Director of Procurement - Candidate Brief for the position of Anchor - Odgers Berndtson
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Candidate Brief for the position of Director of Procurement Anchor January 2022
Candidate Brief – January 2022 Berwick Partners an Odgers Berndtson company
Company Overview
Anchor was created in 2018 following the merger between Anchor Trust and Hanover Housing. The merger
created the largest not-for-distribution provider of housing and care for older people in England, managing
over 35,500 socially rented units, over 12,500 leasehold units, and 114 care homes with approximately 6,000
rooms.
Headquartered in Bradford, Anchor continues to be acquisitive and has ambitious plans for growth both
organically and through M&A activity to build on over 50 years of history of providing homes for those living
in later life. .
To learn more about Anchor click here
Key Individuals
Sarah Jones
Chief Financial Officer
Sarah Jones’ role as Chief Financial Officer is accountable for ensuring that
Anchor is a sustainable organisation with the financial resources needed to meet
their commitments to existing customers, deliver value for money to all
stakeholders, to finance the development of new services and approaches, and
manage risk and procurement.
Sarah joined Anchor as Finance Director in September 2014 from leading office supplies distributors Spicers
Ltd, where she was Chief Financial Officer. Sarah, a Chartered Management Accountant, has held a variety of
senior finance roles across large corporate and private equity businesses, including being the Director of
Finance in UK & Republic of Ireland at Carpetright Plc and senior roles at HMV and The Burton
Group/Arcadia. She also holds an MSc in Strategic Management Accounting.
Sarah is a Trustee of Arthritis Action, a UK charity helping people with arthritis improve their quality of life,
and a Non-Executive Director of CHP, charitable housing association based in Chelmsford, Essex, that exists
to meet local housing need.
Kate Smith
Executive Director Business Services
Kate Smith is Executive Director Business Services with Executive Board-level
responsibility for Communications and Marketing, HR, IT, Governance and Legal
compliance.
Kate has held senior roles in a number of housing organisations, including as
Executive Director of Corporate Services at BPHA, and more recently as Group
Corporate Services Director at Southern Housing Group.
Kate also sits as a NED on the Pension Committee for Optivo and has served on a number of other Boards.
2
Candidate Brief – January 2022 Berwick Partners an Odgers Berndtson company
The Opportunity
Reporting into Kate Smith, Executive Director Business Services Anchor currently has an exciting opportunity
for an experienced procurement leader to join the group in the role of Director of Procurement. The
function has gone through a period of investment and transformation over the past 5 years, which has
helped professionalise and reposition the function within the business. The procurement team - around 18
individuals with 4 direct reports - is structured around a Category Management lead approach via a true
business partnering model. The perception of procurement internally has also shifted over the past 5 years,
but there is still much to be achieved as Anchor moves to a more harmonised technology platform in the
next 3 years, and the Director of Procurement will also be involved in ongoing M&A activity, and
development of the team.
The spend is in the region of £250-300M across a range of classic category areas spanning goods and
services. Key areas of spend include food and beverage, labour, property and FM, technology and wider
indirect areas.
Job Purpose
◼ Leadership of the procurement support service teams with significant strategic and commercial impact
as well as a member of Anchor’s Senior Leadership Team and Management Board to deliver the
business plan.
◼ To secure appropriate procurement arrangements across Anchor that provide excellent value for
money.
◼ Design and deliver procurement strategy for Anchor.
◼ Interact internally and externally to build successful partnerships, and generate original ideas and
policy and practice developments.
◼ Negotiate with contractors, suppliers and partners to maximise value for business.
◼ Apply broad knowledge and experience of work area or field of expertise to provide advice or
guidance to others to address problems or issues, which may have an organisational wide impact or
may impact on external parties.
◼ Design and implement a framework of policies, systems, methods and processes for functional area to
meet business needs and manage risk.
Job Scope
◼ Procurement budget for Anchor and its subsidiaries.
◼ Staff management responsibility 19.
◼ All members of the Anchor governance structure; and
◼ All companies within the Anchor structure.
Key Relationships
Reports to: Executive Director Business Services. Line manages: Procurement Systems &
Development Lead, Category manager x6,
Procurement Services Team Leader.
3Candidate Brief – January 2022 Berwick Partners an Odgers Berndtson company
Internal: the Board, and all other members of the
External: regulators, professional advisors, auditors,
governance structure, the Executive, other senior
and governance policy influencers.
staff, and other staff in the CEO’s office.
Key Responsibilities
Accountability & Governance
◼ Work with the Executive Director Business Services, Board and Executive to ensure an effective
framework for procurement across Anchor that keeps apace with the business’s growth, activities and
ambitions.
◼ Provide appropriate and timely information to the Board and Executive to support the delivery of
Anchor’s financial and reporting obligations, and highlighting risks and opportunities in respect of
procurement and value for money.
◼ Work with the Executive Director Business Services, Board and Executive to ensure high standards of
probity, accountability and transparency.
◼ Ensure Anchor’s procurement policy and procedures are fully compliant and cognisant of best
practice.
◼ Contribute to business planning and the setting of strategic objectives as required.
