Care home provider, Sunrise Senior Living UK, has been shortlisted for Best Approach to Risk Mitigation in the Excellence in Procurement Awards 2020. These are the top procurement awards in the UK, organised by the Chartered Institute of Procurement (CIPS).
This category rewards teams who have successfully managed business risk in order to safeguard their organisations against cost or reputational damage, or mitigated risk within the business or supply chain to gain competitive advantage. Sunrise Senior Living’s UK shortlisting was due to their triumph in Project PPE, as they successfully procured sufficient Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) supplies for all their UK care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
When COVID-19 first hit the UK, all care homes had to quickly source adequate PPE for their staff. This is not something that would normally have been planned for, as it is very rare this sort of equipment is needed in such large quantities for day-to-day operations in a care home.
Within 24 hours of being tasked with managing the PPE supply risk, the team had solved the problem and secured ongoing supplies for the UK.
During the initial stages of the pandemic, The UK Sunrise Procurement Team was also able to support Sunrise US, and their 300 sites. Within 10 days, the team had supported Sunrise Senior Living US with ordering, managing transportation, customs and duty requirements and delivered 300,000 face masks. This bought them valuable time to establish their own more localised supply chain.
Due to the early success of the Sunrise Procurement team, they were able to support additional care providers across the UK, too. They helped 12 other care providers with PPE supplies, without compromising their own supply chain.
Christopher Dean, Director of Procurement at Sunrise Senior Living UK, said: “We are so proud of our team for their significant efforts throughout this pandemic. Our quick thinking has helped minimise risk of transmission and maximise the safety of residents. It was also amazing that we could help our colleagues in the US as well as other care providers in the UK with procurement of essential PPE.
“We have now been able to expand our procurement team and we are so pleased to be shortlisted for this prestigious award. We look forward to supporting all our care homes in transitioning smoothly out the other side of this and establish a new normal.”
