'A year on’
STAR Procurement is celebrating a successful year of securing a huge amount of Social Value for our local communities through procurement activity. Just over a year ago, we began using the Social Value Portal to enable us to capture, record, contract manage and to ensure delivery of Social Value through procurement across the STAR Partners. The results: We have secured 25% of contract value in Social Value in one year, equating to over £31m of Social Value being delivered. Over half of this Social Value is being delivered by local organisations (in Greater Manchester) for local communities.
We have seen an increase of local bidders, an increase of local contract winners including an increased engagement from SMEs and VCSEs. We use the Social Value Portal for all procurements above £50K resulting in contracted, performance measures for over 75% of contracts. We maintain a weighting of 20% on average in all procurement and feel this is relevant, proportionate and delivers the very best value.
Social Valuehas not stopped because of the COVID-19 crisis, in fact we have secured more relevant Social Value during the lockdown phase, with organisations offering more and different Social Value to help the local communities. We have developed a 10-point plan to help with the recovery, and Social Value is one way we are helping. For example, we are the first authority to implement the COVID Plug-In which gives current and new suppliers the option to provide Social Value related to the COVID crisis and recovery.
Director of STAR Procurement, Lorraine Cox stated
“Our amazing outcomes are not just the result of implementing a new system, it has been through a campaign of ‘Social Value is Everyone’s Business’ This has had support from the top, Members and Chief Officers as well as the commissioners/buyers within our organisations”.
Cllr Oliver Ryan, Chair of the STAR Joint Committee said
“STAR Procurement are the trail blazers’ for Social Value in the UK and internationally. They are the first to implement the Social Value Portal on this scale and across a shared service, and the results are well beyond our initial expectations. This has been achieved through exceptional leadership and commitment from our four organisations. It doesn’t stop here, we have more plans for the future and STAR will continue to lead the way and show the real difference Social Value is making to our local communities”.
Posted on Tuesday 23rd June 2020