Procurement

A dedicated team of Procurement professionals who work together using their professional expertise to apply techniques to support the University. Providing support, guidance and a consultative approach in line with current public sector legislations, they will help manage expenditure, lower risk and improve quality. Ultimately, Procurement will deliver value for money (VfM) on all categories of spend.

Our team provides strategic leadership and sourcing, policy and governance setting for major procurement activity whilst managing key strategic supplier relationships. 

Our overarching principles are;

• Best value shall be obtained for all works, goods and services.
• All procurements shall take place in an open and transparent manner.
• Fairness, with all potential and existing suppliers being treated equally.
• All activities will be compliant with UK legislation.
• Responsible Procurement, to include where possible, social, economic and environmental objectives in all strategic procurements. 

Performance can be measured in many ways and we are committed to measuring the performance of

1) Suppliers
2) Processes
3) Procurement team

Supplier performance for high value and/or critical suppliers to the University will be monitored through regular contract reviews. These will be undertaken in conjunction with Procurement and each relevant business area, with all contractual key performance indicators (KPI’s) and service level agreements (SLA’s) reviewed and monitored.

Processes such as tendering and templates used will be regularly reviewed and updated if necessary, to ensure we continue to demonstrate best practise and comply with legislative requirements.

Procurement Services will be measured on the value for money (Vfm) benefits realised, whether these are financial/budget savings, administrative efficiencies, innovation, sustainability or cost avoidance. A monthly dashboard will be available to observeand analyse past/current/future activity.

Procurement will work with internal stakeholders and external suppliers to forge strong relationships and working practises. We share best practise with other Higher Education institutions, with a view of potential collaboration and to improve efficiencies and performance.

We engage with other public/private sector organisations to continually raise standards, drive improvements and enhance ways of working.

Procurement will also work with existing Framework providers that have been set up to assist and execute tenders where pre-qualification has taken place and selected suppliers have had all due diligence checks completed.

Our team will proactively engage with stakeholders and through careful planning will identify goods, services and works to be procured using data from soft market analysis, spend and/or needs analysis.

Category plans will be developed in conjunction with the corporate strategy to meet the needs of each business area.

Procurement will create a pipeline of work, based on the existing contracts in place and engage with the business prior to any potential tendering work.