The NOE CPC Engine Room: An Overview of the Finance and Business Services 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 Finance and Business Services team, who play a crucial role in the processes and systems that keep the wheels turning at NOE CPC.
Kevin Chidlow, Strategy and Service Delivery Director, talks about the often unsung work of the team, from recording framework usage to maintaining our office building.
“Our Finance and Business Services team is the engine room of our organisation, and their work underpins everything we deliver. It can often go unnoticed, but they carry out essential activity that keeps our organisation running smoothly.
“The team plays a crucial role in recording usage of our frameworks. If framework usage isn’t captured, we can’t measure savings accurately, and our understanding of how frameworks are performing is incomplete. Our customers can play an important role in this; it’s essential that they reference our frameworks correctly. It’s not just a tick box exercise, it ensures that the NHS gets full value from the commercial routes we’ve built.
“The Business Services team is instrumental in recording activity-based income (ABI). This is generated through spend that flows across our frameworks and, ultimately, it’s what keeps the organisation financially viable.
“The team manages the systems and processes that sit behind this — particularly the MIO system, which helps us capture supplier returns, track spend and ensure we recover the income owed to us. This isn’t just about balancing our books. ABI also enables us to provide rebates to our members, meaning accurate, timely data has a direct financial benefit for the NHS.
“Another crucial part of the team’s remit is financial viability assessments. We’ve always assessed suppliers at tender stage, but frameworks last several years, and we’ve all seen how quickly markets can shift. So, we’ve strengthened our approach to ongoing monitoring.
“We now have a more sophisticated methodology for maintaining financial oversight throughout a framework’s life. It provides early warnings and reassurance to customers that the suppliers we award to remain commercially stable and capable.
“This isn’t glamorous work, but it is an increasingly important assurance mechanism, especially in a volatile economic environment.
“Beyond finance, the team supports several organisational processes that are vital to the continuing function of NOE CPC. Business continuity planning, disaster recovery, audit activity and reporting across the organisation are all areas where they play a central role.
“These are not always visible tasks, but without them, we would simply not function as a compliant, safe or trusted organisation.
“The team is also responsible for maintaining the office environment; from routine maintenance and cleaning to PAT testing, the team works hard to keep things moving and ensures that our team has an office building to operate from safely and effectively.
“It’s a relatively small team, yet they support an organisation of well over 100 colleagues — plus customers, suppliers and partners across the NHS and wider public sector. Their work often happens in the background, and they’re pulled in many directions at once, but they remain committed, steady and solutions‑focused.”