Issue - meetings

The Mayor and Executive Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health submitted a report for Executive’s consideration.

As local authorities were required to become increasingly financially self-reliant, many were looking at how to make their limited resources go ever further while still maintaining the quality and breadth of services.

Councils, along with the rest of the public sector were being encouraged to use procurement to achieve wider financial and non-financial outcomes, including improving wellbeing of individuals, communities and the environment by making social value a decision-making criterion when awarding contracts.

·        Adoption and effective implementation of a Social Value Charter had the potential to deliver the following benefits:

·        Encourage a more diverse range of suppliers to work with the Council and its partners, including the participation of small and medium sized enterprises (SME's), Voluntary and Community Sector organisations, and local suppliers in general.

·        Promote fair employment practices: Ensuring workforce equality and diversity within supply chains.

·        Increasing the diversity of local apprenticeship, training, and skills development opportunities as well as employment opportunities.

·        Maximising opportunities for Middlesbrough organisations to participate in the council's supply chains and encouraging suppliers to make a social contribution to the local area.

·        Ensuring ethical sourcing practices, including compliance with UK, and international standards, promoting fair trade and fair pricing policies, tackling corruption, child/slave labour, blacklisting of union members and similar social issues.

·        Promoting greater environmental sustainability: Minimising waste and pollution, supporting carbon reduction initiatives, furthering energy efficiency and other sustainability programmes.

ORDERED

That the Executive:

1.     Approve the Social Value Charter, attached to this report at Appendix One and that Council practices are amended to align with its requirements.

2.     Approve the guidance document that will be put in place to support implementation. The implementation plans set out within this report would ensure consideration of social value be embedded within all of the Council’s practices, in particular procurement and decision-making practices.

OPTIONS

The Council could choose not to adopt a Social Value Charter. It would remain compliant with its duties in relation to Best Value. This was not recommended as an option as the Council would miss the opportunity to deliver the wider benefits to the organisation and the town that could be achieved through social value, while still achieving Best Value from its commissioning and procurement activity.

REASONS

Social Value had the potential to release millions of pounds of public money for community benefit and support regeneration of the town. It encouraged smarter spending to not only deliver a proposed service but also address social, economic, and environmental issues in the local community. Adoption of this Charter would ensure the Council’s significant procurement spend had a positive, measurable impact on the communities it served.