Procurement transformation programme update

Report: 11
Date: 21 October 2004
By: Commissioner

Summary

Since 2003 Procurement Services has embarked on an extensive programme to change and improve its service delivery and provide a professional service that is valued by all its customers. This report details the journey that Procurement Services has taken, highlights the progress made to date, along with key achievements and outlines the vision for the future.

A. Recommendation

That

1. Members note this report.
2. Members be asked to give their continued commitment to Procurement Services and in particular to endorse the future requirements needed to complete the transformation programme as outlined in the report.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) is a major, corporate business with an annual budget of more than £2.3 billion - more than 25% of the total police budget for England and Wales. From a perspective of managing procurement expenditure, the MPS is complex and dynamic, with an annual addressable spend of c. £500 million, including outsourced contracts worth more than £150 million. The range of goods and services purchased is diverse and varied; from helicopters to horses, and from power boats to police batons.

2. In December 2001, SMT Consulting conducted a review of Procurement Services, as part of an MPA sponsored Efficiency & Effectiveness (E&E) review. They concluded that Procurement Services was under-performing, as on only two key metrics out of fourteen was performance rated better than 5 out of 10. They highlighted a number of weaknesses, the majority of which were underpinned by a total lack of management information, a lack of professional guidance and leadership, a lack of investment in staff training & development and a lack of commitment from senior management in seeing procurement as a major contributor to the operational policing agenda in the MPS.

3. A national police benchmarking exercise also highlighted a poor level of staffing, few of which were qualified to a relevant, professional standard.

4. The importance and value that effective procurement can bring to the delivery of operational policing, and the fact that it would make a significant contribution to the achievement of strategic corporate objectives, was recognised by both the MPA and the MPS at Management Board level.

5. A new Director, Steve Atherton, was recruited in May 2002 who carried out his own review and validated the SMT Consulting findings. A high-level improvement plan was produced to:

• Re-engineer the process in Procurement Services to reflect good practice in both the public and private sectors;
• Re-skill and up-skill existing staff to support the new approach.

6. This improvement plan incorporated an initial review of commodity strategies and the design of a collaborative approach to procurement but, more importantly, the creation of a more effective Procurement Strategy for the Metropolitan Police. The new Strategy needed to radically transform procurement throughout the MPS to significantly improve its overall effectiveness and align Procurement Services to directly support corporate and strategic objectives and also operational initiatives.

• 7. Ultimately, the primary role of Procurement Services is to serve the needs of operational policing by: -
• Ensuring that the MPS acquires the goods and services it needs in the right quantities, at the right time, at the appropriate quality and at prices which demonstrably represent best value; and
• Optimising the purchasing leverage of the MPS to achieve ‘best’ deals.

8. Additionally, Procurement Services also protects the MPA’s interests as the contracting authority by:

• Performing procurement activity professionally, to high ethical standards and in full compliance with all relevant rules and legislation;
• Awarding contracts to fit and proper companies under terms and conditions, which provide legal and commercial protection for the MPA.

9. To facilitate an effective improvement programme some external assistance was sought to focus on specific deliverables and in order to ensure sustainability, to include a high content of skills transfer to existing staff.

Transformation programme

10. The Procurement transformation programme commenced in Q1 / 2003 and comprised the following high-level objectives:

• “Professionalise” the procurement function;
• Improve the organisation and infrastructure within Procurement Services
• Improve the capacity and capability of procurement;
• Update governance arrangements and the associated policies and
• procedures;
• Implement Category Management to focus effort on value adding, operationally supporting work and to embed a robust sourcing and supply chain management methodology in the team;
• Develop and implement “e” systems strategy;
• Produce a suite of standard Terms and Conditions of contract;
• Recruitment campaign to attract the best people to the MPS.

11. The Procurement Strategy, in order to meet and deliver these objectives needed to be radical, ambitious and, above all, representative of a fundamental departure from how the MPS had previously attempted to improve.

