Our story: Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council Procurement

The team consists of one manager, one senior officer, two officers, two assistant officers, one administrator and one apprentice. We currently have 2 full-time vacancies for officer positions which we are looking to fill.

Our team contains a mixture of those from both the private and public sector originally, as well as staff who started at the council and have learnt and gained procurement experience throughout their time here.

We are currently supporting one member of our team through their CIPS Level 4 qualifications, with one team member recently gaining their qualification. 18 months ago, we also introduced our first Procurement and Contracts Apprentice role.

In October 2023 we expanded and introduced two new Assistant Procurement and Contracts Officer roles. These were created with the intention of bringing in employees from outside the public sector procurement realm of experience, allowing them to get on the job training and experience to start a career in public procurement.

As the current Procurement and Contracts Manager, Kelly has just completed her 10^th year of service at Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council. Throughout that time, she has been supported to undertake Levels 4, 5 and 6 of CIPS and has been fortunate to experience many opportunities for development. Her first role in the procurement team was actually a temporary administration post, she loved the nature and variety of work and stayed on in a permanent position. From there Kelly progressed to a trainee officer, then moved up to the senior position and eventually the manager role.

Having been someone, who like many in procurement, fell into it by accident and having benefitted from opportunities to grow and develop through hard work at Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, Kelly is particularly keen to help others learn. Now having filled all our training related posts, we are keen to find the right candidates to join our team as experienced officers, ensuring that we can prepare and support a new generation of people with a passion for public procurement.