Role: Senior Commercial & Contracts Manager
Business: Office of Public Guardian (OPG)
Location: National – Main OPG office locations are Birmingham, Nottingham and London or you will be based at your nearest MOJ Hub
Grade: Grade 7
Salary: The national salary range is £56,532- £64,048

London salary range is £61,201- £69,338

Your salary will be dependent on your base location

Contract Type: Permanent 
Minimum Hours: Full time

Organisational Overview

OPG is an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and was set up in 2007 following the introduction of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. We are a friendly and inclusive organisation that delivers vital public services with real impacts on the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in society. We work closely with the Court of Protection, the legal profession, social services and charities. Our staff are mostly based in Birmingham and Nottingham.

The Public Guardian, supported by OPG, discharges a range of statutory functions under the Mental Capacity Act – principally maintaining registers of Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA), Enduring Powers of Attorney (EPA) and of orders appointing deputies and guardians; supervising deputies, and dealing with representations about the way in which attorneys and deputies are exercising their powers.  The OPG registers approximately 900,000 LPAs and EPAs and supervises around 60,000 deputies per year. 

Following a consultation in 2021 by the Ministry of Justice, ministers have now set out plans to transform the LPA system – making it quicker to use, easier to access and even more secure from fraud.   Under the proposals, people will be able to make an LPA completely online for the first time – bringing it in line with other government services such as applying for a divorce. The current paper-based system will continue to operate meaning people can choose an accessible process that’s best for their specific needs.

Through this and other reforms, the way OPG provides services will change to help us meet the growing needs of our users, partners and our stakeholders.  It will make sure our users experience a better level of support and it will help us to respond to the changing needs of society. These reforms will enable us to create high-quality services that are accessible and affordable for all.

Team Overview

This is an exciting time at the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), as we transform how we deliver our statutory services and ensure that we are fit for the future. As a senior commercial and contract manager, you will be a critical member of staff within the Strategy & Central Services Directorate, leading procurement activities and co-ordinating contract management processes across OPG.

It’s likely that candidates with full commercial lifecycle experience will be suitable for this position. There will be a joint commercial focus, with a need to manage existing contracts whilst also playing a key role in the re-procurement of relevant goods and services.

Duties and Responsibilities 

Job Duties and Responsibilities

Effective stakeholder engagement and management – proactively developing influential and collaborative relationships with your stakeholders to ensure that commercial objectives and best practice are fully understood and embedded within the operational strategy and plans.Procurement – Setting commercial strategy, demonstrating best practice, ensuring commercial processes are understood by stakeholders, executing commercial deliverables and taking responsibility for the success of the commercial aspects of the overall project. This will involve both direct responsibility for a small number of procurement projects as well as working as part of a team when procurements are delivered by MoJ CCMD.Developing and implementing market facing category strategies – building on a clear understanding of historical and forecast spend and future technical strategies to ensure that there is an effective route to market, and that products and services required to deliver our portfolio can be delivered.Supplier Management – building effective relationships with current and future suppliers. Enabling the market to better understand our requirements and ensuring that we nurture healthy, mutually beneficial relationships that deliver the right solutions at competitive prices. Responsibility for ensuring that suppliers are effectively engaged prior to any commercial activity, during the process and throughout the life of the resulting agreement and securing effective delivery of agreed services.Contract Management – Helping to embed and co-ordinate contract management practices across OPG. Managing large, long-term contracts, ensuring that value and quality is delivered over their entire term and that exit/recompete/extension actions are proactively planned and executed.Cost-saving initiatives – providing a real focus across the portfolio; identifying opportunities to increase the overall value delivered to the MoJ through third party engagements.Risk analysis – managing commercial risk and providing mitigating actions, ensuring assurance on decisions made. Proactively anticipating potential commercial risks on projects and contracts and acting as the expert and commercial advisor to delivery teams, to help ensure effective mitigations are put in place.Line management – acting as a positive and proactive role model for your team. Leadership and development of a small team of commercial professionals with a key focus on promoting well-being, plus on learning and development opportunities. Manage the team, promoting flexibility on tasks and responsibilities as workloads within the team change.Compliance – Ensuring compliance with governance, legislative and policy requirements as appropriate.

Agreed Expectations

The successful candidate will be expected to work from their base location on a weekly basis in line with current Civil Service requirements, outside of any reasonable adjustments.

In addition, there is likely to be regular travel to OPG sites where the majority of the team are based in Birmingham and Nottingham.

Skills & Qualifications

Experience

The post holder must be keen to learn and able to demonstrate experience in the following areas:

Essential:

A proven track-record delivering sourcing and/or contract management in a high value/ complex commercial environment.Strong business acumen and ability to show evidence-based decision making.Excellent stakeholder management skills and building strong interpersonal relationships with stakeholders at all levels.Contract management- evidence of managing varied contract and thre ability to lead supplier performance issues and disputes.Excellent written and oral communication skills. With the ability to breakdown complex information.Awareness of public sector procurement legislation.

Qualifications

The following qualifications/skills are essential to the role and proof will be required at interview:

CIPS/MCIPS or relevant commercial experience/accreditation.

Desirable

Has completed or is working towards CMCP (the Governments Contract Management Capability Programme) Foundation accreditation. CMCP (the Governments Contract Management Capability Programme) Practitioner or Expert'.

Please ensure the dates of any accreditations you are relying on, are entered on to the CV. Should you progress to the assessment stage of the process, you will be required to provide a copy of the original certificate. Failure to provide evidence at interview may result in your application not progressing to the next stage.

Application process

This recruitment will follow the Civil Service Success Profile process. Candidates will be expected to provide a CV and Personal Statement of Suitability of no more than 1000 words in support of your application based on essential and desirable skills.  

Interview Process

If you are successful at sift, you will be invited to an interview which will use the Civil Service Success Profiles. At interview, candidates should expect questions on:

Strengths relevant to the role

The following Behaviours at Level 4:

LeadershipMaking Effective DecisionsSeeing the Big PictureChanging and Improving

All interviews will be held remotely via MS Teams.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview.

Reasonable Adjustments

At OPG we consider all applications on the basis of merit and want you to feel able to demonstrate your full potential whatever type of assessment is used. If you require any reasonable adjustments for any aspect of the selection process, do not hesitate to get in contact with us.

As a Disability Confident organisation, we will offer a guaranteed interview to candidates with a disability who meet the essential criteria for this role. If you are applying for a role within OPG and would like to be considered under the Disability Confident Scheme, please indicate this in your application and let us know of any reasonable adjustments you may require during the selection process.

For further information on benefits of working for OPG, such as our Flexible Working Policy and a FAQ, please check the candidate information pack attached to this advert.

If your application for this role is unsuccessful, we may offer you an alternative role at the same or lower grade should one be available.