12. Implementation of the Strategy comprised three key elements (People, Processes and Technology) that are based upon a best practice approach to procurement transformation. Within the MPS, the approach and its key deliverables were all branded ‘Simply Smarter Sourcing’.

People

13. The findings of the SMT Consulting report highlighted four main areas of weakness for Procurement Services regarding its People: qualifications and training, experience and expertise, staff numbers and reward and recognition.

14. Late in 2003, a new organisational structure was designed, based upon a best practice procurement model, called Category Management. This is the name given to the structured approach to the procurement of goods and services, by applying best practice tools and techniques to the integration of MPA and MPS corporate strategies and goals.

15. Procurement Services was restructured to comprise three core ‘category’ teams (ICT, Corporate Services and Operational Services), responsible for the strategic sourcing of key categories of expenditure and groups of commodities.

16. The Operational Services category team source the requirements for all goods and services (excluding IT) that directly support all police officers on active operational duty, such as forensics, uniforms, firearms, equipment, vehicles, etc. The ICT category team source the requirements for all computer hardware and software, infrastructure, telecommunications and all related major IT projects.

17. The Corporate Services category team source the requirements for all goods and services related to general infrastructure (aside from the procurement of the physical building themselves) such as office services, catering, cleaning, travel, legal services, consultants, temporary staff, recruitment services, etc.

18. This model reflected the MPS business structure and gave the best opportunity to improve focus to the Operational Command Unit (OCU). It enabled Procurement Services to:

• Directly support the strategic direction and imperatives of the MPA/MPS;
• Align to all OCUs, improving responsiveness and service delivery;
• Align to other major support functions (such as Department Of Information and Property Services Directorate) facilitating proactive, collaborative working, especially on major projects and initiatives;
• Deliver ‘category’ teams that focus upon all our key commodities;
• Provide extensive commodity procurement/market expertise to key stakeholders;
• Deliver access to key supplier information and spend data, and promote the use of related performance metrics.

19. Procurement Services designed a tailored programme to support a “fast-track” recruitment process, in partnership with a recruitment specialist. This commenced in Q3/2003 and combined advertising in the National Press with advertising in a specialist procurement publication. The campaign also coincided with Commissioner Sir John Stevens delivering a keynote speech at a Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) conference.

20. A key objective of the recruitment drive was to attract procurement specialists from the private sector. The campaign significantly raised the profile of the Metropolitan Police and ten external candidates were appointed (nine with private sector expertise).

21. The appointments included two senior directors who have proven track records of delivering change programmes in complex organisations, along with extensive procurement expertise. This has enabled the Metropolitan Police to benefit from their previous private sector experience and has considerably reduced the implementation timescales on the transformation programme.

22. In parallel to recruiting staff with professional procurement qualifications (CIPS), encouragement and support was given to existing staff that were not qualified. The majority of staff in Procurement Services are now qualified or working towards being CIPS accredited. This support will continue into 2005/2006.

23. Throughout 2004 specialist training has been undertaken by all staff in order to implement Category Management as the core process for sourcing and contracting with suppliers. This has “professionalised” the purchasing approach, as it is a proven best practice methodology widely used in industry and can be applied to all categories of expenditure. It allows staff to balance their time between sourcing, contracting and managing spend, with the focus being on cost not price.

24. In addition to Category Management training, a comprehensive Training and Development programme has also been introduced within Procurement Services that covers not only the technical skills but addresses soft skills, pc skills, management skills, diversity, communication and presentation skills.

25. Further specialist training for all staff has been scheduled from November 2004 until February 2005, for all procurement systems i.e. Procurement reporting, Contract Management and Document Management, to ensure that all staff are able to maximise the benefits from these tools.

