We have an exciting opportunity to join the South West Specialised Commissioning team as part of a team of six Senior Commissioning Managers (Acute). The post will work to the Head of Acute Commissioning (Specialised Commissioning) as part of a multi-disciplinary team, supporting the successful negotiation and ongoing management of a portfolio of contracts across the South West which will deliver the Acute Services Specialised Commissioning Programme.
Specialised Commissioning is responsible for both acute and mental health services from a wide range of NHS, private and third sector providers. This role specifically supports the acute portfolio of over £1.5 billion of contracts across a geography comprising Cornwall up to Gloucester and across to Dorset. The Acute Services Commissioning Programme is delivered by a multi-disciplinary team, including Commissioners; Finance; System Transformation Leads; Business Intelligence, Quality and Pharmacy professionals.
You will have experience of building sound and transparent relationships, negotiating/managing contracts. You will need to have a strong awareness and understanding of project and programme management and be a motivated self-starter, who enjoys a challenge, can deal with competing deadlines and changing priorities and is able to work autonomously, as well as part of a dynamic, supportive team who are geographically dispersed across the South West.
The Senior Commissioning Manager is provider facing and leads within a defined ICS/ICB on all aspects of contract and performance/pathway management, operating in a matrix way with their local ICBs, as part of the delegation of specialised services in supporting an integrated commissioning strategy which will increasingly become the focus for the team as new system wide commissioning arrangements are developed and embedded.
The NHS England board have set out the top-level purpose for the new organisation to lead the NHS in England to deliver high-quality services for all, which will inform the detailed design work and we will achieve this purpose by:
• Enabling local systems and providers to improve the health of their people and patients and reduce health inequalities.
• Making the NHS a great place to work, where our people can make a difference and achieve their potential.
• Working collaboratively to ensure our healthcare workforce has the right knowledge, skills, values and behaviours to deliver accessible, compassionate care
• Optimising the use of digital technology, research, and innovation
• Delivering value for money.
If you would like to know more or require further information, please visit
Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in-person.
Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.
NHS England hold a Sponsor Licence; this means that we may be able to sponsor you providing the Home Office requirements are met. To be eligible for sponsorship through the Skilled Worker route you’ll usually need to be paid the ‘standard’ salary rate of at least £38,700 per year, or the ‘going rate’ for your job, whichever is higher. You can find more information on theGovernment website.
The post holder will carry out the following main duties of the job:
• Manage a portfolio of providers in accordance with the NHS Commissioning Framework for Specialised Services
• Review, in detail the performance of providers against financial, operational, access and clinical/outcome measures
• Develop, with the provider and ICB colleagues, remedial action plans to address performance failures or mitigate service sustainability issues
• Lead on the negotiation of contracts within portfolio, ensuring that contracts are signed within national timescales
• Organise and chair contract routine performance meetings with providers
• Manage the relationship between NHS England and contracted providers, including appropriate escalation and brokering consensus solutions between providers where specialised services are adversely affected by inter-provider disagreements
• Review high cost patients and manage interventions to control spend, or facilitate complex patients receiving the correct treatment in the correct setting where there are access difficulties
• Monitor service quality and compliance with service specifications, taking action to address quality risks and using contractual levers to support providers to comply with standards
• Question and challenge models of care, analyse demand and appropriateness of delivery to ensure that national service specifications, models of care and quality standards are delivered within designated service areas and Trusts
• Identify and implement, with provider and ICB colleagues, plans to reduce variation in spend, and deliver commissioner and whole-system efficiency savings from pathway improvements, waste reduction, demand control and other efficiency and productivity initiatives
• Act as business/managerial lead for service change and pathway changes in relation to providers within portfolio
• Within portfolio, lead on implementation of new national commissioning policy, service specifications, or nationally directed procurement actions
• Act as subject matter expert for the wider commissioning team on a designated clinical service area, lead for the team on cross-provider initiatives within this subject matter area and represent the team in relation to regional and national programmes
• Work closely with ICB; ICS colleagues to align the specialised commissioning function to local commissioning processes and structures wherever possible, maximising the provider management activities which are undertaken through joint/shared forums
• Where directed, proactively support ICS’ to take on delegated commissioning responsibilities, and assist in developing and implementing the assurance/supervision framework for these delegated functions
• Where commissioning functions are delegated, manage the interface with the delegated commissioner and undertake ongoing assurance in line with agreed framework
This advert closes on Sunday 8 Dec 2024