Contract management skills

•  Good communication skills: during the transition period, the contract manager will spend a majority of time dealing with people - the private sector team; the Authority team; external advisers; stakeholders including users and other interested parties.  Relationships are likely to breakdown when parties do not understand each other's position or where poor communication has led to misunderstanding;

•  Negotiation skills: agreeing the costs of variations; working through the benchmarking and market testing exercises are occasions which the contract manager will need to negotiate with the Contractor.  The contract manager will act as project champion within the Authority and will need to negotiate internally with other members of the Authority e.g. with clinical staff over changes in service provision;

•  Financial skills and awareness: research into PPP's identified that many Authorities regarded their payment mechanism as complicated. The contract manager will need to understand the mechanism to work with the FM Contractor for the benefit of the Authority, and to ensure that the recording system is consistent with contractual requirements ;

•  Skills to manage change; the operational phase will mean a new way of working for many Authorities as they have now become procurer of services rather than deliverer.  Users may perceive the new way of working as a loss of control therefore the contract manager should prepare users and support them if there are problems during the transition period; and

•  Analytical skills: the contract manager will need to be able to analyse the contractual documents and put in place practical monitoring processes regarding the provisions of the project.