26. Improvements to the infrastructure have been made and include:

• Balanced scorecards, derived from the Resources Directorate scorecard, have been produced for the teams, as well as the department. These ensure the team has clear targets and they are reviewed monthly to reflect progress.
• Reward and recognition is recognised via the Performance Development Review (PDR) process and this links closely with the balanced scorecards. They are reviewed quarterly.
• Role descriptions are being updated to reflect the aims of the organisation for all positions and the Senior Management Team (SMT) is currently reviewing these. It is intended to implement the updated role descriptions at the start of 2005. In support of the role descriptions a career ladder process will also be implemented which clearly details what each individual has to achieve and what is expected of them in order to gain promotion to the next grade.
• Induction packs have been developed for all new starters along with a “Ways of Working” document, which details a set of minimum standards in keeping with a high achieving professional team.

Processes

27. Robust and effective processes are key in any organisation. As a complex public sector organisation, processes and adherence to them is absolutely paramount. As before, a number of weaknesses were highlighted in the processes being operated within Procurement Services, prior to 2002. Part of the transformation programme concentrated on updating and introducing new processes (particularly to support the implementation of Category Management), in addition to extensive staff familiarisation programmes to ensure compliance.

28. All formal agreements are entered into on behalf of the MPA, as contracting authority, and the detailed procedures to be followed by all staff, that let contracts, are set out in the MPA Standing Orders. The Standing Orders are used in conjunction with the Purchasing Policy and EC Directives Manual. Procurement Services along with the MPA, Internal Audit and Property Services have recently reviewed the Standing Orders to update them. Having operated these for over a year, recommendations were put forward to improve governance whilst maximising flexibility. In addition, it was necessary to include provision for utilising e-tendering and e-auction technology so the MPS can benefit from these tools.

29. In conjunction with Policy Clearing House, Procurement Services reviewed and updated the Procurement Policy and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s). The SOP’s define the procurement process for a variety of topics such as:

• OJEU advert notice;
• Invitations to Tender (ITT);
• Tender evaluations;
• Contract award;
• Contract extensions, etc.

30. In addition, they provide clarity and guidance to OCU’s on the process for procurement below £40,000. Under £40,000 the OCU’s do not have to come via Procurement Services, so this SOP ensures that any contracts awarded manages the risk exposure to the MPA, achieves value for money and takes into account diversity and environmental issues, where applicable.

31. Procurement Services have launched an intranet site, which in addition to providing details on the department structure and information newsletters, contains the majority of reference aids for the staff e.g. Standing Orders. The site also holds training material relating to Category Management and all of the templates that will be used when operating the sourcing methodology. For our customers the site has links to supplier catalogues on the Enterprise Buyer Professional (EBP) system and application forms for Government Procurement Cards (GPC). The recently reviewed Procurement Policy and SOP’s will shortly be available on the site.

32. Since June 2004, we have been revising our standard agreements for the purchase of:

• Goods;
• Services; and
• Consultancy.

33. Additionally, we have drafted a short set of terms and conditions (T&C’s) that can be used to support Purchase Orders and produced a revised Confidentiality Agreement. The aim was to bring these documents up-to-date with our legal experts; research best practice T&C’s and incorporate the experience of the new members of the team. The main benefits for the MPA are reduced contractual risk but increased contractual power. The final agreed documents should be on the intranet site by the end of October. These will then be reviewed annually or when statutes change. The implementation of the revised T&C’s will be supported by several training sessions to ensure all staff are aware of the changes and their impact for both the MPS and our suppliers.

34. To ensure readiness for the impact of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) we have developed a process for dealing with potential enquiries. This will be tested during November and December to ensure readiness for when FOIA goes live in January 2005. We also liaised with other police forces to understand how they planned to handle these enquiries.

35. The ability to capture and record accurate spend information is key to any professional procurement department. Throughout 2004 we have worked with Finance colleagues to implement a category-mapping framework, which allocates a unique code to specific items of MPS expenditure. This enables rapid estimates of spend to be performed without the need to conduct detailed invoice reviews. This remains ongoing.

