Pandemic Preparedness and Commercial Response Lead

UK Health Security Agency

Hybrid

Expires: Expiring in less than 2 weeks

Procurement

Flexible

£56,185 - £70,566 per year

Job summary

The successful applicant will work collaboratively with colleagues across government, throughout the organisation and the Directorate’s SLT to coordinate,shape, develop and manage projects and workstreams to develop and/or deliver the Commercial Response Plan and successfully procure new, and extend existing capability.

They will be a self-starter willing to take initiative and ownership of delivery challenging and nuanced outcomes assessing the priority and practicalities of gaps in our ability to respond and devising solutions working across government and UKHSA and with guidance and support from their line manager and the Directorate’s SLT.

They will have excellent interpersonal skills, equipping them to consult and negotiate effectively with colleagues in the Directorate and stakeholders across UKHSA and beyond, both within government and beyond to agree common ground on workstreams and their delivery.
They will be adaptable and capable of overcoming challenges and finding solutions where initial expectations or plans are thwarted and ensuring that success is achieved wherever possible.

Working for your organisation

We pride ourselves as being an employer of choice, where Everyone Matters promoting equality of opportunity to actively encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce.

UKHSA ethos is to be an inclusive organisation for all our staff and stakeholders. To create, nurture and sustain an inclusive culture, where differences drive innovative solutions to meet the needs of our workforce and wider communities. We do this through celebrating and protecting differences by removing barriers and promoting equity and equality of opportunity for all.

Job description

They will have an in-depth understanding of commercial processes and procedures and an understanding of the implementation in practice of commercial activity to lead a team of staff in procurement and also ensure that the Response Plan is operable and practicable when necessary. This will include facilitating periodic testing of the plan with UKHSA personnel among other activities.

They will hit the ground running in a virtual high performing team to set direction and support staff well-being and development. This will include providing mutual support and guidance to colleagues in your team, Directorate, Group and the Agency on our Commercial Response Plan, Pandemic Preparedness, Emergency Planning and Rapid Response and other Health Hazards and Threats.

Leading and coordinating the procurement of goods and services in support of enhancing UKHSA’s repertoire of capabilities across a team of both line managed and task managed staff in line legislation, policy and best practice. This will include engagement with stakeholders across all grades and functions within UKHSA, refining and setting specifications, leading and coordinating the development of approvals documents, developing tender documentation, evaluation methodologies and tender evaluation and moderation activity as well as any further supporting activities
Leading and coordinating the contract management of goods and services across the suite of capabilities for pandemic preparedness ensuring suppliers are held to account and value for money is secured throughout the contract lifecycle. This will include building strong and robust relationships with key suppliers where appropriate to support pandemic preparedness planning
Leading the development and progression of the Commercial Response Plan through a variety of cross-cutting strategic projects, developing innovative and user-friendly approaches, considering stakeholder views, budget and resource realities, and key risks and drawing on commercial acumen, project management experience and methodology as appropriate.
Working collaboratively with colleagues and leaders to coordinate contributions to UKHSA’s Commercial Response Plan and wider Pandemic Preparedness Strategy and Response Plans, along with other health hazards, shaping and developing proposals that expedite the delivery of plans
Consulting and negotiating with colleagues in the Directorate and stakeholders across UKHSA and beyond to agree activities and collaborative projects where required.
Effectively engaging and securing support from clinical, scientific, analytical, policy, legal, delivery and other colleagues to define capability gaps and develop solutions
Working in a virtual high performing team to set direction and support staff well-being and development
Acting as the commercial lead/focal point for Incident Management Teams as required providing input and guidance from a commercial perspective when necessary. This will also include supporting and leadership for any commercial cell that may be created for a severe incident
Coordinating and managing a broad breadth of workstreams to ensure that UKHSA Commercial can respond, supporting other functions in the event of a health emergency and ensuring key priorities such as social value and health equity are accounted for in UKHSA’s commercial response planning where appropriate
Working with colleagues in training and development and other functions building out training materials and courseware for procurement in a crisis seeking to ensure that best practice is implemented alongside building knowledge and awareness across the commercial function and beyond on how to procure in a crisis
Developing and facilitating regular testing of the Commercial Response through exercises to ensure that personnel understand their roles and remits and can respond effectively in an emergency
Working with the Enablement, Strategy and Partnership teams and wider government colleagues to identify, develop and build key relationships with suppliers and other third parties which we may require support from when delivering UKHSA’s contribution to a national emergency
Working within the agency and beyond to refine governance processes to support responses during health emergencies are proportionate and well understood to enable a rapid and smooth implementation of response capabilities as required.
Acting as an intelligent customer on behalf of UKHSA building relationships with organisations such as Crown Commercial Services and NHSSC to ensure that the needs of UKHSA are represented in Frameworks and Dynamic Markets as required to support routes to market.

This list of duties is not exhaustive

Person specification

Essential Criteria

In-depth knowledge/expertise of commercial concepts and practice across sourcing, contract management and supplier management.
Significant experience of strategy and/or policy work, though not necessarily in the health sector or commercial.
Significant experience of delivering high-quality communications products, including briefs, presentations, submissions and policy papers.
Excellent project management skills and able to work on a variety of projects and tasks concurrently without losing focus, missing essential deadlines, or
compromising quality.
Highly adaptable and significant experience of overcoming challenges that arise during delivery.
Excellent interpersonal skills.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to convey critical information clearly and calmly.

