National team in £600k senior management recruitment drive
NHS England’s commercial directorate is bringing in six new directors and senior managers with a combined salary package of at least £600,000 to help it deliver £1.5bn in savings over the next five years.
The job adverts were issued in early November, and come amid an NHSE restructure that is set to reduce its headcount by around 35 per cent before the start of the next financial year.
The advertised posts include one for a director of the Central Commercial Function, a new team set up within the NHSE commercial directorate in June last year “to unify the NHS commercial community”.
The new CCF director will report directly to Jacqui Rock, NHSE’s chief commercial officer, and “lead the delivery of further NHS system-wide commercial efficiencies with ambitious plans of at least £1.5bn savings over the next five years”.
In addition, NHSE is looking for a director for commercial best practice and engagement. They will lead the team which will be “the central engagement point with the [integrated care system] procurement leads and heads of procurement”.
Procurement teams across trusts and health systems have been forming into ICS-based procurement entities in pursuit of NHSE’s long-promulgated desire to aggregate trust-purchasing functions at system level.
The CCF director post is listed at the ESM2 grade, and therefore commands a salary ranging from £131,301 to £146,450, while the director of commercial best practice and engagement is an ESM1 role, with a salary ranging from £100,000 to £113,625.
The commercial directorate is also looking for two associate directors of commercial – both band 9s with a salary of £99,891.
They “will have accountability and responsibility for the vision, strategic direction and operational development of the key functions of the Commercial Directorate”.
Finally, NHSE is hiring a head of commercial – partnering and solutions, and a head of contract management for the commercial directorate’s “commercial delivery, governance and insight” sub-division. Both are band 8d posts with a £83,571 salary.