36. As stated above, specialist training has been undertaken by all staff in order to implement Category Management as the core process for sourcing and contracting with suppliers. This is used extensively in the private sector. The process has been designed to meet the needs of the MPS – essentially it provides users with a set of tools/guidance in reviewing the entire procurement process from defining business needs through to supplier management.

37. This ambitious programme represents the biggest training course that Procurement Services has sponsored to date. Since April 2004, staff have undergone training on the Category Management process and in particular, on how to use the various associated tools. This training will continue throughout the year with our external partners, who have been given the responsibility for running and supporting the Category Management training. To put the level of training into perspective, Procurement Services staff needed/will need to commit an average of two days a month until the end of the year.

38. A Toolkit was developed - basically these are guides, which describe “what” and “how to” operate the various elements of the Category Management methodology. The toolkit includes templates, which enables the buyers to optimise the time spent sourcing, contracting and managing suppliers/spend.

39. As Procurement Services staff progressed through the training programme, their Category Managers and Directors provided support/advice to guide them on how to apply the tools. It was paramount that the “classroom” training delivered practical business benefits to our internal customers. Considerable focus was given to how the Category Management process would be applied to the working environment. To achieve this, the external consultants and Category Directors/managers worked closely with their teams and internal customers in identifying suitable pilot categories. This meant that the nuances of the MPS processes could be incorporated into the training to develop the Met specific methodology. In addition, to receiving coaching in a live project pilot the team was able to continue to deliver business benefits. This intensive integration approach has meant that Category Management has quickly become the new way of working for many Procurement Services staff.

40. As experience increases for all staff we will establish best practice forums and Certification programmes that will seek to further embed Category Management as the new methodology.

Technology

41. One of the key failings that both SMT Consulting and the new Director of Procurement highlighted back in 2001/2002, was the absence of robust and meaningful spend data in the MPS. Previous versions of SAP had failed to provide the required data and as recommended by SMT Consulting, prioritisation was given to implementing SAP/R3 to remedy this position.

42. This enabled the implementation of the Enterprise Buyer Professional (EBP) software package, which allows internal customers to buy goods and services, such as stationery and office equipment, by “calling off” electronic catalogues. Currently there are 25 catalogues on the EBP system and the aim is to increase this to 40 by the end of the financial year. To ensure that users were able to get the best from the system, extensive training was given to OCU’s to ensure they were familiar with the EBP ordering process.

43. The benefit to Procurement Services from better usage of SAP/R3 and EBP is the ability to capture data with a high degree of integrity, which is capable of robust interrogation. In collaboration with our Finance colleagues, high level data mining of supplier spend was carried out for first time in August 2004. This enabled the MPS to accurately ascertain, for the first time, the major areas of expenditure at a category level.

44. As a result, functional requirements specifications were produced for Procurement Reporting, Contract Management (CM) and Document Management (DM) systems that will provide increased spend data interrogation capability and improve spend management report accuracy and content. The CM and DM systems are currently being developed and it is planned to complete implementation by year-end.

45. In order to give buyers the ability to benefit from established market analysis sources we implemented the use of a range of information tools available via the internet and utilised software packages such as:

• Dunn & Bradstreet (D&B);
• Company Watch;
• Gartner, etc.

46. There are also a number of developments that are currently being explored that will increase the control and monitoring capability within Procurement Services. Examples are:

1. Developed a basic workload monitoring capability. At present this provides staff utilisation data at a low level but over the next year a more robust model will be developed to provide management with the information from which “bottlenecks” can be identified and addressed. It will enable all work to be booked into the department, allocated to a team and/or individual, prioritised, progress tracked and signed off when completed. Furthermore, staff development needs, staff rotation opportunities and training requirements can be identified and actioned as appropriate.
2. Devising an “e” technology approach that will enable MPS to advise suppliers of OJEU notices and also supply/receive tender and other documentation electronically. This will considerably reduce our reliance on paper documentation, reduce process times, provide a complete audit trail and will assist file storage and retrieval. This will also provide the capability to run e-auctions, which we are currently exploring and a number of our customers are very keen to participate in.

