Senior Category Buyer

SENIOR CATEGORY BUYER

 Principal Responsibility

To lead on the South West Police Procurement Service (SWPPS) approach to managing and delivering successful regional procurement in identified key sub-categories, especially the complex / high value procurements within the Commissioned Services of the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioners (OPCCs) which will involve the full engagement of key Commissioning stakeholders (including Senior Commissioning leads, Partner Organisations, operational and technical experts and Senior Executives in each of the forces, OPCCs and potentially Co-Commissioning partners of the Five Regional Force areas) and building effective and productive relationships with specific suppliers, as well as leading a procurement team.  The role will focus on four key areas of activity:

SWPPD Development and Management

• Actively engage regional Commissioners to deliver effective sourcing strategies for Commissioned services
• Actively engage regional and national groups for specific categories of spend
• Manage one or more Category Buyers
• Develop individuals and teams to enhance performance

 Category Strategy

• Understand key supply market drivers, market conditions and trends for their category areas with particular knowledge of the VCSE and Commissioned Services markets
• Understand how to access supplier data and information. Understand the analysis process and how to apply it to new situations
• Understand available internal and external data, complete spend analysis and provide insight
• Understand potential changes to the future requirements for their category areas
• Understand the potential impact of differing Commissioning strategies and Commissioning Intentions across the region
• Support the process to generate robust category strategies with the correct level of analytical rigour
• Engage with the senior stakeholder community and help gain buy-in for recommendations
• Ensure the strategy delivers ‘best value’ based on a combination of quality of product, service and cost, and that the strategic sourcing process is applied consistently and appropriately
• Understand the requirements, the differences and specific pressures that come with Grant Funded Commissioning as opposed to Standard public sector procurement
• Achieve Procurement savings

 Category Sourcing

• Lead on complex and high value / high risk procurements
• Select appropriate procurement route and assessment criteria
• Quality assure advertisements for the letting of contracts, particularly for publication in the Official Journal of the European Union
• Quality assure tender documents
• Develop user specifications with key stakeholders
• Ensure that all procurement contracts and awards comply with standing orders and financial regulations, central government directives, and all relevant national and European legislation
• Manage the implementation of multiple new contracts across the region
• Utilise e-procurement tools

 Category Management

• Develop and implement appropriate tools and criteria to objectively measure supplier performance in terms of cost, risk, stakeholder satisfaction, supplier performance and continuous improvement
• Manage and develop operational relationships with key suppliers to maximise value to the business

 It would be beneficial for the candidate to be able to demonstrate: 

• A proven capability track record of procuring Commissioned services for the Public sector.
• Knowledge and experience of procuring Victim and Offender related Outcome based services
• Good working Knowledge of how Grant funding works, working with and procuring from, the Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise markets
• Experience of Co-Commissioning services with other Public bodies (e.g. NHSE&I, Local Authorities, The Probation Services, Public Health England, Ministry of Justice etc)
• Experience of delivering procurement projects that are innovative and outcome focussed. 

For further information please see the attached role profile.