How SSRM elevates delivery at Royal Stoke University Hospital  

As one of only 15 strategic suppliers to the NHS, Sodexo Health & Care has been working with our long-standing partner, UHNM, to innovate delivery at Royal Stoke University Hospital. By embedding the Strategic Supplier Relationship Management (SSRM) model at all levels of our partnership, we’re powering efficiencies, creating better experiences and more sustainable communities, together.

To celebrate our success and help to inspire the wider industry, we asked some of the key figures involved to reflect on their experience at our annual Partnership Day. In this video, you can hear representatives from both organisations explain how working in lockstep is releasing tangible benefits everywhere from paediatric nutrition to patient flow:

The SSRM model aims to move beyond transactional client/supplier agreements and create long-term, collaborative partnerships capable of reducing costs, managing risk and driving innovation.  

Sodexo Health & Care’s Director of Strategy and Marketing, Simon Lilley, sums up the approach as patient-first, contract second; a way of “delivering greater value, collectively.” He sees three clear benefits:

• Improved outcomes, through aligning efforts to enhance service delivery and provide clinical support
• Better workforce engagement through joint initiatives that improve both workplace culture and the staff experience
• Enhanced relationships able to drive efficiencies through a more mature, trust-based model

Underpinning our success to date has been the co-creation of our 2019 joint business plan. By turning our focus towards shared challenges and opportunities – and away from contractual obligations – it’s helped us to take a successful 15-year relationship to the next level. 

In addition to supporting patient-centred care, the SSRM has also elevated the client experience. As Director of Estates, Facilities and PFI at UHNM, Lorraine Whitehead has seen first-hand how the partnership has delivered a safe, sustainable and digitally enabled NHS at Royal Stoke University Hospital.

With high engagement, strong governance and innovation programmes that work for today while transforming for tomorrow, she believes the partnership is well-placed for the future. This includes through a shared commitment to tackling climate change.

Sodexo holds the highest maturity level in the NHS Evergreen Sustainable Supplier Assessment, which promotes carbon reduction, ethical sourcing and social value creation in alignment with the NHS’s 2045 Net Zero target.  

This sophistication is clear to see at Royal Stoke University Hospital, where shared sustainability goals run through all aspects of our partnership; even asset lifecycle planning is aligned to UHNM’s own Green Plan. 

After UHNM sought our input, we’re now working together on a range of initiatives designed to ease cost pressures, including a review of all activities to consider the value added and resources required. We’re also developing a space utilisation plan that will see a purpose-built Sodexo retail village created, releasing space for clinical activity and enabling the closure of older, more costly parts of the estate.

With complete alignment on goals, strategies and initiatives – and a strong relationship built on trust – we are looking forward to even greater success in the years ahead.   

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