Achievements

47. Whilst Procurement Services has been undergoing an ambitious and radical transformation programme there has been some notable successes delivered along the way. Some of the key achievements to date include: -

• Persuading Sir John Stevens to deliver the keynote speech at the 2003 CIPS Conference. This demonstrated “top table” commitment to Procurement within the MPS and generated a lot of interest from procurement professionals in the MPS; Further detail in Appendix 1.
• Achieved savings of £1.8 m in 2003 /2004 on new contracts;
• Achieved savings of £2.3m in 2003 /2004 on re-tendered contracts;
• Achieved total savings in excess of £11.75m since 2001;
• Increased use and expenditure via Government Purchasing cards by over 101% since 2001;
• In August 2004, the department became one of the first public sector organisations to receive the CIPS Certification for Excellence of Purchasing Policies and Procedures. Appendix 2 provides further detail;
• Steve Atherton received a commendation from the Commissioner in recognition of winning the CIPS Excellence award; Further detail in Appendix 3
• Short-listed for the 2003 Government Opportunities (GO) awards for Excellence in Public Procurement;
• A number of articles have been published in Supply Management magazine (procurement professionals trade publication) relating to the diverse range of goods and services bought by the Met and how the changes to the department have professionalised the buying approach; further detail in Appendix 4 which is enclosed for members of the Committee only.
• Procurement Services have been nominated for CIPS Supply Management awards 2004 under the category of “Most Improved Purchasing Operation”. The results will be announced at a black tie event in Oct 2004. Further detail in Appendix 5
• Director of Procurement nominated for CIPS Purchasing and Supply Management Professional of the Year (as before the result will be announced in October 2004); Further detail in Appendix 6
• Commendations for several members of staff from a variety of OCU’s and internal customers in recognition of the quality of work undertaken for them;
• Presented key papers at external conferences regarding MPS approach to Outsourcing. Presentations given at National Outsourcing Conference (November 2003) and European Outsourcing Association (June 2004);
• Congratulated in September 2003 by London Remade (a partnership comprising the business community, London Boroughs and regional government, the waste management Industry and the not-for-profit sector) for being the highest “Green” purchaser following a Green Purchase Report they had commissioned. The MPS had the highest spend on recycled products of the 89 companies and organisations currently working with London Remade. Further details in Appendix 7.

48. Looking forward to 2005, we will (in collaboration with our training partner) be submitting a paper for the National Training Awards. This entry will outline and evidence how effective our Category Management training has been and also provide details of how the MPS has progressed as an effective procurement organisation.

Procurement Services into the future

49. Since 2002, Procurement Services’ main aim is to be acknowledged as the best procurement function in the police forces of England and Wales, providing a customer focussed service and delivering best value to the MPS/MPA. The future vision is to be regarded as a best in class procurement organisation across the public and private sector.

50. The importance and value that effective procurement brings to the delivery of operational policing has been well established:

• Improved service delivery;
• Greater spend leverage;
• Reduced risk;
• Visibility of spend, etc.

51. However, Procurement Services can also make a significant contribution to the achievement of MPS/MPA strategic corporate objectives providing it implements permanent, sustainable change.

52. The team has come along way since the transformation programme began in 2003 and there is no doubt that we have significantly improved our overall effectiveness and efficiency whilst aligning ourselves to directly support corporate, strategic objectives and operational policing initiatives. The CIPS certification standard of excellence award for purchasing policies and procedures is independent external recognition that improvements have taken place. However, the team has no intention of resting on its achievements, as there is still much to do before the vision becomes a reality.

