Contract Support Assistant

Job summary

The working hours for the post will be 30 hours per week (4 day working week)

The Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire & Berkshire West contracting team region currently has an opportunity for Maternity cover for a Band 5 Contract Support Officer on a fixed term basis for 12 months.

As a core administrative role, the successful candidate will be responsible for all aspects of administration for the team and will require strong organisational and administrative skills, including the ability to accurately minute meetings and manage calendars.

The role will include providing support on both internal and external meetings, (including minute taking, agenda setting and management of issue logs/action trackers) as well as providing input and support on multiple contracts, as allocated.

The post holder will be required to process and check invoices, ensuring validation of coding and charging to ensure timely payment. Therefore, the role requires the ability to analyse a range of information, e.g., financial and clinical, from a range of sources to support contract reporting, contract negotiation and service development.

Applicants should have strong numeracy and analytical skills and be articulate, with excellent written and verbal communication skills. Previous NHS experience and experience of working with MS Word, MS Outlook & MS Excel are required. Experience of contract management within an NHS setting would be an advantage.

Main duties of the job

• As Contract Assistant Manager will be responsible for supporting the contract portfolio with multiple providers on behalf of the ICB.
• The post holder will actively assist in the contract management and administration of a wide range of healthcare providers including Acute, Community, Primary Care (GPs) and Primary Care Networks, the Independent Sector and the Voluntary Sector
• The post holder will support arrangements where the ICB is an associate to a provider contract, and the proper management of all other forms of provider contract including Any Qualified Provider arrangements.
• Provide administrative support to provider performance meetings, including minute taking, agenda setting, management of issue logs/action trackers and follow-up of actions required in between meetings, all within agreed timeframes.
• Manage documentation throughout the contracts process, ensuring that contract documentation is kept up to date, including records of routine correspondence and disputes.
• Recording/noting key issues and actions from commissioning/contracting meetings, onward briefing to team/directorate members as required.
• Responsible for supporting contract negotiations within the agreed planning cycle, ensuring all key deliverables are incorporated into the negotiation process.
• Ensuring that contractual amendments are enacted and documented in response to service change proposals.

About us

In the heart of the Thames Valley is our Integrated Care Board (ICB). It covers the geography across three counties and goes in line with the local authority boundaries of Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Reading, West Berkshire and Wokingham. Our geography covers a population of nearly 1.8 million. While overall in good health and socio-economic condition, alongside affluence we have pockets of severe deprivation.

Our constituent organisations include 175 GP surgeries, 5 local authorities, 3 acute hospital trusts, 2 mental health and community providers, 1 ambulance trust and a single operating model across all of this, spending £2.5bn of public money each year.

We value and promote diversity and are committed to equality of opportunity for all. We believe that the best organisations are those that reflect the communities they serve. We want to increase the diversity of our NHS leadership and particularly encourage applications from women, people from black and minority ethnic communities, LGBT communities, younger candidates and from people with lived experience of disability, who we know are all under-represented in these important roles.