UKUPC Strategy Day: Review of activity and next steps.

Earlier this month, colleagues from across the UKUPC partners (APUC. HEPCW, LUPC, NEUPC, NWUPC, SUPC, TUCO and TEC) gathered in York to attend a strategy day to discuss how we can provide best value to our members. Meeting in person was invaluable for building relationships across UKUPC and for enhancing overall collaboration.

The session started by assessing feedback from both UKUPC staff and members who had responded to specific questions linked to our strategic direction, both currently and in the future.

We then looked at various strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and explored how we might mitigate or enhance those points as we look ahead.

Some of the key observations acknowledged were that we have:

· comprehensive procurement and market knowledge,

· robust member engagement,

· a diverse portfolio of frameworks,

· significant buying power,

· a will to work together for the benefit of our members.

We should celebrate our achievements so far: the delivery of our strategic frameworks, market insights, and best practice sharing. We pride ourselves on being a reliable and safe pair of hands for our members.

We were not afraid to have open and honest discussions and identified a range of opportunities to be more agile and flexible, ensuring that we can be

better aligned to routinely deliver for members and subsequently enhance our reputation within the sector.

Some of the significant challenges we face are complex decision-making processes and ensuring that the resourcing of UKUPC activity across consortia is equitable. We recognise that although we may, on occasion, have conflicting priorities, we should focus on action plans instead of strategies, with clear timelines and deliverables.

In the short term, we will direct our activity on the new Procurement Act and support members with implementation; alternative routes to the market; wider stakeholder engagement; and more consistency across consortia.

In the long term, we hope to focus on developing an enhanced information flow to members and improving processes, documentation and contract management.

We also need to concentrate on data sharing, national spend analysis, and carbon reporting. We plan to continue to hold events, webinars, and framework launches to share knowledge and collaborate more effectively.

The UKUPC Responsible Procurement Network will continue to deliver on its strategy, provide valuable resources and support to our members, and work with the National Responsible Procurement Group (NRPG).

We will update our UKUPC strategy over the months ahead and will incorporate all the points referred to in this overview.

For now, we will continue our mission of leveraging the benefits of collaborative procurement and putting our members at the centre of what we do; listening, responding and being there when they need us. By working together across consortia, UKUPC’s goal is to be a reliable and trustworthy procurement partner for the sector.