Issue - decisions

Social Value Policy

14/11/2017 - Social Value Policy

Chris Spriggs

Councillor Christine Spriggs, Cabinet Member – Delivering Differently, said:

 

“This council invests more than £200 million a year into improving Wirral. We commission services, improve roads, bring specialist people and organisations in to support residents. This Policy is about maximising the benefits local people feel from these investments.

 

We want our suppliers to recruit local people, to invest in Wirral, to put their resources, time and expertise back into the local community to make sure our money goes further and our residents get every possible benefit from public resources in Wirral. 

 

This policy puts the mechanism in place to ensure we can do just that.  All new contracts at Wirral Council – every contractor, every supplier, every organisation we commission to do work in Wirral – will have to demonstrate how they will not only achieve best value for the work they do, but how they will use the contract to provide wider benefits to our residents.”

 

Councillor Christine Spriggs introduced a report, the purpose of which was to provide the Council with a Social Value Policy 2017-2020. The Policy was used to make sure Wirral Council was able to maximise the benefits for local people and businesses through all its commissioning, procurement and purchasing activities. It would be used for external organisations and service providers to explain what the Council expected from them when they worked with the Council.

 

This policy affected all services, all commissioned activity and all procurement the council undertook. It impacted on the delivery of all 20 Pledges, particularly in relation to supporting small businesses.

 

Councillor Spriggs thanked all those officers involved in the developing of this policy. Alongside the Council’s Social Value Policy was a Social Value Framework, which outlined the policy objectives and gave examples of social value outcomes which might be achieved, suggested delivery mechanisms and ways to measure Social Value.

 

Councillor Phil Davies welcomed the report which built on good practice using the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 legislation and he looked forward to all the benefits it would bring to Wirral.

 

RESOLVED: That -

 

(1)  the Social Value Policy and associated guidance and framework, be approved;

 

(2)  officers be instructed to use the Social Value Policy in all procurement, commissioning and purchasing activity.