NHS ENGLAND ery sector or industry has es that we as commercial ment professionals need to know how to handle ”
JACQUI ROCK CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER ,
NHS ENGLAND
NHS England ' s Sustainability Roadmap In October 2020 , the National Health Service published a report called the Greener NHS Report , which announced that the NHS will be net-zero by 2040 and , for its carbon footprint plus , by 2045 .
Over 60 % of the total NHS Carbon Footprint sits within its supply chain and these include emissions from freight , the manufacturing of goods , catering , business services and construction .
“ Our net-zero procurement plans are aligned with government policy ,” says Rock . “ From April 23rd , the NHS will adopt the government ’ s ‘ Taking Account of Carbon Reduction ’ plans PPN , which will require all suppliers of contracts valued over £ 5mn to publish a carbon reduction plan for their direct missions .
“ We have also adopted the government social value model , which ensures that a minimum of 10 % waiting on net zero and social value , is included in all tenders ; The NHS Central Commercial Function team have been producing detailed guidance to support trusts with this .
“ It ' s a new area for many of the trusts and certainly many of our suppliers , so we ' ve been ensuring we can deliver that support right the way through this process .”
The Mission : Collaboration , Communication and Partnership The reason that Rock set up the NHS Central Commercial Function was to take a good hard look at how they buy across the NHS , so that taxpayer money is being spent in the most efficient way . Their commercial spend is in excess of £ 30bn per year . It ' s the largest spend in government , and they are spending in a very federated way because the NHS isn ' t just one organisation . The NHS is already one of the most efficient health services in the world , spending 2p in the pound on administration , compared to 5p in Germany and 6p in France , but Jacqui Rock says that there are opportunities to go further .
“ We want to make sure that NHS bodies and trusts have the autonomy to run their hospitals and their clinical pathways .
“ But the real value of the commercial team is in collaboration : it ’ s about bringing everybody across 4,000 + procurement and supply chain professionals together , so that we can agree on category strategies and move forward with a single vision .
“ What I am really doing is getting people to work together as commercial professionals .
“ It ’ s about collaboration , it ' s about community , it ' s about partnership .
“ Our buyers are very gifted – they know what they ' re doing – but they will be supercharged in their effectiveness once brought out of their silos and enabled to see the bigger picture , for a better , stronger and much more effective NHS .”
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