Desirable role criteria:

Experience in delivering change and transformation initiatives, in either a project or operational environment, or ideally a blend of both.
Experience of crisis management emergency response, or business continuity planning.
Experience developing and delivering crisis simulations, training programs, and after-action reviews

Please visit our careers site for more information https://gov.uk/ukhsa/careers

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £56,185, UK Health Security Agency contributes £16,276 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Learning and development tailored to your role
An environment with flexible working options
A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Stage 1: Application & Sift

Success profiles Success Profiles - GOV.UK

You will be required to complete an application form. You will be assessed on the listed 7 essential criteria, and this will be in the form of a:

Application form (‘Employer/ Activity history’ section on the application)

750 word supporting statement.

This should outline how you consider your skills, experience and knowledge provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential criteria.

You will receive a joint score for your application form and statement. (The application form is the kind of information you would put into your C.V –please be advised you will not be able to upload your CV. Please complete the application form in as much detail as possible). Please do not email us your CV.

Healthjobs UK has a word limit of 1500, but your supporting statement must be no more than 750 words. We will not consider any words over 750 words.

Longlisting:
In the event of a large number of applications we will longlist into 3 piles of:

Meets all essential criteria
Meets some essential criteria
Meets no essential criteria

The pile(s) ‘Meets all essential criteria’ and ‘Meets some essential criteria’ will proceed to shortlisting

Shortlisting: In the event of a large number of applications we may conduct an initial sift, on the lead criteria of

In-depth knowledge/expertise of commercial concepts and practice across sourcing, contract management and supplier management
Significant experience of strategy and/or policy work, though not necessarily in the health sector or commercial

Desirable criteria may be used in the event of a large number of applications/large amount of successful candidates.

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to interview.

Feedback will not be provided at this stage.

Stage 2: Interview

Success profiles Success Profiles - GOV.UK

You will be invited to a single remote interview

Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills will be tested at interview

The Behaviours tested during the interview stage will be

Seeing the Big Picture (Lead Behaviour)
Changing and Improving
Making Effective Decisions
Communication and Influencing
Delivering at Pace

Interviews dates to be confirmed. Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Reasonable Adjustments

The Civil Service is committed to making sure that our selection methods are fair to everyone. To help you during the recruitment process, we will consider any
reasonable adjustments that could help you. An adjustment is a change to the recruitment process or an adjustment at work. This is separate to the Disability
Confident Scheme. If you need an adjustment to be made at any point during the recruitment process you should contact the recruitment team in confidence as soon
as possible to discuss your needs. You can find out more information about reasonable adjustments across the Civil Service here: https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/reasonable-adjustments/

Location

This role is being offered as hybrid working based at any of our Core HQs. We offer great flexible working opportunities at UKHSA and operate using a hybrid working model where business needs allow. This provides us with greater flexibility about how and where we work, to get the best from our workforce. As a hybrid worker, you will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of your contractual working hours (approximately 3 days a week pro rata, (averaged over a month) working at one of
UKHSA's core HQs (Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, and London)

Our core HQ offices are modern and newly refurbished with excellent city centre transport links and benefit from co-location with other government departments such as the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC).

Security Clearance Level Requirement
Successful candidates must pass a standard disclosure and barring security check before they can be appointed.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Counter-Terrorist Check

International Police check

If you have spent more than 6 months abroad over the last 3 years you may need an International Police Check. This would not necessarily have to be in a single block, and it could be time accrued over that period.

Internal Fraud Check

This does not need to be included on EOI adverts.If successful for this role as one aspect of pre-employment screening, applicant’s personal details – name, national insurance number and date of birth - will be checked against the Cabinet Office Internal Fraud Hub, and anyone included on the
database will be refused employment unless they can show exceptional circumstances. Currently this is only for external candidates to the Civil Service

Salary Information

If you are successful at interview, and are moving from another government department, NHS, or Local Authority, the relevant starting salary principles for level transfers or promotions will apply. Otherwise, roles are offered at the pay scale minimum for the grade, but in exceptional circumstances there may be flexibility if you are able to demonstrate you are already in receipt of an existing, higher salary.
Pay increases are through the relevant annual pay award for the role and terms.
Please be aware that the salary is based on the office location

Grade 7
• £56,185- £66,581 (National)
• £60,494- £70,566 (Inner London)

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) group, where this role sits, is undergoing organisational change over the next 12–18 months. While the process is still in the planning stage, some roles may be affected by future restructuring. We are committed to keeping candidates informed and will share updates as they become available

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

UK nationals
nationals of the Republic of Ireland
nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

Name : Chris Williams
Email : chris.williams2@ukhsa.gov.uk

Recruitment team

Email : Recruitment@ukhsa.gov.uk

Further information

The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact the UKHSA Complaints team via email at: Complaints@ukhsa.gov.uk If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission. Visit the Civil Service Commission website for further information: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk