner. They will provide specific procurement category support and advice to the shared service. They will liaise with business leads within the Trusts to ensure compliance across the spend portfolio.

The successful candidate will support the delivery of an efficient and effective procurement and contracting service to meet customer requirements and ensure best value for all aspects of the Trusts' business. They will promote this service to all users and support the shared service to achieve and maintain NHS Procurement & Commercial Standards
accreditation by leading on a key area of strategic delivery.

The successful candidate must prove evidence of PSR, PCR 2015 and knowledge of the Procurement Act 2023 in a working environment.

Must have the Diploma in Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS Level 4),or equivalent relevant experience.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will support on the implementation and delivery of the Procurement Strategy across the Trusts' and will achieve this by:

1. Taking responsibility and working autonomously for the procurement of defined Categories of Expenditure by delivering a portfolio of contracts

2. Supporting the Procurement Business Partner as directed (and deputising in their absence), in the management of procurement and operational activities associated with delivery against business objectives and timescales.

3. Is the lead specialist for specific procurement categories and advice to the procurement team and liaises with business leads within the Trust to ensure compliance in the use of agreed standardised products, and that the range of items within catalogues is rationalised to an optimum level.

4. To support the delivery of an efficient and effective procurement and contracting service to meet customer requirements ensuring the best value for all aspects of the Trusts' business and to promote this service to all users.

To support with achieving and maintaining the Commercial Continuous Improvement Assessment Framework by leading on a key area of strategic delivery.

Working for our organisation

Our Values 2025 - 2030

Working with our colleagues, patients and carers we have co-produced three new values that we aim to embed within our culture here at NELFT.

They are:

• We are kind.
• We are respectful.
• We work together with our communities.

These three values help us to strive to provide the best care by the best people.

Probationary Period

This post will be subject to a probationary period.

Starting with Us

NELFT places great importance on new starters being properly welcomed into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks, including mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process, new starters will also have the opportunity to meet the executive team, senior managers, and attend several drop-in sessions focusing on engagement, health and wellbeing, and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.

High Cost Area Supplement - Outer London

This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (minimum payment of £4,714 and a maximum payment of £5,941 - per annum, pro rata for part time.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The successful candidate will support the Procurement Business Partner to manage strategic and operational procurement activities to deliver against business objectives and associated deadlines.

The Senior Procurement Specialist will also deputise in the absence of the Procurement Business Partner. They will provide specific procurement category support and advice to the shared service. They will liaise with business leads within the Trusts to ensure compliance across the spend portfolio.

The successful candidate will support the delivery of an efficient and effective procurement and contracting service to meet customer requirements and ensure best value for all aspects of the Trusts' business. They will promote this service to all users and support the shared service to achieve and maintain NHS Procurement & Commercial Standards accreditation by leading on a key area of strategic delivery.

Please see the attached job description and person specification for more information about this role and working at North East London NHS Foundation Trust. We encourage you to refer to this when completing your application.

We welcome your application even if you do not meet all the criteria listed in the person specification. Please apply as soon as
possible as some posts close early to limit the number of applications.

Certificates of Sponsorship
Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for all job roles. Please check your eligibility under the UKVI points-based system. When calculating the basic salary for sponsorship, HCAS (High-Cost Area Supplement) is not included to ensure fairness and consistency within our Trust.

Use of AI
Please see attached document regarding acceptable use of AI during the recruitment process.

Person specification

Technical

Essential criteria

• Procurement, tendering and contract management experience, competitive tenders/quotations
• Negotiating with suppliers and stakeholders across an organisation and a track record of achieving cost reductions and cost avoidance
• Experience of e - tendering portal administration
• Must have the Diploma in Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS Level 4),or equivalent relevant experience.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of leading projects within multidisciplinary teams to deliver significant change
• Working knowledge of NHS and the issues facing procurement teams

Skills

Essential criteria

• Perform as a good team player and demonstrate interactive working with financial managers
• Proactively manage stakeholder requests in a timely manner, and manage expectations

Desirable criteria

• Stakeholder analysis, engagement and management
• Understanding of NHS procurement

Benefits

We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:

• A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
• A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our effortsto support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a 'Top 10 Family Friendly Employer' from the Working Families Charity.
• Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
• Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that's a job share, part time hours or another flexible pattern.

Supporting our Armed Forces

We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community make to our organisation. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and achieved Gold Award under the Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme. We have supportive policies, guaranteed interview schemes for veterans. reservists and military spouses and give additional leave to our Reservists so that they can attend their annual camp.

Equal opportunities employer

We are committed to equal opportunities and diversity and positively encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of any protected characteristic.

We are a Disability Confident employer and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with disabilities. If you require this application in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape please contact the recruitment team on 0300 300 1530 or email recruitment@nelft.nhs.uk.

Correspondence with us

You are advised to regularly check your emails (including any junk mail/spam folders) for correspondence related to this post.

As part of our recruitment process, we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS. We also use third party providers to check and verify your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Documents to download

• Senior Procurement Specialist (PDF, 451.6KB)
• Candidate Recruitment Pack (PDF, 671.2KB)
• Acceptable Use of AI in Recruitment (PDF, 3.9MB)