Blog: GO Awards Ceremony, Liverpool

Published: 24 May 2024

Thursday 16th May, Titanic Hotel, Liverpool

Judith Hughes, Associate Director of Procurement (MCIPS), HQIP.

The aim of the UK National GO Awards is to recognise the achievements and successes of all those involved in the delivery of public sector services from across the UK, including collaboration from the public, private or third sectors. The entries are judged by leading national procurement figures.

How did HQIP get involved?

Back in December 2023 I’d received an email about the awards and began thinking about what category we could enter, there were 12 awards up for grabs across a range of categories from best procurement delivery, social value , collaborative procurement initiative to procurement team of the year, through a variety of internal conversations we decided to go for best procurement delivery award for the National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) tender, we liaised with NHS England to ensure there were no blockers for us to enter.

Over the course of Jan – Mar 2024 we fine tuned the entry, this involved Caroline Rogers, Natalia Plejic, Yvonne Silove, Kim Rezel, Jonathan Williams and myself.

We had to describe the procurement exercise that was undertaken and to whom the contract is being delivered, why the procurement was undertaken, the aims and deliverables that were desired, the areas in which the procurement exceeded the requirements, and the critical success factors to successful delivery.

Following that we gave details on the following areas, this was no mean feat as we only had 300 words per area!

  • market engagement/market scoping and who was involved our own organisation or with end users, potential providers or any other interested groups (e.g. third sector, voluntary sector, etc.)
  • describe any barriers to success that you encountered, whether at pre-market engagement, during the procurement exercise or at implementation of the contract and explain how these were overcome.
  • what outcomes have been achieved to date, since the commencement of the contract and whether these match the deliverables anticipated at the outset.
  • what areas has the contract exceeded the expectations of the authority, stakeholders and/or end users, such as through innovation or social/environmental initiatives, delivering over and above the core requirement?
  • the outcomes/benefits resulting from this procurement been shared both across your organisation and with other organisations to help shape future procurement?

GO Awards Ceremony

The UK National GO Awards Ceremony took place on 16 May 2024 at the Titanic Hotel, Liverpool. It was a black-tie event and was fabulous to see all the glitz and glamour that comes with that, and especially the HQIP team, we all scrubbed up well!

There were circa 500 people at the awards with representatives from a wide range of organisations such as NHS Wales, Crown Commercial Services, Westminster City Council, Ministry of Defence, Luton Airport and Education Authority of Northern Ireland.

HQIP shared a table with Wrexham Council who were up for Procurement Team of the Year. Holly Hamilton of BBC Sport was the guest speaker for the evening and she did a great job of keeping things running smoothly.

The first award of the evening was Best Procurement Delivery, we were ready to head to the stage and receive our award but it wasn’t to be this year, NHS Wales were the victors. The evening progressed with many an acceptance speech and some excellent entertainment which had the whole room taking part in a musical extravaganza.

Overall it was an excellent evening celebrating the great achievements of public sector organisations and the innovation that procurement professionals are bringing to the forefront of public services. It made me proud to be representing HQIP knowing that we are delivering an excellent procurement service, delivering robust tenders and awarding contracts that will leave a lasting legacy.

We may not have won the GO Award this year, but we most certainly will be entering next year, we’ve learned a great deal by attending, we may be down but we’re not out!