The Cabinet Office supports the Prime Minister and ensures the effective running of government. It is also the corporate headquarters for government, in partnership with HM Treasury, and takes the lead in certain critical policy areas. The Cabinet Office introduced a new approach for how government engages with its key strategic suppliers in 2011 – the ‘Crown Representative’ network, which acts as a focal point for particular groups of providers looking to supply to the public sector.

Crown Representatives help the government to act as a single customer. They work across departments to:

• Ensure that a single and strategic view of the government’s needs is communicated to the market
• Identify areas for cost savings
• Act as a point of focus for cross-cutting supplier-related issues

Crown Representatives cover all sectors of service provision including small and medium enterprises, voluntary sector organisations, mutually owned organisations, large suppliers and specific sectors. The Government is committed to doing business in new and innovative ways, and the team of Crown Representatives is at the heart of this work and the reforms currently underway.

The Small Business Crown Representative’s task will be to help government get best value from small businesses and drive the manifesto commitment to ‘support start-ups and small businesses via government procurement, and commit to paying them on time’ and build on the measures taken to date by the Government to increase spend with SMEs both directly and in the supply chain.

The Crown Representative will be joining at a pivotal time with the new Procurement Bill currently going through Parliament. This is a huge opportunity for a proactive individual to play a key role in the implementation of these new reforms to ensure that SMEs benefit from the simpler and more flexible regime which will open up more government procurement for small businesses.

The Crown Representative will work with the Government’s Commercial Function, the Cabinet Office’s Small Business Advisory Panel, departments and other Crown Representatives to identify opportunities to tackle barriers and further level the playing field for small businesses and startups in government procurement. They will also act as an advocate promoting the SME agenda internally and externally, including championing the Government's prompt payment initiatives and development and implementation of the new central platform to support procurement reform which will enable SMEs to have greater visibility of future opportunities in their region.

They will, on behalf of the Government and with the Small Business Policy Team:

• Hold departments to account on maximising their procurement spend with SMEs both directly and through the supply chain
• Champion the new reforms in the Procurement Bill, which simplify and streamline Government procurement to make it easier and simpler for SMEs to bid to stakeholders including small businesses, trade organisations and public sector organisations
• Represent and ensure that views and interests of SMEs are understood and reflected in legislative and policy development on digital platforms to ensure that SMEs benefit from the implementation of the bill
• Proactively identify strategic opportunities for the Government to secure better value via small businesses and start-ups and provide feedback to senior officials to help shape advice to Ministers
• Work with the Small Business Advisory Panel to develop priority workstrands to drive change through programmes of work focussed on relevant SME policy, including payment in government supply chains
• Attend the Commercial Relationships Board (CRB) which is held every six weeks to update and challenge on SME related developments with the Strategic Suppliers on their SME opportunities through the supply chain

This role requires an individual with experience of procurement and commercial issues which impact SMEs and startups including prompt payment, economic and financial standing and relevant experience asked for at point of bidding.

Essential Criteria:

• Good understanding of public procurement and the barriers to entry for Small Businesses and startups
• Excellent knowledge of digital systems used in private or public sector contracting
• Proven expertise in SMEs contracting with government / the public sector either directly or in the supply chain
• Excellent grasp of business, commercial and operational issues (with a particular focus on digital)
• Strong stakeholder management skills, able to lead regular, effective engagement with diverse groups and government departments at the most senior levels
• Outstanding communication skills and experienced user of using social media / networking platforms to promote key messages to diverse and wide networks
• Excellent representation, public advocacy and media-handling skills
• Ability to think innovatively and use experience in private and public sector contracting to recommend solutions to small business challenges in Government contracting

Reporting line: This post reports to the Head of the Crown Representative Programme and Government Chief Commercial Officer (currently Gareth Rhys Williams) and on a day-to-day basis works with Senior Officials in the Small Business and Payment Policy Team.

The time commitment required for this role would be 2-3 days per week. There will be flexibility in the total time commitment, depending on demands of key stakeholders and ministerial expectations. The selected candidate for the Crown Representative role will have flexibility to shape the role to ensure that they are supporting Government's commitment to the SME agenda.

Existing commitments are taken into account and allowances can be made accordingly where feasible. The compensation is on a per-diem basis, with fees of £500 per day. Reasonable expenses are covered. Appointments are generally for a 12-month period, on a fixed term basis with the option to extend. The appropriate support for diary management and information provision is given.

The majority of meetings are expected to be held in Westminster, London but there will also be some travel required across the UK to meet with key stakeholders and for relevant meetings and events.