53. In order to complete the transformation it is vital that we:

• Continue to support the re-skilling of the staff so they are fully competent procurement experts, operating a best in class methodology;
• e-enable the improved processes to deliver e-tendering and e-auction capability. This will allow us to obtain the productivity benefits from quicker and more streamlined processes and exploit the potential from reverse auctions;
• Embed in the team a Supply Chain Management capability to drive continuous improvement, particularly regarding supplier performance and compliance to central contracts. The current training on the Category Management methodology is for the Sourcing element. However, post contract award there are key service and cost benefits to be obtained from professional management of the supplier, during the whole life of the agreement;
• Continue to drive improved customer perception of Procurement Services value in the MPS. This will include involving the customers in the management of the supplier and providing feedback on performance reviews, audits, etc. It also includes having regular meetings with the customers and providing a route for them to give us feedback on the contracts we put in place;
• Attract, motivate and retain the best talent within our profession. This requires a commitment to introduce a professional career ladder, which enables staff that have developed particular skills in procurement to be appropriately recognised by technical promotion. Procurement Services constitutes a high value resource, whose contribution to procurement efficiency and effectiveness is crucial for the success of the MPS/MPA’s procurement activity. Their value, as measured by their commercial contribution, increases with experience, while the Met’s ability to replace this resource decreases as they become more proficient.
• Collaboration with other police forces, public sector organisations and other similar sized companies. It is important that the MPS is viewed by suppliers as a organisation that “punches its weight” and maximises compliance opportunities every time it goes to the market;
• Ability to monitor and manage on all socially responsible aspects of procurement such as Diversity, Environment, Business Continuity, etc. Whilst we currently comply with the relevant legislation we are not yet in a position to be able to monitor and report on the breakdown of our supply base into Small Medium Enterprises (SME), Black and Minority Ethnic (BME), London suppliers, etc.

54. Procurement Services recognises and acknowledges that for the transformation to be fully effective and sustainable then the continued support of senior MPS colleagues and the MPA is key.

C. Race and equality impact

1. The MPA has adopted and published an equal opportunity statement which states the Authority’s values to treat everyone fairly, be open and honest, to work in partnership and change to improve. The statement specifies the Authority’s commitment that it will not seek to discriminate on the grounds of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief. In addition, to its own objectives, the Authority supports the objectives set out in Metropolitan Police Service’s Diversity Strategy and the MPS’ work towards these. The Authority also has to comply with legislative duties, national and European, to act in a non-discriminatory way, and to promote equal opportunities and good community relations. Procurement Services, in supporting the MPA strategy, aims to ensure its contract strategies, regulations, policy statements and processes:

• Promote open and fair competition;
• Ensure service delivery is accessible and responsive to the diversity of people living and working in or visiting London;
• Encourages the provision of work, service and goods by businesses that support equal opportunity policies and help ensure the Authority complies with its statutory duties;
• Enable London to become the safest world city, through taking account of the social, economic and environmental impacts of tenders, where relevant.

2. To achieve these objectives and fulfill its statutory duties with respect to equality matters, Procurement Services will ensure MPS’ suppliers:

• Promote equal opportunities in its workplace and in the delivery of services;
• Strive towards achieving a workforce that reflects the diverse population of London;
• Value consultation as a means for delivering responsive services;
• Have developed a complaints policy for dealing with complaints from members of the public in a timely and respectful way;
• Work with the police and its partner agencies in tackling the causes of crime and social exclusion as well as promote good community relations between persons of different race, religion and beliefs;
• Are prepared to maintain and supply employee-related data requested by the Authority in terms of e.g. race and gender; and
• Will promote accessibility in the workplace and for the Authority’s service recipients.

D. Financial implications

There are no separate financial issues arising from this report over and above the normal budget process.

E. Legal implications

As this is an update report there are no legal issues.

F. Background papers

None

G. Contact details

Report author: Steve Atherton, Director of Procurement Services

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

Appendix 1: Supply Management article

News, 16 October 2003
Met chief enlists buyers to deliver better service
by David Arminas

Procurement within the UK’s largest police force must operate in a rapidly changing environment if it is to meet the public’s increasing demands.

