In March 2020 the Chancellor committed a budget of £1.4 billion to maintain and redevelop the specialist science and diagnostic facilities at APHA’s main site in Weybridge, Surrey. This investment marked the start of a long-term programme of work to transform the estate and the science it delivers, with the provision of up-to-date, modern facilities necessary to meet the UK’s ambitions as a scientific superpower and maintain APHA’s world-leading expertise.

27C were engaged to deliver the first phase of this programme which was to take the initial development work in the outline business case and the current thinking, and draft organisational structures to create a proposed structure including considerations on types of roles required, proposed resourcing approach short term, mid-term (recruit permanent, FTAs, contractor, partner), potential levels and costs.

Following board approval of the structure 27C were maintained to implement the resourcing strategy which included consolidating staffing strategies into an end to end service and bringing in contractors and consultants in to fulfil short term needs as well as delivering recruitment campaigns to replace contractors and to fill posts that had been identified as requiring permanent staff.

“27C’s considerable experience within the construction sector in particular has been invaluable in getting short term technical resources in place”

In 2019, a new joint unit, NHSX, was created within the NHS to build world-class digital services with the aim of bringing modern technology to every patient and clinician by combining the best talent from government, the NHS and industry.
NHSX had strategic responsibility for setting the national direction on technology across organisations and was accountable to the Health Secretary and chief executives of NHS England and NHS Improvement.
NHSX also needed to work closely with the Government Digital Service and other central government functions to learn from their experiences and ensure there was continued alignment with the Digital, Data and Technology profession across government. People from across the NHS and the civil service were seconded into this new organisation.

27C were engaged to work with the CEO to develop roles for, and recruit the Executive Leadership Team. As this was a new flagship programme for the Secretary of State, there was an expectation that the team would be in place very quickly, however there was uncertainty among the seconded teams about what the top structure would look and who would be responsible for what and, this new department was under scrutiny for the lack of BME diversity and was receiving high levels of negative press.

In the following months we were able to quickly recruit the entire senior team, including a Chief Technology Officer, Digital Transformation Director, Chief Digital Office, Chief Information Officer and a Director of Platforms. We recruited 25 roles of which 6 were BME candidates. The campaigns were also gender balanced; 15 of the successful candidates were female 2 of which were also BME.

The following year we were asked to recruit a further 26 roles. We successfully completed this work and this was also gender and BME balanced with 10 females (38%) and 12 BME (46%).

“My experience with 27C has been fantastic. The team has been responsive, thorough and diligent. Furthermore, in all the roles we recruited to, we had the strongest pipeline of candidates I’ve seen”

NHSBT was formed in 2005 by bringing together the National Blood Service and UK Transplant. They employ over 6,400 people across the UK, with a total revenue of over £531 million. NHSBT plays a unique role in the NHS – they produce life-saving and life-improving products and treatments from donated blood, organs, tissues and stem cells, and provide a range of related diagnostic and therapeutic services.

Like every organisation, their success is contingent on having a highly skilled and motivated workforce and one which reflects the diversity of the population. To fulfil their strategic aims of making NHSBT a destination of top talent and a great place to work for everyone, they needed to completely revamp their approach to recruitment and promotion and develop a high performing and inclusive culture through investment in leadership and organisational development.

Between 2020 and 2023, 27C worked as an in-house HR & Recruitment partner to NHSBT. During this time we helped them to design roles and recruit 145 people including;-

“ A heartfelt thanks from me for all you’ve helped us with. Your support was amazing when I joined in 2021 and we genuinely could not have coped without you”

Following two unsuccessful attempts to recruit a CISO, the Department of Education asked 27 C to find a solution that would result in a successful appointment. We believed that the previous campaigns had failed for two reasons, firstly, the job description was written as if the role was for a Head of Security and, in line with policy, the role had been advertised at the bottom of the pay band.

For our campaign, we wrote a business case to get agreement to advertise and pay a higher salary. The business case included market intelligence about the CISO profession and evidence to support the case. The business case was approved and we were able to advertise at a higher rate. We rewrote the job description and advertising materials and used our networks to engage with the passive CISO market and gain referrals. We also designed the process to include an assessment stage prior to the final selection.

The campaign closed with 34 applications, 12 candidates were invited to the first stage assessment and 5 were chosen for final interview. At the end, 2 candidates were ‘above the line”, one male and one female. We negotiated offers and kept in contact with the successful candidate who started three months later.

Please see HERE for further details of senior roles that 27C have recruited