◼ Keep abreast, horizon scanning to identify necessary changes to the Anchor’s procurement
framework, ensuring potential impact is understood and managed appropriately.
Contributing to Leading the Business
◼ Develop strategies that continually improve business performance.
◼ Interpret current and forecast future economic factors shaping them into the business plan.
◼ Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practise of work in own area of expertise and
awareness of current developments in external environments.
◼ Understand regulatory and/or legislative requirements and the consequence of non-compliance.
◼ Demonstrate good understanding of financial management procedures.
◼ Provide thought leadership in a specialist field.
◼ Drive compliance with internal procedures, external regulations and legislation.
Contributing to Leading Customer Experience
◼ Ensure that procurement activities and approaches support the delivery of services to customers in
accordance with the Business Plan.
◼ Be open to considering new technology and innovation to further improve the ‘procure to pay’
process.
◼ Understand the needs and interests of different customer groups, social trends and potential future
opportunities.
◼ Create plans and implement solutions based on predictions of what customers will need in the future.
Leading People
◼ Act as a role model for the Group’s values, utilising effective coaching and situational leadership to
empower and encourage high performance and creativity within your team and other colleagues.
◼ Support the Executive in the effective management of change, integration and improvement.
4Candidate Brief – January 2022 Berwick Partners an Odgers Berndtson company
◼ Help support a climate where diversity of profile and thought is valued and celebrated.
◼ Generate enthusiasm by being innovative and inspirational in their approach and outlook.
◼ To establish a robust culture of performance management with clear targets and monitoring
arrangements to manage performance across the function.
The Candidate
Anchor is keen to appoint an exceptional procurement leader with a strong appreciation of best practice
procurement gained across multiple industry sectors. Prior experience within a Housing Association or Care
Home sector is not essential, however someone experienced in working for a multi-site organisation,
perhaps with property and FM experience would be of interest.
Core Competencies
◼ Acts with integrity, actively promotes the vision, and role models the values of the Group.
◼ Strong negotiator and influencer, a natural diplomat, and able to work intuitively with a wide range of
stakeholders and secure buy-in.
◼ Champions a strong commitment to equality, diversity and tackling exclusion.
◼ Champions rights of customers to have access to excellent care, support, homes and services.
◼ Has the ability to work well under pressure and deliver results.
Qualifications, Experience & Insight
◼ Educated to degree level or equivalent through relevant training and/or experience. Evidence of
continued professional development would be an advantage.
◼ MCIPS Qualification would be desirable.
◼ Experience of meeting KPI targets and service standards in a commercial environment.
◼ Substantial broad managerial and leadership experience with a strategic impact.
◼ Leading the development of innovative solutions and contributing to the strategic planning process.
◼ Managing and controlling budgets, resources and income.
◼ Experience of managing multiple professional teams, complex projects or activities with a strategic
influence.
◼ Experience of working at a senior level and managing key suppliers/partners.
◼ Experience of delivering change at an organisational level.
Skills & Abilities
◼ Strong interpersonal skills for motivating, negotiating, influencing and relationship/partnership
building.
◼ Analytical and problem solving capability.
◼ High level communication skills with the ability to articulate sensitive and technical information to
internal and external audiences.
◼ People management of a dispersed team.
Personal Attributes and Approaches
◼ Builds high levels of trust, openness, honesty, collaboration and support across teams.
◼ Provides a learning and development culture for self, the team and the organisation.
5Candidate Brief – January 2022 Berwick Partners an Odgers Berndtson company
◼ Resilient and able to work well under pressure.
◼ Willingness to work flexibly to meet business needs and undertake regular travel.
◼ An energetic and visible senior leader with presence, who is able to quickly earn respect and
credibility.
Additional Details
The group headquarters are located in Bradford, West Yorkshire and while there is a modern flexible
approach to remote working in place within Anchor , there will still be an expectation for the successful
candidate to live within a commutable distance of the site.
The role is being offered on a home based contract.
A competitive base salary plus car allowance of £7,400, annual bonus up to 37.5%, 10% pension
contribution, private individual healthcare, 30 days holiday plus bank holidays and the usual fringe benefits
are on offer for the successful individual.
How to Apply
The preferred method of application is online at www.berwickpartners.co.uk/85100
If you are unable to apply online please email your application to response.manager@berwickpartners.co.uk
All applications will receive an automated response.
All candidates are also requested to complete an online Diversity Monitoring Form which will be found at the
end of the application process.
For detailed information on how we process your personal data, please review our privacy policy on our
website https://www.berwickpartners.co.uk/privacy-policy/
In line with GDPR, we ask that you do NOT send us any information that can identify children or any of your
Sensitive Personal Data (racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade
union membership, data concerning health or sex life and sexual orientation, genetic and/or biometric data)
in your CV and application documentation. Following this notice, any inclusion of your Sensitive Personal
Data in your CV/application documentation will be understood by us as your express consent to process this
information going forward. Please also remember to not mention anyone’s information or details (e.g.
referees) who have not previously agreed to their inclusion.
If you have any queries or would like more information in regard to this document, please contact:
Richard Guest
Associate Partner Head of Procurement Practice
D: 0113 386 8539
M: 07753 719341
E: richard.guest@berwickpartners.co.uk
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