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The public sector alone has huge potential to influence sustainable development through its purchasing power and standards
Did you know?
The NHS procurement budget in the North West is over £2.2 billion annually.
The public sector in England spends around £1.8 billion on food and catering services? The money is spent on supplying approximately 61,500 catering outlets and serving 1.8 billion meals annually.
(source: NW Food Alliance website)
Local councils have an obligation to engage actively with suppliers including small businesses and to use procurement to achieve corporate aims, including community, environmental and social benefits.
[ODPM website (National Procurement Strategy for Local Government)]
How can Responsibility Northwest help?
Responsibility Northwest works with buyers and suppliers to promote sustainable public procurement.
The Northwest NHS Suppliers Bureau Project
The Northwest NHS Suppliers Bureau project will enable small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as other organisations, to be more successful in accessing local NHS contracts.
Northwest NHS Suppliers Bureau shows local suppliers, through the support of Groundwork EBS and NHS experts, how to develop the necessary operational standards, knowledge and competitive edge to secure more of the massive NHS procurement budget - over £2.2 Billion annually in the North West alone. The Northwest NHS Suppliers Bureau programme will cover health, safety and environmental training and business development support. It will also cover NHS tendering procedures, OJEC rules, routes to increased opportunity with the NHS and 'e-trading'.
To register your interest, please contact info@groundwork.org.uk or call us on 0151 644 4720
The Northwest Food Alliance
The Government now wants buyers and their internal customers to use their buying power to help deliver a number of objectives that include increasing consumption of healthy and nutritious food, increasing the contribution of local suppliers and meeting the principle aims of the Government's Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food in England.
Northwest Food Alliance is working in partnership to deliver these objectives and to signpost opportunities for North West Food companies to tender for major public procurement contracts
Northwest Food Alliance runs events on public procurement opportunities, local food sourcing opportunities and has a comprehensive list on its website of public sector contracts.
http://www.nwfoodalliance.co.uk/public_procurement.php
For more details contact Jenny Morse Tel: 01928 513777
Local Government Information
http://www.odpm.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1136731#TopOfPage
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has information on what councils and local authorities should be doing to promote community, environmental and social benefits through procurement, including how they work with SMEs. A look at their website will give you an idea of some of the things they might be looking for from suppliers. These include things like building diversity and equality into contracts, so suppliers will need to prove they have policies, procedures and follow best practice on these issues. The weblink includes examples of case studies from particular councils.
North West Centre of Excellence for Procurement (Word document)
The National Procurement Concordat for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises is a statement of principles to encourage effective trade between local authorities and small businesses (particularly those with less than 50 employees). The concordat sets out the actions that local authorities will take to make their contracts more accessible to SMEs.
Useful links:
Audit Commission
www.audit-commission.gov.uk
Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply
www.cips.org
Employers Organisation
www.lg-employers.gov.uk
Improvement and Development Agency
www.idea.gov.uk/procurement
www.idea.gov.uk/marketplace
www.idea.gov.uk/knowledge
Local Government Association
www.lga.gov.uk
Local Government Task Force - Rethinking Construction
www.lgtf.org.uk
ODPM
www.odpm.gov.uk
ODPM - Strategic Partnering Taskforce
www.odpm.gov.uk
4ps
www.4ps.gov.uk
Society of Procurement Officers in Local Government
www.sopo.org.uk
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