WELCOME TO INFORM, July 2023
Clive Anderson, Director of Capital Projects
We are at the forefront of the Government's priority to transform the Civil Service and deliver better services to the citizens of the UK. We do this by reshaping the relationship civil servants have with their workplace.
We are central to the delivery of key government policies, delivering best value from the Government's office and warehouse portfolios and supporting economic growth in all regions of the UK, achieving our net zero ambitions and wider Greening Government Commitments.
Through our Government Hubs Programme we are delivering modern, sustainable and digitally-connected workplaces that focus on supporting productivity in a hybrid working environment. Beyond the bricks and mortar, we are creating great places to work.
Through InForm, our quarterly newsletter, we will keep you informed of our achievements, milestones and key priorities we have underway, as well as upcoming opportunities.
Firstly, I'd like to share some good news and extend a warm welcome to our three new Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) who have joined our Board. Roger Blundell, Helen Gillett and Ronen Journo joined us on 1 April and will work alongside our Chair Pat Ritchie and our four existing NEDs, Robert Razzell, Jane Hamilton, Jonathan Thompson, and Carol Bernard.
We also started the year with some fantastic news that our Birmingham office at 23 Stephenson Street achieved Leesman+ certification. This means it officially offers an outstanding workplace experience. And is rated the best employee experience in the UK's public sector.
Minister Jeremy Quin broke ground at our Manchester Hub in February and our Peterborough Hub at Quay House also officially opened in March after a successful phased induction programme for all staff.
And we are pleased to have announced our new strategic partnership with JLL as our Workplace Services Performance Partner as part of our Workplace Services Transformation Programme.
Finally, we recently published our Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23 and our Business Plan 2023/24. These highlight our many successes as well as our journey ahead. You can read these on GOV.UK:
I look forward to sharing more updates, improvements and achievements with you in the coming months.
In this issue:
- We welcome three new Non-Executive Directors to our board
- Voice of the Supplier Survey - Thank you
- Introducing our new finance systems, simplifying our invoice processes
- Short-term furniture solution furnishes the GPA Hubs faster
- Manchester First Street hub wins three awards!
- Our Manchester Hub gets its first concrete pour
- Integrating new starters effectively at our first new build in Peterborough
- CPNI's 'Think Before you Link' app to counter malicious approaches online
- The GPA supports a new pilot furniture donation scheme
- Smarter Working Live Award winners announced
We welcome three new Non-Executive Directors to our board
We are pleased to announce three new Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) to join our Board.
Roger Blundell, Helen Gillett and Ronen Journo joined us on 1 April and will work alongside our Chair Pat Ritchie and our four existing NEDs, Robert Razzell, Jane Hamilton, Jonathan Thompson, and Carol Bernard.
The GPA Board's principal function is to advise Steven Boyd, as our Chief Executive and the Cabinet Office on the strategic direction of the Agency. The Board and its sub-committees are our top level of governance and provide an important link to our ministers.
Pat Ritchie, our Chair, spoke of the appointments:
I am delighted we have been able to attract three high calibre NEDs to join the GPA Board. They will further strengthen the board bringing a wealth of commercial experience from a variety of sectors and I look forward to working with them and our existing board members to support the delivery of our ambitious 10-year strategy for the GPA.
Steven Boyd, our CEO, also added:
I am very pleased that Helen, Roger and Ronen have joined the GPA Board. They all have extensive experience of leading in large and well-respected organisations. They are strengthening the Board with their deep knowledge and expertise in property, commercial, and customer experience. I look forward to working with them to deliver Government priorities.
Below is a summary of our new Board members.
Roger Blundell is an experienced finance director, working across both public and private companies as well as public bodies, in a variety of sectors including commercial and residential real estate, financial services, retail, broadcasting / digital media, the arts and education. Most recently Roger was Chief Financial Officer of Grosvenor UK, a pre-eminent investment and development company. Roger will chair the GPA's Investment Committee.
Roger commented:
I am delighted to be joining the GPA Board as a Non-Executive Director and as Chair of the Investment Committee. I value the opportunity to work with the GPA's colleagues and I look forward to contributing my financial and commercial experience to help the GPA deliver on its ambitious 2030 Strategy.
Helen Gillett has more than 25 years experience in the IT/Telecoms and Utilities sectors, with in-depth expertise in client and customer service. Alongside her new role for the GPA, she is also a Non-Executive Director for Orbit Group, one of the largest housing groups in the country and the UK's leading developer of new homes for affordable and social rent. She volunteers as a mentor for a number of social mobility and inclusion programmes.
Helen spoke of her appointment:
I'm really pleased to be given the opportunity to work with the GPA at such an exciting phase in the business and I look forward to helping the team embed their strategy, through the client and customer lens, to create great places to work.
Ronen Journo joined Hines in 2020 to lead Management Services in Europe. He has almost 30 years of experience in the sector, previously holding roles at WeWork and Cisco. He is an expert in global workplace trends, technology and corporate real estate operations and continues to use his experience to create people-centric, and technology driven workplaces that are fit for the future. In addition to his role at Hines, Ronen sits on the Urban Land Institute's Co-Chair Technology and Real Estate Council, and Editorial Oversight Committee.
Ronen said:
I am extremely pleased to be joining the GPA Board and contributing my experience and expertise in the real estate industry to help the GPA continue to deliver transformation in the way civil servants work, and in the stewardship of a sustainable and efficient Government estate.
Voice of the Supplier Survey - thank you
In our 22/23 Business Plan we committed to introducing regular supplier relationship surveys. We do this through Voice of the Supplier surveys, which is a generic Cabinet Office Markets, Sourcing and Suppliers survey.
The findings gathered enable us to see where we need to do better with our supplier relationships across the commercial life cycle of contracts. They also offer us the opportunity to benchmark our performance against other departments.
Thank you to the many of you who took the time to complete the surveys. We've captured a valuable data pool which we will be using to improve the way we work with you through your engagement journey, from procurement to contract management and invoice payment.
We will be carrying out these surveys periodically, and will be in contact with you again shortly.
Introducing our new finance systems, simplifying our invoice processes
We have implemented a new central finance system, Proactis, which launched in April. It will simplify how purchase orders are raised, and automate necessary approvals. It will also support the matching of invoices to POs, and automatically feed expenditure into our new General Ledger.
Our Proactis solution also includes a new invoicing process and supplier relationship management (SRM) portal.
Purchase to Pay - new invoicing process
Our new invoicing process means we are now operating a 'No Purchase Order (PO), No Pay' policy. This is consistent with the standard payment terms in our contracts and those of other government departments.
