Corporate Procurement Officer

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Job Details

Fife Council is the third largest local authority in Scotland, with an annual third party spend in excess of £518 million and is responsible for delivering all local government services in the Kingdom. The Procurement function utilises a category management approach to managing its portfolio of around 300 contracts.

During 2020-2021, more than 250 Contracts, worth over £138 million, were awarded across all categories. In addition, we achieved savings and benefits totalling over £10m.

Fife Council is seeking to appoint a new Corporate Procurement Officer to join the Social Care Category within Procurement. The Corporate Procurement Officer role is a generic role within the Procurement Team. Whilst the current vacancy is within the Social Care Category Team, the postholder may undertake work within any category area.

The Social Care Category comprises 2 sub-categories, Adult and Older People Services and Children and Family Services. The Social Care Category Team procures on behalf of:

• Children & Families and Criminal Justice Service, Education & Children’s Services
• Adult Services and Older People’s Services, Health & Social Care,

We focus on the provision of care services and work with an annual influenceable spend of circa £168m, managing 17 Contracts across the two sub-categories, with an annual value of around £145m. In addition to this Contract portfolio, a compliance programme is currently underway involving Group Living services worth around £13m per annum.

This post is being filled at an exciting time, as the team navigate the changing policy landscape in social care whilst supporting our main client services to meet their aims and goals. Upcoming Contracts include frameworks for Care and Support at Home Services and Care Homes for Adults as well as a Youth Justice Service for Children and Young People and various other projects such as Contract Supplier Management and the development and delivery of new contracts.

The postholder will support the Category Manager to achieve the aims of the Category Strategy which is aligned with and designed to support the strategic plans of Fife Health & Social Care Partnership and Education & Children’s Services, and to complement the Procurement and Commercial Strategy, in the most effective way, whilst balancing the needs of the business with the costs to the organisation.

Over and above the category related activity, the postholder will undertake corporate activity to drive continuous improvement within the function. This adds variety to the role as well as ensuring consistent practices and processes are applied across the function.

The postholder will develop strategic partnerships with client services and providers as well as providing strong stakeholder engagement and management, and ensuring contracts are reflective of policy and best practice.

The Person

You will have:

• excellent verbal, written and presentation communication skills
• strong stakeholder engagement and management skills including influencing and negotiation
• excellent computer competency skills and the ability to use electronic tendering systems
• the ability to apply effective time management and organisational skills to manage workload
• relevant experience in a comparable organisation
• a formal procurement qualification (i.e. CIPS) or be willing to work towards this.

You will work with like-minded colleagues who get real satisfaction from supporting the delivery of essential public services and bringing social, economic and environmental benefits to Fife.

Due to current COVID restrictions you will be required to use digital platforms in all aspects of the job with working from home continuing to be the corporate message at this time. As restrictions are lifted, it is anticipated that the service will evolve towards a blended approach of remote and face to face engagement.

As well as a competitive salary, you will have access to all the benefits of working for a public sector organisation including a defined benefits pension scheme, generous holiday allowance, flexible working and a range of other initiatives which reflect our commitment to creating a positive work-life balance for all our employees.

We are currently shaping our future workstyles with homeworking continuing until September 2021. Beyond that we are working to introduce a blended approach that will include office access days each week with homeworking for the remainder of your working time.

For an informal discussion about this role please contact either Niki Hutchison at Niki.hutchison@fife.gov.uk or Lee Parry at Lee.Parry@fife.gov.uk.