Procurement and Contracts Manager

Procurement and Contracts Manager

Central Team

Grade 11 - (SCP 36- £49,892-SCP- 40- £56,084)

37 hours per week, full year.

Shape the future of procurement across a growing Academy Trust

The Learning Partnership is seeking to appoint an experienced and commercially minded Procurement and Contracts Manager to lead procurement activity across our family of schools.

This is an exciting opportunity to join our central team and play a key role in ensuring that our schools achieve the very best value from every pound spent, whilst maintaining the highest standards of compliance, transparency and governance. Working closely with school leaders, budget holders and central services teams, you will help deliver efficient, compliant and strategically aligned procurement solutions that support outstanding educational outcomes for our pupils.

About the role

Reporting into the Chief Finance Officer, you will lead all aspects of procurement and contract management across the Trust's 14 schools. You will develop and implement a Trust-wide procurement strategy, manage compliant tender processes, oversee supplier performance and ensure that all procurement activity meets the requirements of the Procurement Act 2023, funding regulations and Trust policies.

You will also:

• Lead tendering exercises from market engagement through to contract award.
• Develop and maintain a comprehensive contracts register.
• Identify opportunities for efficiencies, savings and collaborative purchasing.
• Support schools and budget holders with procurement advice and guidance.
• Monitor supplier performance and manage contract renewals and re-procurement activity.
• Provide assurance through robust governance, reporting and audit readiness.
• Act as the Trust's procurement subject matter expert.

About you

We are looking for a procurement professional who combines technical expertise with excellent relationship-building skills.

You will have:

• Significant procurement experience within a public sector or similarly regulated environment.
• Experience of leading compliant tender processes under the Procurement Act 2023.
• Strong contract and supplier management experience.
• Excellent commercial awareness, negotiation and financial analysis skills.
• The ability to manage multiple projects across a diverse organisation.
• Outstanding communication and stakeholder management skills.
• A commitment to transparency, accountability and delivering value for money in education.

A professional procurement qualification such as CIPS or working towards one would be advantageous. Experience within the education sector or a multi-site organisation is also desirable.

Why join The Learning Partnership?

At The Learning Partnership, our vision is to deliver excellence through collaboration. We are a successful and growing Trust, serving thousands of children and young people across Cheshire and Staffordshire.

We are proud of our values of Ambition, Inclusion and Opportunity and are committed to providing a supportive, flexible and professional working environment where colleagues can thrive and develop.

Employee Benefits

• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Generous annual leave entitlement
• Occupational sick pay scheme
• Access to employee wellbeing support and counselling services
• Ongoing professional development and training opportunities
• Flexible working opportunities where operationally appropriate
• Access to staff discounts and salary sacrifice schemes

Safeguarding

The Learning Partnership is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful candidate will be required to undertake all necessary pre-employment checks, including an enhanced DBS check and online searches in line with Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance.

All posts involving direct contact with children are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. However, amendments to the Exceptions Order 1975 (2013 & 2020) provide that certain spent convictions and cautions are 'protected'. These are not subject to disclosure to employers and cannot be taken into account. Guidance and criteria on the filtering of these cautions and convictions can be found on the Ministry of Justice website.

Shortlisted candidates will be asked to provide details of all unspent convictions and those that would not be filtered, prior to the date of the interview. You may be asked for further information about your criminal history during the recruitment process. If your application is successful, this self-disclosure information will be checked against information from the Disclosure & Barring Service before your appointment is confirmed.

The Learning Partnership is committed to the promotion of equality of opportunity and the elimination of discrimination; all applicants should note that they will be considered on the basis of suitability regardless of disability, gender, race, religion, age, sexual orientation and marital status or any other discrimination which is unfair or unreasonable.

We particularly welcome applications from black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates, LGBTQ+ candidates and candidates with disabilities because we would like to increase the representation of these groups at The Learning Partnership. We want to do this because we know greater diversity will lead to even greater outcomes for children. We are proud to be an employer that holds Disability Committed and Menopause Friendly status.

The Trust is ‘happy to talk flexible working’. Flexible working increases workplace diversity by making roles accessible to those with caring responsibilities (primarily women),