As a former CEO of the NHS and a member of the Board of Governors at Nottingham Trent University, I was interested to see how Universities and the NHS compared on contract management, an area I have long been keen to see improved.
During my time as CEO of the NHS, I was heavily involved in the national programme to enhance procurement, a programme that continues to this day, albeit with many shifts and changes along the way. But the survey into how the NHS addresses contract management highlighted the fact that, despite so many improvements in procurement, the NHS’ ability to manage contracts really well lagged behind.
So, I was fascinated to see how similar the results were for the University sector. As Alan Hoskins, chair of the HCSA, said of the NHS results “Contract Management is our Cinderella”. It appears the same is true for the University sector.
In the University sector, it’s clear that we don’t believe we manage all our contracts well. But I was encouraged by the extent to which we recognise how important it is to manage contracts well over their whole life, and the fact we recognise that managing even smaller contracts well is important.
I was also struck by the scale of the opportunity that better contract management represents. Almost universally, Universities believe that improvement would drive cost reductions of at least 5-10%. A quarter believe it will drive cost reductions in excess of 10%. The additional value Universities can deliver from improved supplier performance is even larger, with more than half estimating more effective contract management would drive improvements in excess of 10%.
Finally, I was encouraged to see that improvement is on the agenda for so many Universities. Almost three-quarters plan to improve the management and governance of their contracts. And with good reason. At a time when Universities are having to work harder than ever before to improve our finances, the scale of the opportunity that improved contract management represents cannot be ignored.
Sir David Nicholson
Member of the Board of Governors, Nottingham Trent University
Former CEO, National Health Service
Non-executive director, Lifecycle Management Group
