February #TeamTalk: Joanne Barton on our evolving HR & People team
Welcome to the latest update in our #TeamTalk series, where we put a spotlight on the teams that make up NOE CPC.
This month we’re focusing on our HR & People team, who provide a range of frameworks covering all aspects of workforce services, such as insourcing, occupational health, staff bank services, clinical and non-clinical agency staff, and workforce technology systems.
Joanne Barton, Associate Director of Procurement, talks about her role leading the HR & People team and how that dovetails with her role leading our Healthcare Services & Pharmacy team as well as her roles outside of NOE CPC.
I have led our fantastic HR & People team for a number of years now, providing flexible and tailored support to NHS trusts through our range of frameworks and services. Much of our work is delivered as part of the NHS Workforce Alliance, the largest public procurement partnership in the country, of which we have been a partner since its establishment in 2019.
We have a strong base of customers, with whom we engage on a regular basis to discuss workforce issues and industry challenges. I’m looking forward to meeting many of you at our upcoming workshops in Sheffield and Newcastle. If you haven’t yet signed up, I would encourage you to do so. We have two agendas packed with useful updates, guest speakers and roundtable discussions aimed at helping you manage your temporary staffing spend more effectively.
The HR & People team are closely involved in our Insourced Services framework, and we will soon be launching a new iteration of the agreement. Insourcing enables trusts to contract with a supplier to provide clinical services, utilising spare, out-of-hours capacity, and our agreement has been used by many customers to help clear a backlog. We have been engaging with our stakeholders closely throughout the establishment of this new agreement and will continue to do so.
I now also lead our Healthcare Services & Pharmacy category, as part of the Associate Director of Procurement role I took on ten months ago. In that time we have established a strong team that I believe will add a lot of value to our offering.
We are working hard to reach new customers via two upcoming frameworks. Our Public Health Related Services framework will cover a broad range of services such as weight management, smoking cessation, child and adolescent health, and wellbeing. We know that these services can be commissioned by local authorities as well as NHS organisations or ICBs. We are also looking forward to launching our Supplementary Healthcare agreement, which will provide customers with a framework to procure external partners to deliver additional clinical capacity utlising off site premises. We believe this agreement has huge potential value across its lifespan.
It has been important for me to involve as many colleagues as possible across both teams, whether that’s procurement operations, customer and supplier relationship managers, marketing and communications, or data services. They all have a part to play as we look to support our customers and grow our offering, not just through frameworks but other services too.
There has been a lot of change in the public procurement landscape in the last two years, with the introduction of the Procurement Act and the Provider Selection Regime. This has thrown up various challenges but both teams have been well-placed to deal with them and to support any customers facing similar challenges.
I’m looking forward to connecting with colleagues across the procurement industry this year, through my role at NOE CPC and my roles with the HCSA. I am proud to represent the North West on the HCSA National Council, and as deputy Chair of the Women’s Network, which will holding their annual conference on 30th September at the Raddison Blu, Manchester Airport.