STAR Procurement has been helping its local authority partners to procure for Social Value since 2014. In March 2019, they launched their 'Social Value is Everyone's Business', which has seen fantastic achievements.
We spoke to Lorraine Cox, Director of STAR Procurement and Chair of the National Social Value Taskforce, about Social Value in action, her top tips for starting out in Social Value, and what's next for STAR.
What does Social Value in Action look like at STAR Procurement?
Our focus has been on moving STAR forwards in a cohesive and consistent way. We think it's important that the business community and bidders know what is expected. We have done that using Social Value Portal for six years now.
It's about how we build that simplicity and consistency, so that bidders are comfortable and can deliver what's needed in their bid submissions.
Why did you choose Social Value Portal as your partner?
At the time, we had a regional discussion about what platform we would like to use and whether we would use Social Value TOM System™. And to be frank, that conversation went on far too long and I got to the point where I thought we need to have a go and see what we can do.
You were the front runner - and we had faith and trust in Guy and his colleagues to leap in together. He was very honest with me that we were an early adopter and that we would grow together. And we've seen that relationship go from strength to strength over time.
Have you seen a shift in how suppliers are approaching Social Value?
We definitely have. We've always obviously been very focused on quality and price; what we're seeing in the tender submissions now is almost a plateauing with the price, and most bidders are offering very good quality. What's splitting the winner and second place is the Social value offer.
So it's definitely very strong within our tender processes. We have a 20% weighting for Social Value in all procurements above £25,000.
What is your advice for organisations just starting out in Social Value?
When we started on our Social Value journey and started using the Social Value TOM System™, we sat in a room and we said: 'What do we understand about Social Value?'
And we did an exercise where we used just the principles and Themes within the TOM System™ to say: What do we do as citizens, as human beings, as people?
We looked around the room and people said:
"I stand on a train station as a volunteer on a Sunday morning waving a flag."
"I'm school governor."
"I'm a trustee in a charitable organisation."
We actually discovered that we all practiced Social Value as individuals.
For me, that is where people should start: make it real, make it personal, and look at individuals within your organisation.
It also helps with learning and understanding what Social Value could be and should be.
How do you see the Procurement Act impacting the Social Value movement?
The Procurement Act has been long coming and some of you will remember Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT) back in the eighties, which was really exciting in the procurement space! This is the next big thing.
The transformation that the Act will bring to Social Value is quite significant. There are people out there who don't think that the Act is focused enough on Social Value, but we do have the National Procurement Policy Statement - currently under review- which underpins it.
There are themes in there that actually ripple and direct us towards doing the right thing in procurement, and Social Value is front and centre.
The transformation that the Procurement Act will bring to Social Value is quite significant. There are themes in there that ripple and direct us towards doing the right thing in procurement, and Social Value is front and centre.
Lorraine Cox, Director of STAR Procurement and Chair of the National Social Value Taskforce
What's next for STAR Procurement and Social Value?
We've been at this with vigour for almost six years now, working with Social Value Portal, and our performance is probably one of the best in the country. I know there's one or two councils out there that will give me a run for my money these days, which is a good thing.
Our performance to date, for four of our six councils, is somewhere around the region of £284,000,000 of secured Social Value. Of that, we've seen over £150,000,000 of delivered Social Value. Who wouldn't want that?
I think what we've got to do now is get cleverer and move into prescribed Social Value, so that bidders aren't giving us what they want to give us - we're actually asking for what we want.
It's about describing that in an outcome-focused way, so they can innovate and actually help us to develop the solution to deliver better Social Value and deliver greater impact.
Want to learn more about Social Value in procurement?
Explore our Buyer's Toolkit for the latest best practice guidance.
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