In his keynote address to the CIPS Premier Conference last week, Sir John Stevens, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, told delegates that the public is “more questioning than ever of its institutions”.

Events beginning with the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in New York had placed increasing pressures on London’s police, which has a quarter of all officers in England and Wales.

Stevens said the Met is under pressure to deliver in all areas, including procurement, which controls an annual budget of £400 million, of which £150 million is on outsourced contracts.

“We’ve had to look very hard at how we conduct all of our business and this has included a shake-up of purchasing,” he said.

“Quite frankly, the way we have done business in the past has been pretty poor; spend and waste were quite prolific. But over the past four years, we have been able to make savings of close to £300 million, and there is more of that to come.”

Stevens said opinion polls of Londoners and other benchmark studies show that policing is getting better, but support services including procurement must change for the Met to maintain these improvements.

“Everything we do needs to put the front-line [officers] first. They need to have their demands and worries put first,” he said.

He expected leadership styles to include meeting the officers and public.

“Above all, we need to listen to those who know their business best, those who are close to delivery at the sharp end, a police officer on the beat or a detective involved in anti-terrorist work.”

Steve Atherton, appointed director of procurement at the Met in May 2002, agreed that leadership included engaging with the public and officers, which he has done.

“Officers and the public can actually point their finger at my chest, I can listen. That is crucial to understanding what your core deliverables are,” he said.

But Atherton believed an inspirational leader also needed the personality to engage.

“Procurement has traditionally been seen as a backroom function with purchasers having their heads down in processes. To move away from this, you must also have those personality traits to hone in order to inspire people.”

Appendix 2: CIPS certification award

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has become one of the first public sector organisations to achieve CIPS Certification for the excellence of its purchasing policies and procedures. This success for MPS Procurement Services has also been recognised by Sir John Stevens, Commissioner of the MPS, who awarded the team his official Commendation.

Ken James, CIPS chief executive, presented the Certification award to the Commissioner at a ceremony held recently at New Scotland Yard. James congratulated all 57 members of the Procurement Services team on demonstrating how public sector organisations can really benefit from savings and process efficiencies achieved by professional purchasing, thus allowing MPS cost savings to be re-invested in front line policing for the capital.

At the ceremony the Commissioner described the challenge facing Procurement Services as “ensuring we get the goods and services we need to support operational policing at the right time, in the right places, at the right quality and at the best value. The achievement of the CIPS Certification standard of excellence shows we are doing this and that the Met is at the forefront of public sector procurement”.

Outlining the huge scale of operations that makes the MPS equivalent to 70th position in the FTSE 100, the Commissioner said: “the Met is big business and, with an annual budget of some £2.6bn, it represents more than 25 per cent of the total police budget for England and Wales. We have more than 44,000 staff operating from hundreds of buildings in hundreds of locations. The Met is a complex and dynamic Service and the range of goods and services procured is equally diverse – from helicopters to horses and from police boats to police batons”.

The Met is committed to becoming the number one public sector procurement organisation with strategic and operational procurement processes that match the best in public and private sector. An ambitious MPS procurement transformation plan was introduced some 12 months ago to support this objective. Its aim is to deliver a procurement service that is designed, organised, structured and trained to support MPS operational initiatives.

Steve Atherton, Director of Procurement, MPS, said: “this award is one of the first visible results of our ongoing transformation programme and reflects the considerable amount of hard work put in by members of the Procurement Team”.

Recent expansion of Procurement Services resources has resulted in 14 new purchasing professionals joining the team, only one of whom was already working in the public sector. Procurement Services’ transformation plan will support three category teams that are aligned to their key customers. Creation of a centre of procurement excellence, implementation of e-procurement in 88 categories and development of special processes and tools for use by key customers are just three elements of the programme which also embraces performance, supplier relationship management, communications and governance.

