Social value
“All contracting authorities should consider the following national priority outcomes alongside any additional local priorities in their procurement activities:
- Creating new businesses, new jobs and new skills
- Tackling climate change and reducing waste
- Improving supplier diversity, innovation and resilience”
National Procurement Policy Statement
As part of its work to help providers improve and leverage social value across their businesses, HACT – working with consultancy Simetrica Jacobs and other organisations across the sector – has developed a social value roadmap. The aim is to help the sector use information and data about social value to improve its services, decision-making and overall impact.
Matthew Grenier, business development director at HACT, explains how procurement can be used as a way to improve the lives of both residents and the wider communities in which they live.
“There is much more that the housing sector could be doing to leverage its own spending power, particularly around procurement, to increase the social value created not only for its residents, but also for communities. The traditional focus has been around things like apprenticeships – but there is much more that can be done. Take broadband – if you were to add a social value requirement for the installation of broadband in social housing, it could have several benefits. Broadband could enable associations to deploy smart home technology, for example; technology can help to monitor the health of the homes themselves, but it can also improve the well-being of the residents living in those homes.
“Another example might be the building safety agenda. One of the key things residents tell us at the moment is that they are worried about safety in their homes. So just by including that in your procurement request, that can reduce anxiety.
“Another area is environmental retrofit. A huge amount of investment is going to be going into creating sustainable homes – so we need to make sure that investment also results in sustainable communities.
“How much of an effect could [procurement] have? It could be transformative if it is applied rigorously. The roadmap will enable associations and contractors to measure social value using the same metrics; it’s very difficult for organisations to do this at the moment, because different associations use different metrics.
“We are driving to make social value as easy as possible to use across the sector, regardless of the size of the organisation. We want the online tool we are developing to be accessible to every association; more broadly, we are trying to ensure that social value is not just siloed within community investment, but is used across the business of social housing.”
Collaboration
“As well as considering key stages of delivery, contracting authorities should consider opportunities for working with each other to deliver best value for money both at national and local levels.”
National Procurement Policy Statement
The benefits of smaller organisations working together are clear on paper. As well as economies of scale, larger procurement projects can attract better-resourced contractors.
But collaboration isn’t always straightforward. Mr Wolstenhulme at South East Consortium explains what providers should consider.
“If you have neighbouring authorities or organisations which are buying the same thing, then it’s better to work together, to increase the size of the prize to attract better quality and get better value for money.
“We have an example of this at the moment with two providers in the same county – a local authority and a smaller housing association, which work together on our responsive repairs dynamic purchasing system. Because they are both smaller organisations, they are working together to get one provider to fulfil all their requirements,” he says.
“We are guiding each side through the process and making sure the process is compliant, and that all parties have what they need. We see ourselves as an advisor and a facilitator to put that tender out.
“How should other providers start this process? Firstly, understand the requirements of your own organisation and your own stock. Before you even take the first steps towards working with other people, you’ve got to understand what you need. That’s critical. And then it’s a case of reaching out to your partners, people you have relationships with, local and neighbouring organisations, to see whether they have similar requirements at the same time,” he says.
“Essentially it’s reaching out to see whether you can collaborate. Holistically, it’s about sorting out your own house, and then reaching out to neighbouring organisations. And they should be looking to do exactly the same thing, because the new regulations are pointing them that way
