Trust Matters: Our host trust
Our relationships with our customers and the trust that we build with them is vital to the service we deliver. They trust our category expertise to deliver the best solution for their organisation, our knowledge that we share to help them make the right decision, and our systems and processes that ensure what we deliver is robust and compliant.
NOE CPC is hosted by Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT). Our Managing Director Keith Rowley explained how NOE CPC was created. He said: “NOE CPC was established in 2006 as a Regional Collaborative Procurement Hub as part of the Yorkshire and Humber Strategic Health Authority (SHA). When the SHA was disbanded in 2010/2011, NOE CPC was transferred to become a department of LYPFT.”
Our close ties with colleagues in our host trust gives us a unique insight and perspective on the needs of the NHS. All staff at NOE CPC are NHS employees of LYPFT and we work to the same values of our trust colleagues.
Keith added: “We are not for profit and focused on the greater good for the NHS. Any surplus we make is either returned to the NHS through our rebate to members, or retained by LYPFT to offset the risks and liabilities they take, so our members do not need to carry this risk as they had to previously when we were part of the SHA.”
The relationship with LYPFT and our team being employees of the NHS has helped us to develop our offering to customers. As NHS staff we are focused on doing the right thing for our customers. Our values of Integrity, Simplicity and Caring are the same as those of our host trust, which helps us understand, appreciate, and align with the priorities and focus of our members and NHS customers.
As well as providing procurement support to our members and customers, we also provide support to our host trust procurement colleagues. We also assist service users of the trust through our involvement on the Council of Governors. Our Technical Director Ian Andrews sits as a staff non-clinical governor and uses his appointment to represent the perspective of non-clinical trust staff and to raise the profile of the non-clinical support and administration functions across the trust.
NOE CPC has evolved significantly in line with the NHS Procurement and Supply Chain landscape. We have built trust and partnerships with other NHS and public sector organisations, by building on our integrity, expertise, and transparency.
Our Procurement Director Stephen Sercombe said: “Over the years we have evolved to respond to significant changes in the commissioning landscape from PCTs, to CSUs and CCGs, and more recently the formation of ICB’s and whilst we continue to support them, we do find the majority of our members are NHS provider focused, where we provide considerable support both individual trusts and ICS groups. We have also evolved to increasingly focus and specialise on non-clinical categories as we have sort not to duplicate with NHS Supply Chain and align with the services we provide within this model.”
“We have sought to build partnerships for the greater good of the NHS and wider public sector, such as NHS Workforce Alliance and our relationships with the other three NHS procurement hubs.”
With an ever-changing NHS landscape and with more changes to public procurement law on the horizon, one factor that will remain constant is our commitment to deliver the best service to our members and customers and continue to make NOE CPC the organisation of choice for the NHS.