Senior Contract Manager – Primary Care

Job overview

Senior Contract Manager - Primary Care

Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board is looking for a Senior Contract Manager to join our dynamic Childrens, Community and Primary Care Contracts team.

The team’s contract portfolio includes a range of children’s and community contracts as well as 80 APMS/GMS/PMS primary medical care contracts, 20 Primary Care Networks and Local Enhanced Service contracts with general medical, community pharmacy, primary ophthalmic and primary care dental services.

Main duties of the job

Monitoring of contracts in the post holder’s portfolio,

Management of contacts which will involve a range of activities such as estates related contractual work, processing contractual changes and applications and providing the contractual response to providers facing escalation or resilience challenges,

The post will have a focus on primary care and you will work closely with key primary care partners in the ICS including the LMC, General Practice Collaborative Board, One Care Limited and the Primary Care Collaborative Board as well as working closely with PCN Directors, PCN managers, practices and practice managers.

If you have the required skills and experience and enjoy the challenge of working in a fast-paced environment we would love to hear from you.

Working for our organisation

We welcome applications which represent the rich diversity of our community; from people of all ages, disabled people, all genders, people from ethnic minority groups, LGBTQ+ people, people with diverse gender identity and expression, people from all religions and beliefs and other diverse characteristics, and we have processes in place to ensure that all applications are treated fairly and consistently at every stage of the recruitment process.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Contract Manager is the commissioning and contracting lead on the delegated contracts and will ensure that contracting decisions will be undertaken in support of the delivery of the Bristol North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICS and primary care strategy.

The post holder ensures that contracts for which BNSSG leads on behalf of NHSE or other ICBs deliver the needs and aspirations of associate commissioners. The post holder is responsible for ensuring that the contracts that have been delegated to them on behalf of the organisation meet national and local targets in consideration of its mandate and delegated functions.

The post holder will also ensure that primary medical services are commissioned to implement the national GP contract as set out in the national Delegation Agreement and that contracts are implemented in line with the Primary Medical Care Policy and Guidance Manual.

The following portfolio is the specific responsibility of the post holder:

Supporting the procurement and Contract Management (including for collaborative contracts) for the assigned Contract Portfolio;

Supporting the collaborative/lead commissioning for the allocated contracts.

They will also support the Head of Contracts by deputising as chair for key workstreams reporting to the Primary Care Operational Group in support of the primary care workplan, co-ordinating the input across the ICB and working in partnership with the General Practice Collaborative Board, the LMC, other key community and voluntary sector partners to enable improved access to a range of services in primary care and the community.

They will work with the Head of Contracts on key primary care procurements, list dispersals, other relevant contract issues, contract and performance management of contracts with individual providers.

• planning and delivering the primary care contracts team workplan,
• working closely with the primary care development team to ensure a one team approach to supporting general practice
• ensure a register of contracts is maintained and that the contracts portfolio is kept up-to-date
• ensure contractual variations and reviews completed in accordance with required timescales
• support overseeing the operational contracting response required to support practices including escalation and business continuity concerns,
• providing contracting response required to support practices in receipt of intensive support or in enhanced surveillance monitoring
• support the co-ordination of regular communications to general practice and support the response to media, MP enquiries and contractual complaints.
• work with the primary care finance team to ensure effective budgetary control of the primary care budget.
• manage estates related contractual work working alongside the strategic estates team

The Senior Contracts Manager will deputise for the Head of Contracts as and when required and actively work to develop productive relationships with NHS England and other ICBs to facilitate the sharing of good practice and ensure the ICB is providing assurance to relevant bodies.

Please see the attached job description for full details.

Person specification

Knowledge, Training and Experience

• Educated to masters level or equivalent level of experience of working at a senior level in specialist area.
• Extensive knowledge of specialist areas, acquired through post graduate diploma or equivalent experience or training plus further specialist knowledge or experience to master’s level equivalent.
• Evidence of post qualifying and continuing professional development.
• Must have an understanding of the background to and aims of current healthcare policy and appreciate the implications of this on engagement.
• Should have an appreciation of the relationship between the Department of Health, NHSE, the ICB and individual provider organisations.

Communication Skills

• Must be able to provide and receive highly complex, sensitive or contentious information, negotiate with senior stakeholders on difficult and controversial issues, and present complex and sensitive information to large and influential groups,
• Negotiate on difficult and controversial issues including performance and change.

Analytical

• Problem solving skills and ability to respond to sudden unexpected demands.
• Ability to analyse complex facts and situations and develop a range of options.
• Takes decisions on difficult and contentious issues where there may be a number of courses of action.
• Strategic thinking – ability to anticipate and resolve problems before they arise.

Planning Skills

• Demonstrated capability to plan over short, medium and long-term timeframes and adjust plans and resource requirements accordingly.

• Comprehensive experience of project principles techniques and tools such as Prince 2 and Managing Successful Projects.

Management Skills

• Must be able to prioritise own work effectively and be able to direct activities of others. Experience of managing and motivating a team and reviewing performance of the individuals.