Procurement transformation and advisory
Procurement that works, led by people who have run it.
Transformation programmes, advisory support and interim procurement leadership for contracting authorities: Procurement Act 2023 implementation, governance and controls, efficiency and value for money.
The point
Transformation is not a new procedure manual. It is spend you can see, decisions you can evidence and a team that knows which rule it is applying.
What we take on
Six areas, in whatever combination your position needs.
Act implementation
Contract procedure rules and financial regulations rewritten for the Procurement Act 2023. Notice workflows on the central digital platform, and through Sell2Wales in Wales. Competitive flexible procedures designed for your requirements. Evaluation models built on the most advantageous tender. Direct award, modification and change notice controls. Records kept the way the Act expects them to be produced.
Governance and controls
A gateway process with classification tests at the business case stage, so route, value, exemption and land-or-works decisions are made and recorded before approval. Delegated authority that matches the thresholds. An end to retrospective approvals, and an escalation route for non-compliant spend that people actually use.
Spend and contract data
A contract register rebuilt and kept current. Spend tracked by contract rather than by supplier, so value drift is visible. An expiry and re-procurement calendar that drives the notices, the market engagement and the workload plan.
Efficiency and value for money
Cumulative spend brought under procured contracts. Duplicate suppliers consolidated. Auto-renewals renegotiated or re-competed. The administration cost of small payments removed. Category strategies and market engagement plans for the spend that matters most.
Advisory support
The decisions that carry risk, answered when they arise: whether a requirement is in scope or exempt, the route for a direct award, whether a modification needs a change notice or a new procurement, how to handle a supplier challenge, what a business case needs before approval. Retained or as needed, with the legal requirement, your own rules and good practice kept separate.
Capability and handover
Templates, guidance and training for officers and budget holders. Coaching for the procurement team. A permanent role recruited into, where that is the plan, with a clean handover rather than a dependency.
Interim leadership
A senior practitioner in the seat from week one.
Assignments are scoped with agreed days per week, a defined programme and a defined handover point.
- Live procurements kept moving.Tenders designed and run, clarifications managed, evaluations moderated, awards made, standstill observed, contracts signed. Nothing waits for the permanent appointment.
- Papers your board can act on.Highlight reports, resource impact assessments, business cases and committee papers that separate what the Act requires from what your own rules require and from what is good practice.
- Supplier challenge handled.Clarification disputes, standstill correspondence and complaints answered from the record, with the record built so it can be answered from.
- Legacy contracts reviewed.Extensions, variations and auto-renewals inherited from the previous regime assessed, and a re-procurement programme sequenced by risk and value.
- The team built up, not bypassed.Officers work alongside the interim lead on real procurements, so capability stays when the assignment ends.
How a programme runs
Diagnose, plan, deliver, embed.
Diagnostic
Where the spend is, what the register shows, what the rules say and where practice departs from them. Often a compliance review is the diagnostic.
Plan
Priorities, owners and dates, agreed with your leadership team, with the legal requirements, your own rules and good practice labelled separately.
Deliver
Procedures, procurements, notices, evaluations, contracts and papers, done inside the organisation with your team.
Embed
Training, templates, measures and a handover, so the position holds after we leave.
Current work
Inside a housing association in Wales.
Nexus holds an interim procurement role delivering a procurement transformation programme: Procurement Act 2023 implementation, compliance, efficiency and value for money, alongside the regular procurements, highlight reports and resource impact assessments the organisation needs week to week. The work reports to the executive team and the board.
It is the same combination most authorities need: the Act applied properly, spend under control, and the capacity to keep both going.
All services for contracting authoritiesQuestions we are asked
About transformation, advisory and interim work.
Do you take interim roles, or only advisory work?
Both. Interim assignments are the most direct way to deliver a transformation, because the person designing the controls is also running the procurements they apply to.
Can you work with our existing procurement team?
Yes, and that is the point. Officers work alongside us on real procurements, templates and guidance are left behind, and the handover is planned from the start.
Do you cover Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland?
Yes. Sell2Wales and the Welsh exemptions on publishing contract documents, Northern Ireland's arrangements under the Act, and Scotland's own procurement legislation are all part of how we advise.
Can we call you about a single decision?
Yes. Advisory support covers exactly that: a scope question, a direct award, a modification, a challenge, a business case. Retained for authorities that want us on call, or as needed.
How do you charge?
Interim assignments at a day rate for an agreed number of days per week. Programmes at a fixed fee against defined deliverables. Advisory support retained monthly or as needed.
Where does a compliance review fit?
Usually at the start. It gives the programme its baseline, its priorities and its savings case, and it gives your board a number to measure progress against.