Atherton explains: “this new organisation structure, coupled with process improvements such as the application of category management methodology and supporting toolkit, will assist greatly with realisation of savings, and also embed flexibility and innovation both internally with the MPS and externally with our suppliers. Procurement is on a journey that will enable them to deliver value add in all that they do in a professional manner”.

Appendix 3: Commissioner’s Commendations 25 May 2004

Sir John Stevens and Procurement Services Group Director, Anthony Doyle.

Commissioner Sir John Stevens praised officers and staff yesterday during the Commissioners Commendation ceremony held at New Scotland Yard.

Several units across the MPS were recognised for their outstanding contribution in lowering crime.

Another industry award for Resources Directorate was also recognised, with Procurement Services honoured for achieving the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Certification Standard, for excellence in purchasing policies and procedures. The picture above shows Anthony Doyle, Procurement Services Group Director, receiving the award on behalf of Steve Atherton.

Appendix 4: Supply Management article

Hardcopy distributed to Secretariat for distribution to members of Committee

Appendix 5: CIPS Supply Management Awards categories

Team categories

• Best contribution to corporate responsibility
• Best people development initiative
• Best process improvement initiative
• Best public procurement project
• Best purchaser-supplier partnership
• Best purchasing initiative by a smaller organisation
• Best use of technology
• Most innovative project
• Most improved purchasing operation. The nominees for this category were:
  • Abbey
  • Marsh
  • Metropolitan Police
  • Sanitec Corporation
  • Universal Music Operations
  • WPP Group

Individual categories

• CIPS Purchasing and Supply Management Professional of the Year. The nominees for this category were:
  • Steve Atherton, The Metropolitan Police Service
  • Rob Hemsley, H.J. Heinz
  • Guy Allen, Abbey
  • Janet Strzebrakowski, Dawson Holdings plc
  • Domenico Capozzi, AMS
  • David Deakin, Rolls-Royce plc
  • Pete Whitehouse, Barclays Bank
  • Marie White, The Boots Company
  • Paul Parker, GlaxoSmithKline

Appendix 6: Nine shortlisted for individual prizes in 2004

News, 9 September 2004

Nine purchasers have been shortlisted in the two individual categories of this year’s CIPS Supply Management Awards.

The contenders for CIPS Purchasing and Supply Management Professional of the Year are:

• Guy Allen, Abbey;
• Steve Atherton, Metropolitan Police;
• Rob Hemsley, HJ Heinz;
• Janet Strzebrakowski, Dawson Holdings.

Competing for the same title, but in the aged 30 or under category, are:

• Domenico Capozzi, AMS;
• David Deakin, Rolls-Royce;
• Paul Parker, GlaxoSmithKline;
• Marie White, The Boots Company;
• Pete Whitehouse, Barclays Bank.

The winners of both honours, along with those in nine team categories will be announced at the awards dinner on 20 October at the London Hilton on Park Lane. This year’s event is again a sell-out and will be attended by more than 800 people from the purchasing community.

Appendix 7: London Remade

London Remade is a partnership comprising the business community, London Boroughs and regional government, the waste management industry and the not-for-profit sector. London Remade’s objective is to encourage the agreement of medium to long term contracts to create stability and enable growth of recycling collections.

It aims to revolutionise the way that the Capital manages its waste through a £20m programme to develop and diversify markets for recycled materials and supports the Mayor’s Green Procurement Code which was developed to stimulate demand for recycled products throughout the capital. The Green Procurement Code was created in June 2001 by the Mayor to encourage commitment to buying recycled materials.

The MPS is a signatory to the Mayors Green Procurement Code and Procurement Services have been in regular discussions with London Remade on MPS’s approach to environmental procurement. By signing up to the Green Procurement Code the MPS has demonstrated that they are serious about the environment and showing commitment to the sustainable development of London.

London Remade congratulated the MPS in September 2003 for being the highest ‘green’ purchaser following a green purchase report they commissioned. The MPS had the highest spend on recycled products of the 89 companies and organisations currently working with London Remade.

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